Apache, Sacred Path Womanhood (CL)

Strikingly illustrated with 70 color photographs

At a time when most modern young women are seeking fulfillment and enrichment along bold new roads, teenage girls of the Apache people (or Ndé) continue to follow a traditional path to womanhood -- through a sacred rite of passage handed down over generations. Called na ih es, ("getting her ready"), this ceremony predates the near annihilation of the tribe in the 1870s and 1880s, when the U.S. was at war against the Apache.

     As illustrated and chronicled in this beautiful volume, the young women embark upon an extraordinary four-day, four-night personal journey in which they undergo a spiritual transformation to become White Shell Woman, the mother of the Apache people. John Annerino's spectacular photographs show the dedication of the girls and their initiators (both women and men), dances by firelight, elaborate costumes and disguises, and the various stages that must be experienced. He describes the journey, rarely witnessed by non-Indians, and its significance in the accompanying essay.

John Annerino is a world-renowned photojournalist. For the past two decades, he has documented the West's natural beauty, indigenous peoples, and political changes. He lives in Tucson, AZ. John Annerino's photographs recently appeared in the March issue of the Life magazine cover article "Kids and God."