This is our God daughter, Autumn Cody. She was actually born in Spring, April 2nd. I was at the hospital with her mama the day she was born. I love this lil' girl. She is polite, kind, sensitive and spiritual.I met Autumn's mother when we were liaisons for Hope House and the Catholic church. Hope House is a home for unwed, pregnant women. Those unwed women who were Catholic, were assigned to us for Church functions, attendance of weekly mass and family time. The first time I met Cai Cody, I liked her immediately. She was very pregnant, lonely, and needed some hope. We must have given her that as she has been in our lives now for over seven years. She in return has given us Autumn.................
Cai is Apache. She was sent off the reservation at a very young age to live with a Catholic family who would send her to Catholic school, teach her the "American way." This is very common for reservation children....to be sent away from their people, and taught a whole different culture. Cai actually had a wonderful "American" family that she enjoyed, although she missed her mama, daddy and siblings much.
"The Man" and myself have been included in Apache ceremonies over the years thanks to Cai and Autumn. The Apache Sunrise Ceremony or na'ii'ees. It's an arduous communal four-day ceremony that Apache girls of the past and present experience soon after their first menstruation. Through numerous sacred ceremonies, dances, songs and enactments, the girls become imbued with the physical and spiritual power of White Painted Woman, and embrace their role as women of the Apache Nation.
For most of four days and nights, to songs and prayers, they dance, as well as run toward the four directions. During this time, they also participate in and conduct sacred rituals, receiving and giving both gifts and blessings, and experiencing their own capacity to heal.
The Sunrise Ceremony involves extensive preparation and teaching, often lasting six months or more before the ritual begins. Much of the preparation, such as creating the girl's highly symbolic costume, and building the lodge, requires following complex procedures and rituals; another facet of preparation is a physical regime oriented toward strengthening the girl's physical endurance. Her family is also engaged in extensive food preparation, since throughout the ceremony, they will be providing food and gifts to all participants and visitors.
Most of the extended family of an Apache girl are involved in preparing her puberty ceremony. The most central figure is the sponsoring godmother, followed by the medicine man and Gans Crown Dancers.
The family takes special care in choosing the godmother, who will be a role model and have a special relationship with the girl throughout her life. As her primary attendant in the Sunrise ceremony, the godmother will dance with her both day and night, massage her, help inspirit her and care for her when she is exhausted, give her food and drink, and prepare a huge dinner for all her relations.
When choosing a godmother, the family visits her residence at dawn, places an eagle feather on her foot, offering her also a prayer stone and gifts as they request her to serve as godmother to their daughter. The medicine man also has an important role, and must be approached in a similar manner. He will preside over much of the ceremony, chanting dozens of songs and prayers, and both orchestrating and paying the singers and drummers that will accompany him.
The work involved in sponsoring a Sunrise Ceremony is enormous, as is the cost, which apporximates $10,000 per ceremony.
The Godmother chosen for such a ceremony will be a godmother chosen from the reservation, an Apache woman. We guide Autumn in her religious beliefs only. She attends St. Anthony catholic school, attends mass every Sunday and is being taught her catechism classes. Cai is continuing her religious beginnings with her daughter.Cai is attending college to become a pharmacy tech, she lives off the reservation for now, as it is much easier to travel to and from college three times a week than to travel the long distance from the reservation. She is 8 months pregnant now and living once again at the Hope House. She is pregnant with a baby boy this time, her third child.
We have been Autumn's godparents since she was one year old. It was a very, very special calling for "The Man" and myself, one we don't take lightly. Although we don't see Autumn as much as we'd like to, I will drop anything I'm doing to get to see her. All Cai has to do is call, and we're there.
Cai and I have developed a close relationship over the years, somewhat like girlfriends. She calls often, we chat, we text, we Facebook together, we see one another. She is a beautiful woman, kind and compassionate. I enjoy time spent with the two of them, I respect that she trusts us enough to include us in many aspects of the Apache traditions as do her mother and father. We've met her siblings, Autumn's father, and her grandmother who still wears traditional Apache attire. Cai comes from good "stock."
Autumn came to Taylor last week for a school field trip to the Pumpkin patch, Cai immediately called me. I stopped whatever it was I was doing, hopped in the car and drove over. I spent four hours with the two of them, along with three class grades of St. Anthony children! We sipped hot Chamomile tea in the park, I brushed her hair while she talked(she has beautiful jet black, shiny hair which I love), I listened. We shared food, hugs, laughter. I love these two girls very much, I pray that one day, Cai will find a man who appreciates her for her spirituality, compassionate personality, beauty, and beliefs.
"The Man" and myself are looking forward to Autumn's confirmation in the church soon. She will be surrounded with people who love her dearly, she is easy to love. I look forward to the day when she will become a woman, dancing her dance and walking her four directions to merge with White Painted Woman who is born again and again, from generation to generation.
