Dibé Nitsaa- Navajo LocationLocation · Landmark"Sacred Mountain of the North"

The Northern Peak

Dibé Nitsaa, identified with Mount Hesperus in the La Plata Mountains of southwestern Colorado, stands at 13,232 feet and commands the northern horizon of the Navajo homeland. It is the Sacred Mountain of the North, the final boundary of Dinétah. With Tsisnaasjiniʼ (Blanca Peak) in the east, Tsoodzíł (Mount Taylor) in the south, and Dookʼoʼoosłííd (San Francisco Peaks) in the west, the four mountains close the cardinal ring within which Navajo life unfolds.

The peak's dark slate weathers into dark dust, giving it a visual kinship with the black stone that defines its sacred character. Navajo also call it Obsidian Mountain.

Fastened with a Rainbow

After the Emergence into the Glittering World, First Man and the Holy People built Dibé Nitsaa from soil carried up through the successive lower worlds. They adorned it with black jet (báászhiní), the precious stone of the north, and fastened it to the earth with a rainbow beam. Where the eastern mountain was anchored with lightning and the western with a sunbeam, the north received the rainbow: an arc holding all colors within itself, bridging sky and earth.

They dressed the mountain in black clouds and gave it dark mists as its garment. Sacred Black Wind was assigned as its breath. Black corn was designated as its plant, the porcupine as its guardian animal, and the blackbird as its bird. The mountain was made to live.

The Inner Beings

The Holy People placed paired spirits within Dibé Nitsaa to give it a spiritual interior. Black Jet Boy and Black Jet Girl dwell there, along with Folding Darkness Boy and Folding Darkness Girl. These beings sustain the mountain's life through their balance, male and female together. Without them, the mountain would be rock and earth. With them, it breathes and responds to prayer.

Monster Slayer’s Post

Monster Slayer (Naayééʼ Neizghání), the hero who rid the Glittering World of the beings that preyed upon the people, was designated as Dibé Nitsaa's protector. He is the warrior who knew when to stop killing. He spared Old Age, Poverty, Hunger, and Cold because without them life would have no urgency and the seasons would not turn. That he guards the mountain of the north, the final point in the sunwise circle, is fitting. The protector of the last boundary is the one who understood what must be preserved.

In the Blessingway

When the four mountains are invoked in the Blessingway and other ceremonies, Dibé Nitsaa is named last in the sunwise sequence, completing the circle. Its qualities of protection and stillness close the invocation. The Enemyway draws on the power Monster Slayer invested in the northern boundary when external threats must be addressed.

The traditional stories may only be told between first frost and first thunder, the dark months that belong to the north. In those winter evenings, when the land rests beneath snow and the fire is the only light, the stories of the Holy People are spoken aloud, and the mountain stands on the horizon, dressed in its black clouds, holding the boundary.