Kinaalda- Navajo EventEvent"Puberty Ceremony"

Changing Woman's Gift

When Changing Woman reached womanhood at Ch'óol'í'í, the Holy People performed the first Kinaaldá. Talking God officiated. First Woman molded the young woman's body into its adult form. Changing Woman underwent four ceremonies, one for each of her first four menstrual periods, then gave two of them to the Navajo people. Every Kinaaldá since has followed the pattern set on that summit: four nights, five days, and a girl who walks in as a child and walks out as Changing Woman.

The ceremony belongs to the Blessingway (Hózhóójí), the song cycle that recounts the creation of the world. It is performed as close to the onset of a girl's first menstruation as the family can manage. Preparations take weeks. The family gathers corn, arranges firewood, selects a medicine person to sing, and chooses an Ideal Woman: an adult mentor whose own life demonstrates the qualities Changing Woman carried. This woman will guide the initiate through every stage of the rite.

The Dawn Runs

Each morning before sunrise, the initiate runs east. Family and neighbors run alongside her. The first morning's run is short. Each subsequent morning it grows longer, pushing the girl's endurance further than the day before. By the fourth dawn she is running hard, her lungs burning, the horizon brightening ahead of her.

During the four days between runs, the initiate must stay awake and working. She cannot scratch herself with her fingernails; a ceremonial scratching stick is used instead, because her body carries the same power Changing Woman's did. The Ideal Woman washes her face for her, tends to her, watches her. Everything the girl does during these days sets the pattern for her adult life. If she is generous now, she will be generous always. If she is lazy, the laziness follows her home.

The Corn Cake and the Molding

On the second morning, the initiate begins grinding corn for the alkaan, a ceremonial cake large enough to feed everyone who has gathered. She grinds by hand, mixes the batter with stir sticks that may have been passed through generations of women in her family, and digs the earth oven herself. The pit is lined with corn husks. The cake bakes through the night, undisturbed.

While the corn cake bakes, the Ideal Woman lays the initiate on a sheepskin and molds her body. The girl's flesh is understood to be as soft as it was at birth, capable of being reshaped. First Woman did this to Changing Woman at Ch'óol'í'í, pressing kindness and endurance into her along with bone and muscle. The Ideal Woman does the same now, her hands shaping the girl into the woman the songs are calling into existence.

When the alkaan is unearthed on the final morning, the first piece goes to the earth. Portions go to the medicine person and the Ideal Woman. The rest is shared among the community.

The Final Night

On the last night, the medicine person begins to sing. The songs belong to the Blessingway cycle: hundreds of them, recounting the emergence from the underworlds, the placement of the mountains, the story of Changing Woman. They continue from dusk until dawn without stopping. Each song calls a specific power and directs it toward the initiate. The singer must know every word, every melody, every sequence. There is no room for error.

At dawn, when the singing ends, the young woman walks outside. The community gathers around her. Children stand before her. Elders turn their backs so she can raise her hands above their heads. She blesses them: health, growth, good fortune. A girl who entered the ceremony four days ago now exercises the power of Changing Woman herself. Then the ceremony closes, and she walks home.