Apache Crown Dancer

 Product not suitable for children under 14 years - Kit not painted and not assembled.

The Ga’an Dance
With the word Ga'an (Western Apache) – or Gaa'he (Eastern Apache) – one refers to powerful mountain spirits who, in Apache mythology, are considered friendly entities to the tribe. During the Ga’an ceremony, the dancers are regarded as incarnated spirits; for the entire duration of the ritual dances, they are the Ga’an spirits, who truly move through the world of the Apache “people” and, as such, are treated as sacred beings.

There are various narratives that summarize the origin of this particular myth. One of them is that the Ga'an were responsible for the liberation and release into the world of the spirits of the animal world, which were originally confined deep underground, hidden and imprisoned by Crow (the ancestral crow). After the intervention of the mountain spirits, the animals were freed and from then on could provide food and sustenance to the “people of men.”