Dominique Peso
Mini Paper 6
My Native American Culture I am a Mescalero apache who grew up in the reservation of Mescalero NM. I am very proud of where I come from. I am also proud of the traditions that are in my culture. There are three main traditions in our culture which is our language, the feasts, and our traditional foods. It is very important that we keep our traditions strong by passing them along. One of our main traditions that need to be passed on is our language. It seems as I get older our language is fading away. The only people I hear speaking the apache language is our elders. I myself know a little bit of the language, but I don’t know it fluently like I should. If our language isn’t passed on all of our traditional activities will be severely affected. The apache language is very unique and important to pass on in order to save our culture. Another important tradition is a feast. A feast is a celebration ceremony that the Mescalero apache girls have when becoming of age to be a woman. There is also blessing feasts for people that are on their way to accomplish a goal or take a journey. A feast is important to our culture because it passes down our tradition, such as our songs, sacred dances, and sacred prayers to the younger generation. Furthermore, we believe it gives strength to the people who attend and especially to the people that are having the feast. A feast is open to public, so whoever does attend when they leave that’s what they mainly remember of Mescalero apaches by. That is why it’s important to pass on to our younger people of the tribe in order to keep this tradition strong. The third important tradition is our food. The main food of our tribe is fry bread, beans, mescal, and red chili. If someone went to a feast they would see at least one of these foods during their visit.