Puberty, à la manière des Mescalero

I waited and waited. The 4th of July is not a great time to travel. This year I made it! The Puberty Rites, or Coming of Age Ceremony, was indeed as amazing as I expected. With my friend Angel also passionate about Native American culture, we drove to Ruidoso where we spent two nights. In the middle of the drive we stopped for the delicious treat of the "world famous" green chile cheesburger at The Owl, in San Antonio. This is the small village where Conrad Hilton, founder of the Hilton Hotels, was born in 1887. No place in New Mexico is without an exciting history!

Ruidoso is surrounded by evergreens covered mountains. The air is superb.

The program was intense: early start to see the Maiden Sunrise Ceremony. Our four young girls were beautiful, their costumes properly made according to traditions. They were so tired after working for days along with their families in preparing food for everybody and many other hard chores! The huge tepee had the top of the poles still covered with their leaves. A rodeo was preparing for the afternoon and some booths had all sorts of merchandise and lots of small trinkets for the kids who seemed the only ones just there to have fun. They were so great to watch. They all have fantastic faces, just like their parents.

We spent the whole day there as dances were going on and we couldn't miss anything. We sat through a beaming sun, torrential rain, and finally dust storms...we felt part of Mother Earth!

The night dances, Gaan dances, are something one has to see once in a lifetime. A big fire grows during the night hours in the center of the ceremonial circle, continuously nourished by huge logs taken by hurried young men. In groups of four the dancers come out with fantastic body paintings, different for each group, a typical Apache huge headrest  and buckskin skirt and leggings. They dance around the bonfire, they actually circle around it charging into the flames, alternating with the other groups and casting gigantic shadows.Finally, near Midnight, everybody is there, wildly dancing and clamoring. We were actually seeing the famous "Dance of the Mountain Gods". We were told to picture in our minds the old Apache legend of the first men who saw the Mountain Gods. We tried our best...

The four girls are now silent in the tepee surrounded by their families. The only light that allowed me to see their tense faces -a big honor to be there- was a small fire at the center of the tepee. They would later end the ceremony.

However, at this moment we had to leave, no non-Apache was allowed to stay. Of course no picture permitted.

But...I found some images from the past that I want to share with you!

Paonting by Rudolph Treas, from Adobe Gallery, Canyon Road, Santa Fe