Mawate/ Shanadee

[John Kester]

I wonder if anyone can enlighten me on this.

Some time ago I came across a ceremony tradition called Mawate (unsure of exact spelling.)   In this ceremony people (non native people) become "stone carriers" and a sacred stone is worn in a medicine bag.   It is said this orginates with Shanadee (again unsure of spelling) who is/was Geronimo's grand daughter.   People then meet up to perform a (rather moving) ceremony similar to a yantra practice from Hinduism/Buddhism, i.e. using coloured sand to create a diagram representing various aspects of the sacred.   Sometimes the stones are "called home" and have to be returned for cleansing or a blessing.

As I was told it this is specifically open to non Native as well as Native peoples but done by a Native person.

If this has all been discussed before please do let me know - I can't find it through the search function.

[educatedindian]

His granddaughter would have already passed on. Even his oldest descendants are at least great grandsons and daughters. And they are all very well known, none with that name. They're all on the Mescalero rez, most of them with Geronimo as a surname.

The two main ceremonies on the Mescalero rez are Kinaalda, when girls become women at adolescence, and blessing the mescal pits at dusk. I've never heard of this one, or any ceremony like what you describe. I suppose a Navajo sand painting might have some vague very general similarities.

Geronimo was Chiricahua and most of them are on Fort Sill or San Carlos rez. I suppose it's possible someone could be doing this and claiming relation or is a more distant relation.

Do you have sources on this? Where did you hear it?

[John Kester]

Can I contact a siteadmin privately about this and send some info over please?  If so, how?

[debbieredbear]

Sure, go ahead.