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The coming of age for a boy with the Navajo is not a clearly marked by a ceremony as is is with girls. The girls have the Kinaalda after first menstruation. For boys, one thing that is done is at the last night of the Night Way (Tl'ee'ji) ceremony (sometimes called Ye'ii Bicheii or Na'akai), children aged 7 to 13 are initiated to the ceremonial life of an adult. They are brought before the masked Grandfather of the Monsters and Female god. The boys have corn pollen put on their bare shoulders and are hit with a handful of reeds. The impersonator reveal they are in fact relatives and community and not fearful gods. The children then have the masks put on their heads and "see" the world through the god's eyes. At dawn there is a prayer said to the east. This is similar to Hopi unmasking of katchina for children but the disillusionment is not as intense.

Their are also initiations into sweats for boys around this time but not as formal and not done as much. Boys in older times are said to have had rigorous physical training for adult roles which they gradually took on rather than suddenly initiated into.

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10y ago

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