Edgar Perry has a special relationship with the towering blue spruce trees of the White Mountains.
As a little boy, he climbed their trunks and threw rocks at their branches. As a young man, he shot arrows at squirrels habitating in them. On a Saturday in July, the trees looked down on the 59-year-old Perry as witnesses at his wedding.If the trees could talk, they would have told the 300 guests that this was only the second traditional White Mountain Apache wedding since 1900.
The ceremony on the Fort Apache Reservation in eastern Arizona symbolized the resiliency of the tribe, dedicated to persevering land, family and ethnicity. Despite what many American Indians have been through - including loss of land and water rights, poverty and cultural assimilation - such traditional events remain significant for some.
"Edgar is one of the few Apache who's holding on (to traditional ways)," Harlan Bearhand, Perry's best man, said. "He teaches the language, the dance and the crafts. He loves his people. As long as he's here, he's going to carry on the traditions."
Perry is the director of the Fort Apache Museum and teaches Apache language at Whiteriver Elementary School. Recognized as an Apache cultural preservationist, he has traveled extensively, teaching about Apache culture.
Perry's parents were married in a Lutheran church. The parents of 15 children, they moved to the White Mountains during the early 1940s to find work in a booming lumber industry.
Perry's bride, Itasha Foster, 49, is Jamaican and a teacher at White-river Middle School. Three years ago, a friend of hers spoke highly of Perry and suggested that Foster contact him. She procrastinated.
The couple finally agreed to meet at McDonald's for lunch. Romance bloomed.
"Let's get married in a nice and simple way," Perry said he told his fiancee.
Perry's daughter, Lisa, said she is accustomed to cultural differences. One of her sisters is married to a black man and the other is married to a half-white, half-Hispanic man.
"I mean, it's the '90s," Lisa said.
Still, her preference had been that her father marry another Native American. "I feel that (another Native American) could be more culturally sensitive to certain things," she said.
The outdoor wedding site, located under a thatch covering, was decorated with sunflowers and ears of corn. The sunflowers represent happiness; the corn signifies renewal.
An Apache violin, cowhide, spears, saddlebags, hand-woven baskets and colorful water jugs surrounded an altarlike area, creating a nostalgic atmosphere.
A century-old wagon belonging to Perry's grandfather, Alejo Joe Queintero, stood on the right side of the clearing. A wickiup made of blue spruce and aspen and tied with yucca stood to the left side, with its entry facing east.
"East is very important," Perry said, "because it's a direction that represents the sun, the moon, the stars, the darkness, the day. The first thing that hits Apaches in the face in the morning is the sun. It's like getting up with God."
Perry and Foster entered the clearing astride a horse and wearing traditional ceremonial dress. Orange and green stripes bordered the hem of Foster's white dress. Silver trinkets dangled from the fringes of her buckskin top. Perry, dressed from neck to toe in buckskin and with a hunting knife strapped to his back, commanded the horse to stop.
After dismounting, the moccasin-clad couple danced down the dirt aisle followed by the best man. The guests sat on bales of hay.
Upon reaching the medicine man, Paul Ethelbah, the couple stood still and, with palms facing upward, turned once in a clockwise direction in honor of the mountain spirits.
Speaking in Apache, Ethelbah chanted a wedding prayer and blessed the couple with sacred cattail pollen.
"Now you will feel no rain, for each of you will be shelter to the other," he said. "Now you will feel no cold, for each of you will be warmth to the other. Go now to your dwelling place to enter into the days of your togetherness, and may your days be good and long upon the Earth."
He thanked all in attendance for their friendship and blessed the tribe.
An eagle feather and talon hung from a thin white string behind the medicine man. The eagle is a sacred bird of the Apache and is thought to be the reincarnation of ancestors.
After the blessing, four Apache Gaan dancers performed for the couple. The Gaan dancers, also known as crown dancers, impersonate mountain spirits and come to bring blessings to the couple and to the Apache.
The dancers also represented the sacred number four. In the Apache creation story, the creator did all things in four. There are four seasons, four directions, four stages of life and four clans in the tribe: eagle, bear, butterfly and roadrunner.
With their bodies painted white and heads made faceless by canvas masks, the dancers stomped out a dance, circling the clearing and filling the air with the jingle of the bells tied to their waists. Wooden decorations symbolizing each dancer's spirit were mounted to their heads.
Next came the war dance. Picking up a bow, Perry began circling the clearing with his best man, who held a gun. The dance symbolizes the groom's bravery and his ability to protect his family. The dance also was done before battles to ensure the warriors' victory and safe return.
After the ceremony, a Baptist minister stepped in to legalize the marriage. As he pronounced the couple husband and wife, two eagles hovered and thunder was heard.
"Everything in nature and the creator was blessing us," Foster said.