White Painted Woman

spirit · United States · North America

White Painted Woman (Esdzanadehe, also called Changing Woman) is the central culture heroine of Apache tradition. Daughter of the sun, she survived the great flood inside a turquoise mountain and bore the warrior twins Killer of Enemies and Child of the Water, who destroyed the monsters plaguing the world. Apache girls' puberty rites, including the Sunrise Dance, re-enact her power of renewal.

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