Rites Of Passage : The Apache Girl's Rites Of Passage

A religious leader claimed he received a vision that told him to perform this dance and that it would bring the destruction and rebirth of the world. It also promised that all dead ancestors would rise up to rejoin the living. White Americans feared these dances and the United States government viewed it as an ongoing resistance movement so they had it terminated. The dance came to a catastrophic end on December 29, 1890, at the Battle of Wounded Knee, South Dakota. American troops killed many Lakota people, including women and children who had gathered to celebrate the dance. The United States government also intervened in 1904 when the sacred Sun Dance was officially banned because it was considered corrupt and dangerous. Despite these setbacks, it is important to note that there are still about 700 recognized tribes in the United States today. To discuss further on the rites of passage for Native Americans, we see that the Kinaalda and the Vision Quest are very important to their culture. The Kinaalda is a puberty rite for young Native American girls. “Girls are believed to take on the identity and spiritual qualities of the Changing Woman during the ritual. The Changing Woman was the first girl to ever experience Kinaalda and she is seen as the model ritual for all girls. Because a girl takes on the identity of

Imagine beautiful yellow and red leaves fluttering about, and men and women working together to collect wild rice from the lake, naming rituals, sowing, and honor. That is what the Sioux tribe did during the early 1800s when Lewis and Clark explored the region. This tribe lived along the minnesota- Wisconsin border, they believed in honored and spirits. Overall, they were skill at hand, and trad was probable fantastic for the Sioux. Most of the Sioux clothing was showered with beads, so they got a lot of pratus sewing and became vary skilled.

In "Museum Indians", Susan Powers describes her mother from her childhood perspective.Power uses vivid imagery, similes, and metaphors, to convey details about her mother.These details help readers to understand some of her culture and why she wants to be like her mother, and why she feels like she is only "half" of her

In Conrad Philip Kottak’s “Rite of Passage” he mentions the three stages of a rite of passage. Anthropologist Arnold Van Gennep defines these stages as Separation, Margin, and Aggregation. Victor Turner, another anthropologist, focused on Margin, which he referred to as liminality. Not only can a rite of passage be an individual experience, but it can also be a communal experience which Turner called “communitas.” Many of us experience this “communitas” in different ways such as my Hispanic culture that experiences quinceneras. Quinceneras are a rite of passage for young girls’ transition from adolescence to womanhood. I for one never experienced this rite of passage.

The “Apache Girl’s Rite of Passage” in talked about in a video rather than a story. Here, the ritual is a coming of age ritual. It is for 13 year old, Dachina, coming to become a woman. This ritual will prove her character, endurance, and strength. It proves that Dachina is ready to become a woman and is ready to handle all the responsibility that is coming her way. This ritual occurs every 4th of July. The mothers of the girls spend more than an entire year preparing for this. A huge task for them is preparing their medicine bag. The entire ceremony last 4 whole days because Dachina will go through all 4 stages of life which is and infant, child, adolescent , and a woman. To test her endurance, she has to dance all night for 10 hours! This ritual comes with very strict rules, little sleep, and having to set aside all emotions. She gets dusted in pollen, as a form of protection. The men fill a basket full of blessed objects and the girls run around the basket 4 times on the last day. When the tipi falls, it marks that they passed the ceremony, they are handed the medicine bag and they are now women.

Although, the ritual has been passed on from generation to generation, how the Navajo rituals are ways of communication has been questioned by so many. Many believe that it way for the patient to come into “…harmony…

One of the similarities between the text of “The Medicine Bag” and the Apaches Girls rite of passage video is that both groups start at a certain age for their rites of passages. For example, in the Apache video, Dachina is 13 years old when the ceremony began. At the age of 13, you are starting to grow into your “adult” years and no longer

There are many similarities and differences between The Apache Girl Rite of Passage and The Medicine Bag. To begin, one similarity between these rites of passage are that both of the main characters are going through an important time in their life. For example, Martin is getting ready to receive the medicine bag, an important rite of passage for him and his lakota heritage. In contrast, Dachina is going through a event where she becomes a women. In addition, to both characters going through an important time in their life. There is another similarity, both of the events taking place are traditions. For instance, in the Medicine Bag, the person who has the medicine bag at the time is supposed to give it to the the next son in line. Another example, is that every girl in Dachina’s Apache tribe has to go through this rite of passage to become a women, so it's like a tradition.

Although both Native tribes have rites of passages, they are very different and can be easy to find the contrast. In the Apache native American tribe the young women have to go through a four day ritual on July 4th for their right of passage. These days are filled with dancing, small amounts of sleep, and the need to set aside emotion. This if different from the Lakota boys’ rite of passage. The Lakota boys’ rite of passage doesn't take a whole four days to complete, and certainly did not include an all night dance to test his endurance. Also, from what the book has stated the boy didn’t need to set aside emotion. Although, for the boy to accept the medicine bag, his great grandfather passed. Which can cause different results in emotion. This is different from the Lakota girls’ rite of passage because from what was stated, she didn’t experience loss in her ritual. There are plenty more differences due to native tribes having different rituals, but these are the ones that stick out the most.

The short story “The Medicine Bag” by Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve and the video Apache Girl’s Rite of Passage by National Geographic have many differences and similarities to introduce the reader to Native American rites of passage. The most significant difference is that the short story emphasizes the emotional struggle of Martin, while the video shows the physical struggle of Dachina Cochise. This can be shown in the short story when it states, “’Thank you, Grandpa.’ I said softly...Two weeks later, I stood alone on the lonely prairie of the reservation and put the sacred sage in my medicine bag.”(Sneve 78, 79) In contrast, the video shows, “These four days mean little sleep, scant food, and the need to set aside emotion. Throughout the ordeal, she must wear a face of stoic resolve.”(National Geographic) At this point in the short story, Martin successfully receives and inherits the medicine bag from his Grandpa and goes to the reservation to put the sacred sage in the medicine bag, signifying that he is the new bearer. As shown from the video quote, Dachina Cochise is starting her trials, but she has to go with little food or sleep and keep a straight face the whole time. This proves that the type of journey they go through makes a big difference in the purpose and meaning of the story. Martin starts as embarrassed about his culture and the medicine bag because he is afraid his friends will make fun of him. Throughout the story, it emphasizes his emotional growth and he

Some similarities and difference about the “ The medicine bag” and the video “ Apache girl’s rite of passage”. A few of the differences of the passage “ The medicine bag and the video “ Apache girl’s rite of passage” are it took exactly four days for DeChina to become a woman and it only took Martin about a day or so to become a man and to receive the

The apache women made all the clothes, and they did most of the work at home. The apache women wore long skirts, blouses made of leather, and their skirts and blouses matched. The apache women always matched, and they always wore their hair down, there hair is very long. Another thing they did was put some kind of oil in their hair to make it extra shiny. Now men on the other hand would wear a breechcloth, and they would wear a belt to hold

From her research, Garcia found that Cheyenne women had visions, dreams, participated in sweat lodges and shared equally in performing traditional native activities right along with the men of the tribe.

The ritualistic practice of peyote and shamanism, are commonly linked, however in the case of the Mescalero Apache Tribe the use of peyote in shaman rites had anything but a transcendental effect which eventually lead to the abolishment of peyote from shamanistic ceremony. A lack of harmony

p. 484). It is a method of making this transition from girl to woman easier.