Tsoodzil- Navajo LocationLocation · Landmark"Sacred Mountain of the South"

The Planting

After the Emergence into the Glittering World, First Man planted Tsoodzil in the south using soil brought from its counterpart in the Third World. He spread a turquoise blanket over it and fastened the mountain to the earth with a stone knife. Of the four cardinal mountains, only Tsoodzil was secured by a crafted weapon. The others were pinned by lightning, sunbeam, and rainbow.

The Holy People dressed the mountain in blue cloud and dark mist. Blue Wind breathed life into it. Blue birds and blue swallows circled its peak, spotted blue corn grew on its slopes, and everything associated with the mountain gathered in shades of turquoise, the color of sky at midday. In the ring of sacred mountains that marks the boundaries of Dinétah, Tsoodzil holds the south: Tsisnaasjiniʼ (Blanca Peak) guards the east, Dookʼoʼoosłííd (San Francisco Peaks) the west, Dibé Nitsaa (Mount Hesperus) the north.

The Inner Life

Tsoodzil is not stone. It is a living being animated by the Holy People who dwell within it. Blue Twilight Boy and Blue Twilight Girl were placed inside as paired guardians, along with Turquoise Boy and Turquoise Girl. Turquoise Girl presides as the mountain's primary female spirit, guardian of turquoise and corn. Cougar was sent to protect her and the mountain, patient and strategic, hunting in the manner the mountain embodies.

Where Yéʼiitsoh Fell

Yéʼiitsoh, chief of the Naayééʼ, terrorized the people from his stronghold near the mountain. He drank from the lakes on its slopes and preyed on all who came near. Monster Slayer found him at a lake on the mountain and announced himself as the son of the Sun.

The giant hurled boulders and swung a massive club. Monster Slayer struck him with four lightning arrows: the zigzag and the straight, the sunbeam and the rainbow. Yéʼiitsoh fell. Monster Slayer cut off his head. The giant's blood poured down the slopes and across the desert, cooling into the dark lava flows visible today as El Malpais. Washington Matthews recorded in Navaho Legends that Born for Water then climbed to the summit and bestowed the name Naayééʼ Neizghání on his brother, naming what he had become. Tsoodzil is where the Navajo people's homeland was first made safe.

In Ceremony

Blessingway songs call Tsoodzil by name and praise its turquoise beauty, its blue clouds, the Holy People who live within it. When singers invoke the four sacred mountains together, their combined power creates the complete sacred geography within which healing occurs. Without even one mountain, the circle breaks.

Soil from Tsoodzil is gathered for medicine bundles and ceremonial use. The act of collecting earth from the mountain reaffirms the bond between the people and the land. The mountain's turquoise energy enters the ceremony through its soil, just as turquoise stones are placed in the four directions during healing rites. Tsoodzil is as alive in ceremony today as when First Man planted it.