© 1999 Rico Leffanta
The night-time ceremony begins at dusk. There are no floodlights, no lamps, no lanterns, just moonlight, starlight, and firelight, and if you can't see by those, fingers and toes. People who have lived their entire lives among city lights have absolutely no idea how black night can be under natural lighting, and quickly lose all sense of direction!
People are also surprised to discover that, unlike white people, Apaches don't hunker around the fire poking ashes: Apaches stand with their backs to the fire, looking into the darkness.
This is an especially exciting time, especially for young people and singles. On the Reservation, if you meet someone you fancy, you can't invite them to Jack-in-the-Box, the movies, etc., because there isn't one. Your best chance of getting together with someone you fancy is at a dance, after the sun goes down, so just before the sun goes down everyone is busy looking for the object of their affection, because in the dark, everyone looks like a shadow!
At nighttime dances, women ask men to dance, so its important to know who is where so you end up with who you want and not who you don't want!
All the scurrying about will cease when the first sounds of the Ga-an are heard - that distinctive whir of the bullroarer, and the measured jingle of bells are a 4-Ga-an conclusion evil will be banished from the site.
The Ga-an burst into the firelight and succeed in scaring the hell out of evil. The masked dancers represent Mountain Spirits charged with teaching Apaches how to live in harmony, but it is easy to imagine some missionary on a distant hillside watching Ga-an dance in the firelight and reaching a conclusion that "Devil Dancers" or at least aliens from a UFO have landed!
When the Ga-an are satisfied all evil has been banished, the girl and her friends will accompany the Ga-an in ritual group-of-4 dances around the fire until the fire light fades. Then the Ga-an will disappear and the girls will re-appear dancing by the Gowa'a.
If there are rules to govern this activity, I have no idea what they are because singing and dancing will often continue until dawn, with people disappearing and suddenly reappearing with very cheerful dispositions!
Until the 1990s, these were very happy times, but complaints about boisterous behaviour and illegal home brew resulted in most public ceremonies now being attended by Apache police, who take names and remember what happy people do not remember!
And so it is that on the third day, the girl may sometimes be found at dawn dancing all alone simply because everyone else is too exhausted to join in!
During the course of the morning, various dignitaries will go to the mixture, add a drop or two of water, and stir in a few more prayers.
Again the distinctive sound of Ga-an will be heard, and after banishing evil from the site, the Ga-an will face the girl in the gowa'a while a long queue forms to sprinkle a good medicine pollen mixture on the Ga-an from head to toe.
The girl doesn't get a breather whilst the Ga-an are being blessed; the singing and dancing must continue.
After the friend leaves the field, the girl dances over to her male sponsor, and extends the bottom of her cane. The male sponsor grasps the end of the cane and holds it as he follows the girl all around the dance ground to enter through the south side of the gowa'a. The sponsor then begins dancing on the north side of the girl. The Ga-an choose the precise moment to charge into the Gowa'a from all four directions and demolish any semblance of evil which might be hiding there.
Although "everything must be done exactly as it has always been done", there doesn't seem to be much agreement on painting the girl.
The colour and viscosity of the "paint" can range
from melted candy kisses to whitewash. Like frosting on a cake, it is ritually brushed, plastered and patted into place around the girl's head to the beat of the dreams, the measured chants of the singers, and those special calls of the Ga-an. Some girls are also marked with paint, sometimes with crosses, on their bodies and/or buckskin.
Some girls are painted by Ga-an, a few are painted by the diyiin, many are painted by their sponsor, and some are painted by group effort, with several people taking a turn at the "brush", anyone of which can give a quick flick of the wrist to airmail a paint blessing directly to the lens of a camera.
As shewn on the index page of this website, some girls are painted whilst dancing and, after hours of dancing under
the hot sun, are almost smothered by paint, Ga-an, diiyin, singers, dignitaries, and the many well-wishers. Sometimes, it seems to take only a few minutes for the sun to transform the "paint" into adobe!
These girls can hold their breath whilst paint is applied over their eyes, nose, and mouth, but they will still be just as hot and bothered. Sometimes a joint ceremony will be held for twins; rarely will two unrelated girls share the same ceremony, but a double ceremony certainly quadruples the punch - and airborne paint!
This question always surprises me, because no one ever asks, "How do they get the paint off the girl?"
The answer to both questions is obvious: under the hot, Arizona sunshine, paint in the girl's eyes, nose, mouth - and on her buckskin - quickly mutate into adobe brick, which can be brushed away.
Attempts to wash it off would just dilute the paint, which would be quickly absorbed by hair, girlskin and buckskin, and cause staining.
On a camera lens, the paint must be washed off immediately, because if it dries, any movement will scratch the lens.
After the girl has been painted, she is given the basket of paint and carries it along side her sponsor who periodically dips the "brush" into the paint and "paints" the crowd, i.e., showering blessings upon them.
Everyone has a good giggle laughing at themselves - and at the antics of others - as the sponsor splashes his way completely around the dance ground, making certain everyone gets blessed!
When the basket of paint is empty, everyone will form in nice, neat rows behind the Ga-an, the girl, sponsor and singers (the diiyin marches alongside like a drill instructor) as they dance through each portal of the Gowa'a to circle around an evergreen in each of the four sacred directions and back to the
Gowa-a.
The public view part of NA-IH-ES ends with jiih'ilkee ("blankets she throws them off"), when the girl picks up the blankets and ceremoniously tosses them toward the four sacred directions.
The now holy girl will remain in camp doing good for another day (the fourth day) and, hopefully, for the rest of her life. She is expected to prosper and, in about two years, bring her ceremony to a pause with a "give back" ceremony where she acknowledges the generosity of her sponsor(s) and her own prosperity by presenting her sponsor with many gifts to ensure NA-IH-ES endures.
The harsh Apache lifestyle may seem a valid reason for life insurance actuaries to rate Apache life expectancy at about half of that for someone living off the Reservation, but there is no evidence to support the belief that accepting adult responsibilities at puberty is detrimental.
Generation after generation of Apaches have very
clearly established there is no substitute for being prepared (as every Boy Scout can confirm), and Apaches have a life plan for old age.
Old Nana, at the presumed age of 96, led the U.S. Army on a merry chase all over Arizona, Mexico, and New Mexico, when life expectancy for most Americans was less than age 62!
Anyone who has witnessed an Apache Puberty Rite has seen a young Apache girl face a variety of challenges and hardships and come through with flying colours.
No matter what path in life that girl chooses to follow, she will always have the confidence of knowing she can do more, she can endure more
than her brain proclaims to be the limit of her ability/endurance, and one can never be too young to learn that!
But the Apache Puberty Rite isn't just about one girl's struggle to be recognized as a woman in her own community, it is also about the bonds which bind that community together.
When the community witnesses the ceremony, they are individually instantly reminded of their struggles to be identified and accepted as a worthy member of their community, sparking embers which make the old feel young again whilst revitalizing their perspective of life.
When the girl succeeds, everyone feels success is within their reach, her individual struggle on the path to adulthood suddenly reveals itself as a well-travelled path where, like an high school yearbook, everyone's footprints are recognized as monuments, milestones, and memories which tie the community together.
It is just too preposterous for America's social scientists to believe a bunch of "ignorant, wild Apache savages" could possible discover a way - and do it thousands of years ago - for a community to find peace and harmony among each other, century after century in the same place.
But that is nowhere near as preposterous as social scientists reasoning they could transform humanity by creating a "teenager" class of "children" living in a Peter Pan Never-Never-Land world where children never grow up until the day they become twenty-one years old!
So non-Apaches continue to say,"Even if I was born an Apache, you would never get me to do that", whilst their civilisation crumbles into decay and Apache culture, supported by confident Apache women-of-mettle-money-cannot-buy, continues to thrive.
The diiyin has been up well before dawn busily selecting and mixing "paint" ingredients. Again, anyone who wants to know the ingredients, should find a diiyin willing to accept an apprentice.
The girl's friend will eventually arrive and accompany her in dancing for a good part of the morning. 
The diiyin then instructs the girl's friend to leave, and the friend dances off on the arm of an escort.
When the Ga-an are satisfied everything has been purified, NJA NJLEESH ("Painted she is ") begins.
Especially at Whiteriver ceremonies, many girls are painted sitting down on their buckskins, with arms and legs extended. 
The question most non-Apache women ask is, "How do they get the paint out of the buckskin?"
This is a great moment for photographers because everyone wants to get painted, but they don't want to get flying paint in their eyes, so they try every conceivable posture, position, and grimace to get blessed by the paint without getting it in their eyes!
Then its back to the respective camps for more singing and dancing whilst the "clean-up crew" consume or remove all traces of the Ceremony. The water which gave the drums their tone will be drunk; the masks which adorned the Ga-an will be ritually broken and delivered to a secret and sacred place where Mountain Spirits dwell.
�1999 Rico Leffanta
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