NAVAJO FIRE DANCE
THE THE GROUP GROUP THAT THAT SET SET CEREMONIAL CEREMONIAL ABLAZE ABLAZE
T
PAINTING BY WESTERN ARTIST W. R. LEIGH
he Fire Dance is part of a much larger Navajo curing rite known as the Mountainway. The full ceremonial lasts nine days, and on the last night, a huge corral of pinion branches is constructed and a giant bonfire is built in the middle. The participants are smeared with white clay and carry long bundles of cedar bark, which set ablaze in the darkness. Roman Hubble, scion of the Ganado Hubbells and sometimes tourist guide, wrote this: DANCE OF THE DESERT “Flames crackle from the huge
A VERY EARLY CEREMONIAL-MUST HAVE RUN SHORT OF CLAY
pile of cedar logs, and leap, arching to the sky. Tom-toms thump monotonously through the chill night. Firelight flickers on the silent and blanketed circle of spectators. Slowly, nervously, Navajo braves dance into the light of the fires, their bodies painted a deadly white. They come limping,
