mothers day at Mescalero Branch

Here is the Mothers Day Pictures from the branch I forgot to post last time.

Last Zone Conference for President Robison

We just had our last zone conference for President Robison. He will be leaving the mission on July 1, 2011 and a new Mission President will be coming. His name is President Arnold Augustine. We are sad to have President Robison leave but anxious to see our new President too. It is bittersweet. So at our last zone conference they said their good bye's to us. President Robison said he would try to come to Mescalero to talk with us before he goes home if all goes well. We all gave them cards with farewell thoughts and our testimonies. At the end, everyone went crazy taking pictures. You know your mom, she had to take some too.

Hope you enjoy them. You will recognize a group pictures of everyone there, a picture with all the sisters, a group picture with the elders, the elders we are serving with in Ruidoso, Elder Rane and Elder Whitear and a special picture of two elders who are serving with us from WEST BOUNTIFUL. Can you believe that? We were so shocked to find out they are from OUR STAKE, Elder Nilson and Elder Rose. The world is a small place.

Mothers Day in the Mission Field

Well, it was a great day in the mission field celebrating Mother's Day. It seems as though the holidays we think are so special to us are not that special to the women here on the reservation.

Anyway, I spent a great deal of time making tissue flowers to give to the mothers for Mother's Day after church from the primary children. They were suppose to help, but when the day came for them to help, only two kids showed up. So I ended up mKinv 36 flowers by myself. I will have to say they turned out beautiful. The primary children gave them to all the mother's after sacrament meeting and they ran back to get all they could. It was a great day. Hope you enjoy the pictures. Some of the ladies left before I could get them in the picture.

Hope all you mothers had a great day. You certainly deserve it!!!

Specialty Dances at the Pow Wow

Here are the specialty dancers at the pow wow. Some of them were very difficult to get because they move all the time. But I really enjoyed these

There was the queens dance, the native dancer, the jinglebell dance and the grass dancer.

Enjoy wish you could have been there

More Pow Wow Dances

These pictures of the military dance, the men's dance, the shawl dance which is done by a special little girl. She was very cute and everyone liked her. She had a lot of rhythm and when she swung the shawl it was very effective. Then they had the royalty dance and then a special dance requested by a young school girl who's mother just passed away.

Pow Wow for the Blessing of Mescalero School

I didn't have time to post these last week so here are the pictures of the Pow Wow that was held at the Mescalero School for their blessing feast. I arrived a little late and they were already in progress so I started taking pictures. Then a loud voice came over the microphone saying NO PICTURES. I felt very foolish and stuck out like a sore thumb as I am white. Then one of the teachers told me it was ok to take pictures so here theyare:

They began their feast with a grand entrance led by a young man who home on leave from the military. He was huge!!!! The Apache singers sing throughout the whole event and it's hard to know if they are praying or if it is a regular chant so I got myself in a little trouble. I don't speak Apache, soooo. Then the royalty of the school (which by the way are two kids from our church) come in and they are cheered. Then the children all go to the floor and cheer and yell as they dance around the floor to the beat of the drums. Then the women have their dance. This dance is very beautiful. They all have shawls and shuffle in a very meticulous way around the floor. I thought it was beautiful.

Apache Crown Dancer Ritual

There are no pictures for the Crown dancers because they are very sacred and you cannot take pictures. After the feast every gathers around a very large fire in a circle. There are singers that chant and play the drums. They sing about the earth, sky, and water and who they are blesing. When you first see the crown dancers, they came from the school. They circled the school four times and gave it a blessint ritual. You could hear them as they came from the school. they do everything in even numbers, so everything is done four times as that is their dedicated number. Finally they come to the fire where everyone is seated waiting for them. There were six sets of crown dancers so we had to watch this ritual six times and they do the same blessing. There are four crown dancers and two clown dancers. They dance to the fire and back in a line. The clown dancer is always last and wears a large bell. You can hear him bringing up the rear. It is very impressive. Then after each set of dancers do their dance, they line up and the people on the reservation gather around to give the dancers a blessing and prayer. That takes quite a lot of time. Then they dance again four times around the fire which represent th four corners of the earth, North, East, South West. The women put on shawls and dance around the dancers and the fire in a cirlce. They are always on the outside. It was beautiful and shows a lot of respect. The indian people love th4e songs and keep calling out "One more song (which they have to sing four times) again. It took five hours to get through the feast celebration. They held the exact same feast the next night because, like I told you, they do everything in even numbers. So, two feasts were held. We were fed wonderfully and really enjoyed ourselves.

Pollen Run around the Reservation

Another activity they held was a "Pollen Run" around the reservation. The students start at 5:00 a.m. and run 130 miles around the whole reservatin. It is a relay race. They are dropped off and picked up at different stations all around the reservation, through the woods and everything. It is great At the end of the run they all coming running down the road into the school grounds and eventually the feast grounds. Everyone is there to greet them and cheer them with hoots and hollers. It was a fantastic sight.

Talent Show for Apache Royalty Contest

Boy were we invited to a great talent show! They played drums, danced, played the indian flute, sang, gave poems, gave demonstration on making soap out of mescal plant to wash hair, how to make fry bread, and indian cultural songs. It was great!

Apache Chief and Princess Contest

They held a contest for the Chief and Princess of the Mescalero School. It was a lot of fun to see how they participated. I think it is ironic that the Chief and Princess selected are both members of our branch! I guess we make the best maidens and braves on the reservation. The Chief is Brenden Smith, and the Princess is Ashley Kinzuma.

Darrin Ahidley at Feast

Darrin Ahidley is a member of our branch. He came all dressed up at the feast for the dances afterwards. I loved his costume and he was very anxious to have his picture taken because he knows I will give him a copy.

Our First Apache Feast

We were invited to a four day blessing feast for the school. The Apache's hold blessing feasts for almost anything, the school, a person's birthday, wedding, military, rain, home, anything they want to bless. So the school holds a cultural feast each year at the end of school. They hold a fun day for the kids at the school which we did not attend. But the next day the official feast began. It began with a FEAST! They provide food for anyone who comes to the feast. There were about 500 in attendance and the school provided a feast of Brikets, potato salad, green chille and a soup of some kind, FRY BREAD (which is at all celebrations) and cake and punch. I was stuffed!!!! They have several tepees around the feast ground but only the crown dancers are able to go into the tents. This is a religious ceremony and only the men are allowed. The women do the work for the feast. You can't take pictures of the Crown Dancers so I took a picture of a picture of one that was paintd for us by a friend. The Feast Arbor is made up of a tent covered with pine trees for shade. Notice the wild pony running in one picture. I loved it! The singers are the religious men that sing at these feasts.