Tł'ish Diyin guards the mountains, springs, and waterways of Dinétah, coiled within the earth as an inner form of the land itself, channeling sacred power from the depths to the surface world.
The Diyin Dine'é hold dominion over Dinétah, the homeland they established between the four sacred mountains — their presence suffuses every canyon, mesa, and waterway, and their laws of hózhó govern the land.
After the emergence into the Glittering World, Begochiddy and First Man prepared Dinétah as the homeland for the Diné — placing the four sacred mountains at the cardinal points, fastening them with lightning, sunlight, rainbow, and rain, and filling the land between with life.
The four sacred mountains mark the cardinal boundaries of Dinétah, the Navajo homeland, as established by the Holy People after the Emergence. Tsisnaasjini' guards the east, Tsoodzil the south, Dook'o'oosłííd the west, and Dibé Nitsaa the north.
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.
The Monster Slaying carved Dinétah's face — Yéʼiitsoh's blood hardened into the lava flows near Tsoodzil, the bodies of slain Anaye became volcanic formations and mesas, and every canyon and rock spire between the four sacred mountains bears witness to the Hero Twins' campaign.
Water Monster's flood — unleashed when Coyote stole her child — drove the First People upward through the reed into the Glittering World, making the monster's wrath the catalyst that forced the emergence into Dinétah.
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