LeiCey Astorga‘s Journey to Womanhood: Mescalero Apache Traditions Continue Despite Fires and Floods

One of the significant traditions of Native American Culture and of the Mescalero Apache Tribe is the “coming of age ceremony” for young women. The tradition dates back many generations and centuries.

Prior to the fires that have engulfed portions of the Mescalero Apache Reservation in Southern New Mexico and the surrounding areas around Ruidoso; I had the privilege to be invited to meet with a passionate mother, that was deep in the planning stages, of her daughters Mescalero Apache coming of age ceremony. 

Jeri Reshard Sanchez was kind enough to invite us to visit her daughter LeiCey Astorga, who has began her journey in celebrating womanhood, and to meet Miss Mescalero Apache, Ivonna  Burgess to become educated on the rites and ceremonies behind the traditional celebration of coming of age. 

Each of these young women were kind, respectful and generous with their time and their patience in explaining their traditions in detail, to convey the importance of this ceremony in coming of age and the importance of traditional customs to the Mescalero Apache people. 

Miss Mescalero Apache, Ivonna Burgess explained she held her ceremony later in age than LeiCey and yet it was a very important part of growing into adulthood and womanhood. The ceremony helped her gain confidence and a better understanding of herself. 

The group met with me for an interview at the Inn of the Mountain of the Gods to discuss the traditions and its significance to growth of a girl into a young woman.

They explained in lots of detail on how the ceremony begins. The depth of planning that is required and how the community comes together for the 4 public days of celebration. The work begins prior with LeiCey having to make selections of which elders will participate and lead as medicine woman and man and of course select the dancers which play a vital role in the ceremonies.

That selection begins prior to the ceremony with an early morning visit to ask these elders and musicians to join and lead the ceremony. The musicians she selected has deep ties to her family and to the tribal traditions making her coming of age dancers even more important to her event. The two music groups and dancer’s selected by LeiCey include the Enjady Group from the Sun Clan of which her great grandfather was an original member. The second group is Yuzos. Each are very important to the ceremony with dancing beginning nightly at sunset and lasting for hours.

Even before the beginning of the ceremony the site must be blessed 2 weeks prior and significant other prep work begins by the mother of the maiden and the family.

Miss Mescalero Apache, Ivonna Burgess in detail explained that “the ceremony itself begins at sunrise on the first morning of 12 days, as a team of men erects the “big teepee” for the maiden as well as a teepee for the medicine man, and one for the dancers, on the reservation in the ceremonial grounds.”

Luckily this area was spared from the recent fires, however there are restrictions in place and only those permitted for the ceremonies are allowed to forge hunt and gather as safety precaution. Measures are in place restricting movement, use of fire, grilling hunting etc excepting for the coming of age ceremonies, due to the recent fires and flooding near the ceremonial grounds. 

Many of the traditional events of this July 2024 weekend to include a Rodeo, fireworks and parades have been cancelled for safety reasons but the coming of age celebrations continue.

The coming of age celebrations continue with even more meaning and further supporting the ideals of family and customs coming out of the recent tragedies of fire and floods and their impact of the tribal community.

Several of LeiCey’s friends and family, participate and must help with the building of the teepees and of the shelter for cooking all made natural woods and forged materials from the forest. 

The tribe also provides huge stacks of firewood, picnic tables, trash collection to assist. Although the heart of these ceremonies takes four days, the events span 12 days total, including set-up and tear-down time. Aside from helping to keep traditions alive, the tribe’s contributions to the events convey a sense that these are truly community events, for everyone’s benefit. A typical meal served will feed up to 300 people who come to participate and to pay tribute to the maiden and her journey. 

The medicine woman will coach LeiCey as the ceremony begins on the very first of 12 days and will guide her throughout, offering instructions not only for each element of the ritual but also for her life going forward. The spiritual lessons are rooted in the challenges of the everyday. The goal of the medicine woman is to depart knowledge from generations past upon the young maiden and to impart wisdom and knowledge upon her to provide her strength to carry forward into womanhood as a strong and capable person but with the wisdom to overcome temptation and to grow into a wise woman. 

Miss Mescalero Apache, Ivonna Burgess further explained that that, “the first morning of the ceremony, LeiCey with the help of mom and the medicine woman will bath via Yucca Plant Cleanse. The maiden and the medicine woman have had to forge for the yucca plants, commence the cleanse, bless the maiden and then she is dressed in a very specially made buckskin dress designed specifically for the occasion.”

LeiCey’s mom, Jeri, assisted with the design of the dress making as it plays an integral role in the traditions of the ceremony.

As the ceremony moves forward LeiCey is to run four times facing the East, starting from the big teepee, around a basket placed in a field, and back again. The basket — filled with eagle feathers, cattail pollen in LeiCey’s case she personally harvested, tobacco and other ritual items is initially set some 50 yards away, then is moved closer each time with each run. The runs are said to represent the four stages of life, from baby to girl to adult to elder; the goal being that LeiCey will be fortunate enough to experience all of them. She will wear the special made fringed and beaded buckskin dress adorned with accruements that are significant to the tribal traditions; the dress evokes “White Painted Woman”, whom maidens are said to embody during their ceremony.

LeiCey will participate in many opportunities for learning attempting to make fire with a hand drill, one of the traditional skills deemed essential for an Apache woman to master.

LeiCey shy but visibly excited at the prospect of the upcoming ceremony explained that, “that the ceremony’s centerpiece is dancing each evening at sunset.”

Each night inside the big teepee, LeiCey will perform traditional dance steps by the edge of an oak-fueled fire, the sound of her jingles from her dress will be joining the rhythms of the rattles shaken by a group of four chanters, led by the medicine man. The medicine woman takes care of the maiden and teachings and prepares her; the medicine man takes care of what goes on in the big teepee and leads the ceremony. On each of the first three public nights, LeiCey will dance for several hours, essentially practicing for the fourth, when she will dance until dawn, with only a short rest as per the traditions.

The music and dance will include songs about everything natural from the cattle hide LeiCey dances on, to thanks to nature for the teepee poles, the rattles, the mountains, the sky and all of the animals on land, under the ground, in the air based upon tribal traditions. Given the recent free and flooding special songs will recognize the power of nature and give thanks for the safety of the maiden and her family.

Outside of the big teepee, masked and body-painted Crown Dancers, who represent the Mountain Gods, dance around a huge bonfire, ringed by a crowd of people who have come to watch. This crowd can grow to the hundreds as many members of the tribe gather to pay respect to the maiden. A group of men sing and drum behind the dancers. They dance to bless the maiden, to bless the fire, and to keep bad spirits away, as a part of the long standing traditions of the tribe. 

Within the tribal community the coming-of-age ceremony is simply referred to as “the feast,” and for good reason. There is a lot of food, with breakfast, lunch and dinner served every day, free of charge, to the many people who come to watch and support the maiden. Upon my visit to the family I was allowed to join and “help load the pickup” with just a few of the items needed for LeiCeys feast. The pickup was packed with bags of bountiful goods to make meals for the large crowd anticipated for her ceremony. 

The main arbor which was built on the first day and must be dismantled on the last was, built from oak branches and covered with tarps. It will serve as a kitchen and dining hall, though most people eat outside. There will be two big cookfires one for making huge amounts of fry bread which is yummy, the other for cooking meats, potatoes, stews and traditional foods. It’s customary for attendees to contribute something — perhaps a bag of flour, a tub of lard or even an entire brisket.

Feeding everyone well and on time is a major operation, part of LeiCey’s task from the beginning was to hire a head cook to lead the kitchen.  Most cooks are honored when maidens ask them to cook for them as the maidens draw strength from the meals and they are so it’s important to keeping a positive mindset and creating a loving atmosphere for everyone to enjoy. The meal like the dancing are each important elements in the ceremonial traditions. 

The public joins for 4 days of the ceremonies for the event is 12 days thus it wears on the maiden and the family to the point of exhaustion. The exhaustion is a part of the process to not only encourage the maiden to go on in the face of exhaustion but to send her into womanhood with heartfelt hopes and preparation for her future.

On the fifth morning, after LeiCey has danced nearly all night in the big teepee, the medicine man will brush  her with white clay, completing her transformation into White Painted Woman. It is said that White Painted Woman was the mother of the legendary warriors Killer of Enemies and Child of Water, who defeated the evil monsters that threatened to wipe humans from the Earth. She also was a great healer who was pure of heart and a “model of heroic and virtuous womanhood per the customs and beliefs of the tribe. 

At the close of the ceremony, LeiCey will repeat the basket runs that she made on the first morning, only in reverse. And this time, the basket is placed successively farther away from LeiCey. On the last of her four runs, LeiCey is expected to keep running far beyond the basket, as far as she can go after dancing all night and with a feeling of exhaustion. On her return, she wipes the white clay off of her face as is tradition. At its core, the ceremony aims to teach Apache girls how to tap their reserves of inner strength, which are far deeper than they ever imagined  and that, when they feel weak, they can pick themselves up and push through it and overcome with strength, determination and a respect from the lessons of their elders.

This ceremony is of such importance to the coming of age and the traditions of the Mescalero Apache people but was once banned. As such it is even more impressive to keep the tradition alive especially in these highly charged political times we live. 

Tribal ceremonies like LeiCey’s coming of age ceremony were outlawed by the U.S. government under the 1883 Code of Indian Offenses, an attempt to eliminate “heathenish” rites and force tribes to join mainstream Christian society

According to Jeri, LeiCey’s mom, the Mescalero Apache ceremonies stopped altogether for several decades. She did not participate in the coming of age ceremony herself for a variety of reasons, and wanted to ensure her daughter experienced the tradition with a deep respect for the tribal traditions. 

The ceremonies became legal with the passage of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978, and today they are vital elements of Mescalero Apache life. The importance of this ceremony was reinforced by the recent decision to not host the rodeo, fireworks and other events planned for this weekend but the ceremonies around “the coming of age” were granted a continuance. 

As the ceremony begins and LeiCey moves through her journey to womanhood we congratulate her on being able to make this journey as an important part of her tribal traditions. We congratulate Miss Mescalero Apache, Ivonna Burgess and thank her for the detailed information she provided us for this story. And congratulations to Jeri Reshard Sanchez despite the circumstances of fires and floods you persevered and are making this important ceremony happen as a tool for your daughter’s growth and coming of age.

The deep traditions of the Mescalero Apache people and their ceremonies are an important part of American history and their traditions shall continue to reflect the pride of their people. 

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