I was deeply heartened to learn this weekend that in South Dakota women of the Yankton Sioux/Ihanktonw Oyate nation have revived the traditional Isnati coming-of-age ceremony for girls: four days after the onset of a girl’s first menses when adult women of the community nourish, bathe, teach, and rename girls and guide them in rituals of self-reliance like gathering their own medicines, making their own ceremonial foods, and erecting their own lodges. Young boys too play a role in Isnati, by keeping fires burning in the camps day and night.
After decades when traditional indigenous religious ceremonies were banned by the federal government or punished and disrupted by government boarding schools, the revitalization of traditional ceremonies and indigenous languages has been a key part of the agenda to restore indigenous well-being and sovereignty.
I’ve long known about the traditional kinaalda ceremony held by Navajo/Dine people to honor a girl’s first menses. A whole generation of Navajo women who went away to boarding schools were denied their kinaalda ceremonies when school officials forbade them to return home. Some believe that missing their kinaalda led to reproductive health issues later in their lives, and they have taken extra steps to ensure that young Navajo women in this generation—including young women who leave the reservation for education—can return home to be with their relatives.
What kind of support do our religious traditions give our daughters as they mature? How do we prepare them for and honor their transition into adulthood? What kind of imbalances and problems in our communities result from failing to prepare and honor young women? As a mother of two daughters and a feminist of faith from a strongly patriarchal tradition, these questions are never far from my mind.
