With several butterflies, feathers and bright colors adorning her traditional Native American dress, Zoe Kirkpatrick put her hands up and spun around clockwise before entering a circle with a fire burning in the center of it.
As she danced around the circle, Kirkpatrick dropped sage to cleanse the area around the fire, made of all-natural materials and built in the shape of a teepee.
The fire, which had been lit just before sunrise Sunday morning at Post City Park, was a focal point of the traditional Taba’na Yuan’e, or sunrise wind ceremony.
About 15 Native Americans took turns praying, singing and dancing as they circled the fire as part of the ceremony, which is performed at sunrise every March 22.
Kirkpatrick, whose Indian name is Pretty Butterfly, said the ceremony welcomes spring. Based on the direction of wind, it also predicts the forecast for success of crops for farmers, grass prospects for ranchers and economic outlook for merchants.
“It’s really special to me and it’s perplexing to me that the community doesn’t understand or want to get up this early,” said Kirkpatrick, a member of the Taba’na Yuan’e tribe who has been a part of the ceremony for more than 30 years. “We’re always just really pleased for whoever comes out and I hope that they’re blessed.”
Kenneth LeBlanc, who served as the pariabo, or head man, for the ceremony, said wind coming from the east or northeast signals a good year ahead, while north or northwest wind means a fair year. Wind from the west or southwest means a poor year, and from the south or southeast a bad year.
“The wind at sunrise will change three or four times,” said LeBlanc, who has been a part of the ceremony for 29 years. “It was out of this direction, it was straight up for a while ... It finally ended up right at sunrise coming out of the northwest and that predicts a fair year, which I’m glad.”
During the past 30 years, the prediction of the sunrise wind ceremony has been 92 percent correct, according to the group...
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