Reflecting On It All

During the month of June 2009 there was a major ceremony that occured. The Karuk tribal ÍHUK ceremony is held for a young girl who is fast becoming a woman. We hold this ceremony for her, or more correctly the family of the girl has the ceremony for her. Nowadays the ceremony is more an effort of several families. In fact, we don’t know how the ceremony happened years and years ago. What we know now is how the ceremony is conducted, the songs, the rituals, the place, the intent.

This year’s ÍHUK was for a young lady, Ty Ithreeha Allen. She is beautiful and strong. I emphasize the strong because she is able to focus so perfectly. It was 13 years since we had our first ceremony, a renewal of the old ceremony in our modern times. Geneva Shaw and Kim Moon were the first 2 girls to have the ceremony since its last known occurence (historical records reveal it was in 1873). Ty’s ceremony in June occured 13 years after that first one. In the interim we have been conducting what is known as The Spring ÍHUK. Similar in so many ways, it is, neverthless, more a celebration of our heritage, our beliefs as modern Native peoples. A beautiful ceremony, as well, the Spring ÍHUK is a shorter version of the full ÍHUK.

The ceremony was held mid-June after an excruciating pre-ceremony period when there was so much to get together: the food, preparations of the grounds, the bringing together of the regalia, and the teaching of the songs and the dancing to so many different folks. Most will not have seen the ceremony prior.

As the ceremony began the family, the invited friends and extended family, and the place combined to create a renewed dance. Itself now 13 years old the ceremony is a new “person” with a unique power that transforms all who are involved. Nowadays there are more singers who know the songs and sing with passion than when we started. The place, along the Salmon River in northwestern California, is well managed to a picturesque and obvioulsy loved site.

With each new day the ceremony builds an emotional head. The girl, meanwhile, is working, conducting ritual work that reflects her life to come. So much is happening is several places simulataneously. It is quite amazing when finally after the ceremony concludes we sit and compare notes. Cousin so-and-so did this, the visits by wildlife, the weather, the place’s revelatory power, the stories combine to contribute to the ceremony that became a milestone of who we are a individuals, as families, as relatives by tribal heritage, and, to coin a phrase, ‘believers of the old ways.’

Leaving such a ceremony is not easy. And most likely it was never an easy task in the past to leave the place where so much love occured. We love who we are, we Native People. Not only that we are recommitted to a life that is bigger than our wants or aspirations as individuals. We love that we are grounded by ceremony to a collective purpose.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 13th, 2009 at 8:07 pm and is filed under Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.