Diyin Dine'é- Navajo GroupCollective"The Holy People"

The Emergence

In the Diné Bahaneʼ, the Holy People began in the lowest of the underworlds, alongside insect beings and animal people. Quarrels drove them upward. In the First World, fighting forced them through a hole in the sky. In the Second, they clashed with the swallow people and ascended again. In the Third World, the men and women separated after a dispute over which sex needed the other more. The separation nearly destroyed both sides before they reconciled.

Coyote triggered the final ascent. He stole Water Monster's children and hid them beneath his blanket. The waters rose. The people planted a great reed and climbed inside as the flood swallowed the Third World behind them. They emerged into the present world, the Glittering World, blinking in the light of an unfinished sky.

Ordering the World

First Man and First Woman set about organizing existence. They placed four sacred mountains at the cardinal directions to define the boundaries of Dinétah: Tsisnaasjini' in the east bore white shell, Dibé Nitsaa in the north bore jet. Each mountain was fastened to the earth with rainbows, sunbeams, and lightning, and a Holy Person was assigned to dwell within as its inner form, giving it life.

First Man laid out the stars with care, placing each constellation according to plan. Coyote grew impatient. He snatched the remaining stars from their pouch and flung them across the sky. The bright band of the Milky Way is his handiwork. First Man's careful order and Coyote's wild toss both remain in the night sky.

Changing Woman and the First Ceremony

On Gobernador Knob, First Man and First Woman found an infant formed from turquoise and white shell. She matured with supernatural speed, and when she reached womanhood, the Holy People gathered to perform the first Kinaaldá, the puberty ceremony that remains central to Navajo life. Through her union with the Sun, Changing Woman bore the Hero Twins, Monster Slayer and Born for Water, who hunted down the Naayééʼ, the alien monsters that preyed on the people.

Before departing to her home in the western ocean, Changing Woman created the original Navajo clans from her own skin and gave the people the Blessingway, the foundational rite from which all other ceremonies draw their power. Every Blessingway performance recapitulates the Holy People's creative acts, renewing the world through the same songs and prayers they first sang.

The Living World

Every sacred mountain, every spring and canyon possesses a bii'istiin, an inner form: a Holy Person who dwells within and gives it life. Wind carries messages. Thunder speaks. Corn sustains.

Many Navajo begin their day by stepping outside at dawn to offer corn pollen to the east, greeting the Holy People who share their world. In formal ceremony, the relationship becomes precise and reciprocal. The Nightway brings masked dancers who embody specific Yei spirits over nine nights, led by Talking God (Haashch'éélti'í). When a dancer dons a Yei mask, the dancer becomes the Holy Person. More than sixty named ceremonies recount the creation narratives in which specific Holy People first established each rite. Corn pollen and prayer sticks go out. Health and harmony come back.