I Am Cornflower by Cornflower

Author:Cornflower
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: native american, biography, indian, reservation, apache, 15 minute book, cornflower
Publisher: LearningIsland.com

When I am a little older, my papa has promised me a sunrise ceremony. This will mark my change from being a child to being a woman. Every culture has there way to celebrate this time. I think our way is one of the best, but it is one of the hardest.

The medicine men will choose godparents for me. All my relatives will help my family prepare so my dance will be a good one.

My godmother will dress me in traditional clothes. Then she will pin an eagle feather in my hair. The feather will help me to live until my hair turns gray. My godmother’s hands will massage me, and her knowledge will flow through her hands into me.

I want to wear a traditional buckskin dress for my ceremony. Some girls wear other clothes, but the traditional dress is right for me, even though it is much harder. Buckskin is very heavy, especially if it rains and the buckskin gets wet.

I will need to be strong for my sunrise ceremony, for it is hard work. During the ceremony I will dance for four days, from sunrise to sunset. I cannot stop dancing all day. At the end of the day is when you really feel how heavy the buckskin is.

All the villagers will sprinkle cattail pollen through my hair as a blessing. My papa will shower me with candies and kernels of corn. That way I will always have food to eat in my life.

Then my godfather will sprinkle cattail pollen through my hair as a blessing. We will share crates of candy and corn with all who come, so they will always have food to eat.

Then my godfather will paint me with pollen, corn meal, and ground up stones. He will paint me in four colors, from all sides, so I will be protected from all four sides.

I will dance through a teepee so that I will always have a home.

For four days I will dance. The people will sing and the drum will beat, giving me their strength. Then the ceremony will be over.

For now I work hard to become a good Apache woman. I go to school and learn all that I can. I remember the stories that my grandmother taught me many years ago, and that my father tells me now. I weave baskets and cradle boards for my little sister’s dolls. I try to learn how to cook, especially the traditional foods like fry bread, and I try to be good.

I am Cornflower, and I am proud, for I am White Mountain Apache. I am a part of the future, and I am a part of history.

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