Gini- Navajo CreatureCreature · Beast
Also known as: Giní
Description
A sacred hawk whose feathers Navajo practitioners bind into prayer sticks and lay in medicine bundles. What the hawk carries is its sight, the power to spot prey from heights no human eye can reach. In ceremony, that vision turns toward finding what is hidden.
Mythology & Lore
Feathers and Sight
Hawk feathers appear in Navajo prayer sticks and medicine bundles. Gladys Reichard noted that the hawk's piercing vision makes its feathers appropriate for ceremonies where clarity and perception are needed. The hataalii places them alongside other materials, each drawn from a different being, each carrying that being's particular power.
A hawk killed for its feathers requires proper protocol: its spirit addressed, its life honored in prayer. Found feathers are received as gifts. The feathers enter ceremony already carrying a relationship between the practitioner and the sky.
In sandpaintings, hawks appear among the sacred birds that attend the central figures. They watch from the edges of the composition, eyes fixed on the scene below.
Relationships
- Serves
- Member of