First Man discovered the infant Changing Woman atop Ch'óol'í'í, and he and First Woman took her and White Shell Woman into their care, raising both as their own daughters.
⚠ In some Navajo accounts, White-Shell-Woman is Changing Woman's twin sister, found or born at the same time. Other traditions treat them as the same being or as distinct figures who appear separately.
Changing Woman conceived Monster Slayer and Born for Water when Sun Father's rays fell upon her and water from a waterfall entered her, the twins growing with supernatural speed before journeying to Sun Father's sky home to obtain weapons against the monsters.
Changing Woman rubbed skin from her breast, her back, and beneath each arm, forming from it the Four Original Clans — Kiiyaa'áanii, Honágháahnii, Tó dích'í'nii, and Hashtł'ishnii — and breathed life into them at her western home.
The Diyin Dine'é (Holy People) are the supernatural beings of Navajo tradition who created the world, guided the people through the underworlds to the Glittering World, and taught the ceremonial ways that maintain hózhó (harmony).
Changing Woman placed her sacred stones upon the four boundary mountains — white shell on Tsisnaasjini', turquoise on Tsoodzil, abalone on Dook'o'ooslííd, and jet on Dibé Nitsaa — binding her power of renewal to the cardinal directions.
Monster Slayer and Born for Water confronted Changing Woman, demanding she reveal the identity of their father, and though she refused at first to protect them from the perilous journey to the Sun's house, she relented and set the Hero Twins' quest in motion.
At Ch'óol'í'í, the Holy People performed the first Kinaaldá for Changing Woman, molding her body into perfection as she ran toward the rising sun, establishing the puberty ceremony still practiced for Navajo girls today.
Changing Woman bore the Hero Twins to destroy the Anaye, the alien monsters that terrorized the Navajo people after the Emergence, her motherhood the divine answer to the threat of annihilation.
Changing Woman gave the Blessingway to the Navajo people, the foundational ceremony that recounts her birth, her coming of age, and her creation of the clans, performed at key life transitions to restore and maintain hózhó.
Changing Woman created the four original Navajo clans within Dinétah, rubbing skin from her body at her western home and sending them eastward to settle the sacred homeland bounded by the four mountains.
First Man discovered the infant Changing Woman atop Dzil Ná'oodiłii, the sacred mesa where her miraculous appearance signaled the dawn of a new era for the Navajo people.
Changing Woman appeared as an infant on a sacred mountain shortly after the Hajíínáí, the Emergence of the people from the lower worlds into the Glittering World, her birth heralding renewal and fertility for the newly surfaced land.
House God attended the first Kinaaldá alongside Talking God, sanctifying Changing Woman's coming of age with prayers and songs that established the ceremony's sacred form.
Changing Woman taught the Navajo people to construct and use the jish, gathering earth from the four sacred mountains to fill the medicine bundle that carries the power of the Blessingway.
A rainbow arched over the cradleboard of the infant Changing Woman when First Man found her atop Ch'óol'í'í, Nááts'íilid marking the site of her miraculous birth with a sign visible across the land.
After the Hero Twins made the world safe, Sun Father built Changing Woman a home on an island in the western ocean, where he visits her each evening as the sun descends below the horizon.
Talking God led the Holy People in performing Changing Woman's first Kinaaldá, his call echoing across the mountains as the ceremony marked her passage from girlhood to womanhood in the span of four days.
Changing Woman set the Monster Slaying in motion by conceiving the Hero Twins, revealing their father's identity despite the danger, and arming them with sacred knowledge to survive the journey to the Sun's house and destroy the Anaye.
Tł'ish Diyin, the Sacred Snake, coiled at the summit of Ch'óol'í'í where the infant Changing Woman lay, guarding the site of her miraculous appearance until First Man arrived to claim her.
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