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When an Apache adolescent girl is ready to enter adulthood, she must undergo special rituals that welcome her into the world of maturity. Maureen Nachu, 13, lives on an Apache reservation in Arizona, and is making preparations to participate in the ceremony shown in The Sunrise Dance, a grueling rite of passage. The centuries-old procedure is recorded for the first time in this program, as the tribe's medicine man leads Maureen through the steps she must take. Part of the initiation is a purification rite in the sweat lodge, and the dance itself takes three days to perform.