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.
First Man and First Woman journeyed together through four underworlds, his medicine bundle guiding the way and her complementary power completing each act of creation — from raising the sacred mountains to placing the stars and establishing the ceremonies that would sustain the Diné.
Begochiddy created First Man from the meeting of white and black clouds and First Woman from yellow and blue clouds in the earliest world, breathing life into them at the beginning of the emergence journey.
⚠ Begochiddy as creator of First Man appears primarily in Father Berard Haile's recordings. In the more widely known Diné Bahane' versions (Zolbrod, O'Bryan), First Man emerges spontaneously from the meeting of white and black clouds.
First Man raised Tsisnaasjini', Tsoodzil, Dook'o'oosłííd, and Dibé Nitsaa from sacred soil carried in his medicine bundle, fastening each mountain to the earth and adorning them with precious stones to mark the cardinal boundaries of Dinétah.
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.
First Man directed the construction of the first hogan after the Emergence, shaping the sacred dwelling to face east and embedding cosmic order into its forked-stick frame.
First Man fashioned the first kéét'áán from materials in his medicine bundle and taught their proper construction, embedding prayer sticks into the ceremonial order as channels between the Holy People and the Earth Surface People.
First Man and First Woman fashioned the sun from a perfect turquoise disk and placed it on Jóhonaaʼéí's back, charging him to carry it across the sky each day and establishing the cycle of light in the Glittering World.
First Man and First Woman fashioned the moon from a perfect white shell disk and placed it on Tłʼéhonaaʼéí's back, charging him to carry it across the night sky as counterpart to the sun.
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).
First Man, First Woman, Coyote, Begochiddy, and Water-Monster were central figures in the Emergence (Hajíínáí). Coyote's theft of Water-Monster's children provoked the great flood that drove the people upward through the worlds into the Glittering World.
First Man and First Woman laid corn ears upon buckskins to shape the first Earth Surface People, and the Air-Spirit-People swept through them with the winds of life, transforming sacred matter into breathing, conscious beings.
The quarrel between First Man and First Woman split the people by sex for four years, and in that unnatural separation the women's improper acts conceived the Anaye — alien monsters that would terrorize the Glittering World until the Hero Twins destroyed them.
First Man and First Woman established the ceremonies that became the Blessingway, drawing from the sacred knowledge in their medicine bundles to lay the foundation of the Navajo ceremonial system — the rites of harmony that underpin all other chantways.
First Man and First Woman found an infant atop Ch'óol'í'í where darkness met dawn, and carried her home to Dzil Ná'oodiłii — the child who would become Changing Woman, the most beloved of the Holy People.
First Man and First Woman made their home at Dzil Ná'oodiłii (Huerfano Mesa), and Dzil Ná'oodiłii became the sacred center of Dinétah — the geographical anchor of the Blessingway narratives and the place where Changing Woman was raised.
First Man and First Woman carried the sacred jish through the underworlds during the Emergence, the bundles holding seeds of mountains, patterns of stars, and prototypes of every ceremony that would order the Glittering World.
First Man and First Woman organized the first Kinaaldá at Ch'óol'í'í when Changing Woman came of age, establishing the songs, the running, and the corn cake that would mark every Navajo girl's passage into womanhood.
First Man and Hastsezini worked together to place the constellations across the night sky after the Emergence, carefully setting each star pattern into its proper position before Coyote seized the remaining crystals and flung them into the disordered swath of the Milky Way.
⚠ Some versions attribute the careful star placement to Hastsezini (Black God) rather than First Man, with Coyote as the one who scatters them. O'Bryan and Zolbrod differ on which figure holds the methodical role.
First Man placed Tł'ish Diyin among the inner forms of the sacred mountains, assigning Tł'ish Diyin to guard the boundaries he had raised at the four directions.
First Man carried witchcraft knowledge in his medicine bundle alongside sacred ceremonies, making ʼÁntiʼihnii the shadow twin of holy power — the dark arts born in the same breath as the prayers that would heal.
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