Becoming a Woman

When a young girl becomes a grown woman, something sacred happens to her.  Now she can have children, and she must be made ready for all her responsibilities with a special ceremony.

In preparing for this ceremony, a sacred tipi is put up, and then the Holy Man comes and purifies the Pipe and everything that will be used in the ceremony.  Only the close relatives and the girl are allowed into this tipi.  Then the Holy Man prays for help in making this girl ready to become a woman, so that she will be purified and made sacred.  He prays also for all the children that will enter the world because of her.

He calls on the Four Directions, the Earth and the sky, the animals and birds – all living creatures and above all, the Great Spirit, Wakantanka, to join in helping them.  When he has finished praying with the Pipe, everyone leaves except the family of the girl, and he sings a song about preparing a sacred place.  When he has finished this song, he goes around the tipi breathing like a buffalo.  He does this on the girl, on the altar made of earth and on everything else in the tipi. Then in the middle of the tipi he digs a small hole that looks like a buffalo wallow.  He puts the dirt from this hole into a pile and puts the buffalo skull on it, facing east.  In front of this skull, he puts a bowl of water which has some choke cherries in it.

Next he makes a bundle of Sweet Grass, cherry tree bark and some hair from a live buffalo.  He holds this bundle over the girl’s head and prays for her to the Great Spirit, asking Him to bless her and make her fruitful with children.  He prays that the waters of the West will make her clean, that she will receive purity for the North, wisdom from the East and a blessing from the South to which many people have come and gone.

Then he picks up the buffalo skull and begins to push her toward the bowl of water.  She kneels down and drinks four sips from the bowl.  Next he takes a piece of buffalo meat which has been prepared and offer it to the Four Directions, as well as to the sky and the Earth.  Then he holds it in front of the girl and tells her to go among the people as an example to them.  She is to be humble and kind to others.  She must never forget how God cares for her, and in turn she must take care of others, especially the little children.

Then he places the meat in the girl’s mouth and passes the bowl of water around for all to drink.  After this has been done he picks up the Pipe and prays to Wakantanka on behalf of the girl, her family and relatives and all children who are going to be born.

Then the girl is brought out of the sacred tipi, and all the people come up and put their hands on her to bless her and wish her well.  Everyone has a feast after that.  The poor receive many good things on that day.