Aside from the “big times” which will be described later, the girls’
puberty dance was the most important ceremonial gathering among the Washo.
This custom has survived with tenacity and it is still considered a matter
of real concern if for some reason a girl does not have “her dance.”
Although much of the activity at a girls’ dance is clearly social
throughout the occasion, there is a series of ritual actions which must be
carried out. The following account is an idealized version of the “old
way.” Other accounts will describe variations which have developed in the
past years.
Certain statements which I make will appear to be at variance with
Stewart’s Culture Element Distribution Lists. However, I am inclined to
think that the absence of traits in the memory of my own informants
represents a pattern of change rather than inaccuracies on the part of
earlier investigators. With minor exceptions, differences between
statements made today and Stewart’s lists take the form of traits marked
present in the lists which are unknown to my own informants. Moreover,
most of these differences are to be found in the hair-combing and
scratching complex and suggest that the taboos on hair combing were
abandoned some time between the childhood of his informants, who were in
their seventies in 1936, and that of my own informants, who are in their
seventies today (1959).
The parents of my informants must not have known or not enforced combing
taboos, while the parents of Stewart’s informants must have considered
them proper and so instructed their children. We can speculate, on this
basis, that the taboo on hair combing and scratching was abandoned by the
Washo some time in the first half of the century. Whether this can be
credited to the influence of the white man or to a continuing pattern of
change is a matter for further investigation.
The account of the entire puberty complex which follows was given to me by
a seventy-five-year-old Washo woman who is generally consulted whenever a
family plans to hold the girls’ dance.
“When a girl is about ten she is told what is going to happen to
her. When her first period comes [she is not specially confined]
people tell her to be active and not to be lazy. She drinks only
warm water. In the old days anything that she gathered anyone
could come along and take. She couldn’t eat meat or salt but Washo
don’t think eggs are the same as meat.”
(This last statement was in response to direct questions and does not
reflect special Washo traits. In fact, all food appears to have been
forbidden for four days.)
The family of the girl immediately prepares as much food as possible to
feed the guests. One informant remembers in his youth that a family of a
girl eligible for a dance would light a large fire part way up on Job’s
Peak to announce the event.
The dance itself is carried out at night. Singing and hand-clapping
accompany the dancing, which may go on all night. During the dance the
girl carries a wand about six or seven feet long. The wand is made of a
very light wood, often elderberry, and painted red with a native pigment.
In the past, groups camped about Dresslerville staged their dances at the
base of a prominent hill nearby. During the night the girl was required to
run to the top of the hill and light four fires; this practice has been
discontinued for many years, however, apparently as a result of white
accusations that the Indians started range fires and also to avoid
attracting curious whites.
About dawn one of the girl’s male relatives ran forward and snatched the
stick from her. He then ran with it into the hills and hid it in an
upright position in some out-of-the-way place.
The elderberry wand is a device used to insure the girl’s continued
agility and lightness of foot. As long as the hidden stick remains
unbroken the girl will remain straight and agile.
After the stick was taken away, an older female relative took a small
amount of ash on a whisk of sage, and dusted the nude girl on the head,
arms, and legs. This ritual was accompanied by an informal prayer that the
girl not suffer pains in her head, arms, or legs. She was told: “I am
doing this early in the morning so that you will get up early in the
morning and work hard.” The whisk was then thrown into the crowd, along
with a gift, which today is usually a bit of money. Food or beads were
apparently used in the past.
After the dusting, a basketful of water was brought forward and the girl
was bathed. The basket was then thrown into the crowd. This was considered
a high point of the celebration. After she was bathed, a few dabs of
native pigment were placed on her chest and face.
The ceremony above was described as the “real way to do it ... the way
they did it in the old days.”
The Carson Valley Record Courier reports a puberty dance held in the
summer of 1919 in which at least some of these activities were observed
(although the reporter thought he was attending a betrothal dance) Some
two-hundred Indians were in attendance. There were no fires, only lanterns
and flashlights. The participants had taken up a collection and purchased
watermelon, ice cream, cake, pie, bread, and meat for the feast. The food
was served (to the surprise of the reporter) on a long table with plates.
About midnight two girls appeared in the center of the dancing circle
carrying long wands.
In 1926 Lowie witnessed a girls’ dance near Minden and was obviously
unimpressed. The crowd gathered slowly and gradually began to dance. He
makes no mention of either the wand or the ash-dusting ritual, nor does he
give us details of the feast. The bath was given from a tin can, and he
does not report a basket’s being thrown (Lowie 1939, pp. 305-308).
One suspects that dances held today are somewhat more elaborate than those
of three or four decades ago, possibly as a response to increasing
awareness and pride in the fact of Indianness. Certainly every girl
expects to have her dance, just as a debutante expects to have a
coming-out party. When death in the family made it inadvisable to hold a
dance on a girl’s first menstrual period, everyone agreed that it was
indeed a shame. The girl went through her four-day fast and a small party
was held for her when her second period occurred. One informant insisted
that in the “old days” a dance was always held on the occasion of a girl’s
second period but that this had long since been abandoned (Cartwright,
1952, confirms).
The basket plays an important part in the ceremony and it would be
considered improper if there were no basket to be thrown to the crowd. It
is best if the basket is well made and can actually hold the ceremonial
bath water. If such a basket cannot be obtained, and they are growing
rarer as the older basket makers die, the bath is poured from a bucket,
but a less fancy basket is still thrown to the crowd. The bath and dusting
are now given to the girl while clad in her slip, in deference to white
notions of modesty which are strictly observed by the Washo. The painting
is carried out only if native pigment is available. The wand is left
unpainted unless native pigments are available.
The ritual of seizing and hiding the wand is carried out perfunctorily.
During a recent dance the girl’s uncle took the wand but simply carried it
to the grandmother’s house, intending to take it to the mountains later.
However, the stick remained with the grandmother, who was somewhat
concerned about it. It was kept in an upright position, and she constantly
reminded the man that he should take it. He regularly promised that he
would, the next time he came to visit, but just as regularly forgot it. It
may well be that as an adult and an important peyote chief, he was
reluctant to carry out what he considered an old Indian superstition.
There is no indication now that the girls’ puberty dance is dying out
among the Washo. It may well be changing in form and developing into more
of a party. As the number of persons who know white dances increases,
these may replace Indian dances. There is some suggestion of this in other
ceremonial activities. And of course the fact that future generations of
Washo girls will attend integrated Nevada public schools and associate
with white students with different aspirations for approaching adulthood
may have important effects on the future of the girls’ dance.
Pine-nut flour seems to have taken on an important symbolic role in
latter-day dances. We see no mention of this food in 1919 or 1926. Today
it might be considered proper to delay holding a dance if it was not
possible to get enough pine-nut flour to feed the crowd.