The Blessingway's protective prayers and songs shield the living from chindi contamination, reinforcing the boundary between the world of the living and the dangerous influence of the dead.
Corpse powder is ground from the flesh of the dead, concentrating the same death-contamination that produces chindi — ʼÁntiʼihnii witches blow it onto victims to inflict ghost sickness deliberately.
Coyote threw a hide scraper into the water and declared that if it sank, the dead would return no more — it sank, and so death became permanent, giving rise to the chindi that haunt the living.
⚠ Some versions attribute this act to First Man or other figures; Coyote's role is the most widely attested in major collections.
The Diyin Dine'é taught the Navajo people how to handle the dead and perform the ceremonies that drive away chindi, transforming raw fear of ghosts into a structured system of ritual protection.
The Enemyway ceremony exists specifically to drive away the chindi of slain enemies that cling to warriors, causing nightmares, illness, and spiritual contamination after battle.
The Evilway ceremonial complex targets ghost sickness caused by contact with chindi — through multi-night rituals of prayer, song, and sand painting, it draws out the ghost's contaminating presence and restores the patient to hózhó.
Hatałii perform multi-night healing ceremonies to cure ghost sickness, using songs, prayers, and sand paintings to expel the chindi's grip on the afflicted and restore them to hózhó.
When a person dies inside a hogan, the chindi saturates the dwelling beyond cleansing — the structure must be abandoned, its entrance sealed, and a hole broken in the north wall so the ghost may depart.
Monster Slayer destroyed the Anaye but could not eliminate death itself — Old-Age, Poverty, Cold, and Hunger persuaded him to spare them, and so the chindi continue to arise from every death, an evil beyond even the great hero's power to vanquish.
When Monster Slayer confronted Old-Age on his mission to purge the world of evil, Old-Age argued that without aging and death, the earth would overflow with people — and Monster Slayer relented, ensuring that death and its ghostly residue, the chindi, would persist forever.
ʼÁntiʼihnii practitioners transgress the most fundamental Navajo taboos by deliberately handling corpses, robbing graves, and working with chindi energy to curse and sicken their victims.
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