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While the Navajo are often associated with turquoise, their sacred history includes four sacred stones -- turquoise, white shell, abalone and jet (obsidian) -- each of which serves to delineate the geographical boundaries of the Navajo homeland, Dinetah . The Navajo believe they were given the name Ni�hookaa Diyan Din� by their creators; it means "Holy Earth People" or "Lords of the Earth." Navajos today simply called themselves "Din�," meaning "the People." The Tewa Indians were the first to call them "Navahu," which means "the large area of cultivated land." The Mexicans knew them as Apaches Du Nabahu , meaning "Apaches of the Cultivated Fields." ( Apache, was Zuni for "enemy.") The "Apaches Du Nabahu" were known as a special group somewhat distinct from the rest of the Apaches. Alonso de Benavides, custos of the Franciscan missions in New Mexico from 1626 to 1629, changed the name to "Navaho" in a book written in 1630. *Hastin Tlo'tsi hee* ("Old Man Buffalo Grass"), was first of the four great chiefs of the Navaho at the time recounted his stories to Aileen O'Bryan in 1928 while she was living at Mesa Verde National Park; his nephew Sam Ahkeah acted as interpreter. Tlo'tsi hee died the following January, 1929**.	sacred stone of the navajo 'old pawn' navajo ring, ca.1950s celestial spirit Especially prized by prehistoric jewelry makers, nowhere was abalone more esteemed than among the Navajo. Echoing a distant past, abalone, as one of the Navajo's four sacred stones, plays a significant role in many of their myths. As one of the four sacred stones, abalone is associated with the creation of the sacred mountains that mark the boundaries of the Navajo homeland. A building material of the first Navajo hogan, abalone was also a part of the first loom, a vital part of the Navajo culture. In "The Creation Or Age Of Beginning," transcriber Aileen O'Bryan recounts one version of how the six sacred mountains came into being -- a story related by Sandova, or Hastin Tlo'tsi hee ("Old Man Buffalo Grass"), who had heard it from his grandmother, Esdzan Hosh Kige: creation of the six mountans "There were six mountains in the Third World. In the East was Sis na' jin, the Standing Black Sash. Its ceremonial name is Yol gai'dzil, the Dawn or White Shell Mountain. "In the South stood Tso'dzil, the Great Mountain, also called Mountain Tongue. Its ceremonial name is Yodolt i'zhi dzil, the Blue Bead or Turquoise Mountain. "In the West stood Dook'oslid, and the meaning of this name is forgotten. Its ceremonial name is Dichi'li dzil, the Abalone Shell Mountain. "In the North stood Debe'ntsa, Many Sheep Mountain. Its ceremonial name is Bash'zhini dzil, Obsidian Mountain. "Then there was Dzil na'odili, the Upper Mountain. It was very sacred and its name means also the Center Place, and the people moved around it. Its ceremonial name is Ntl'is dzil, Precious Stone or Banded Rock Mountain. "There was still another mountain called Chol'i'i or Dzil na'odili choli, and it was also a sacred mountain."
When allowing Aileen O'Bryan to record all that he knew about his people, Tlo'tsi hee said: "You look at me and you see only an ugly old man, but within I am filled with great beauty. I sit as on a mountaintop and I look into the future. I see my people and your people living together. In time to come, my people will have forgotten their early way of life unless they learn it from white men's books. So you must write down all that I will tell you; and you must have it made into a book that coming generations may know this truth." In some Navajo myths, Abalone Shell Mountain is associated with one of Four Holy Boys, Abalone Shell Boy, also called "Twilight Boy." The other Holy Boys are White Bead Boy (the Dawn Boy and the Rock Crystal Boy), Turquoise Boy (Daylight Boy), and Jet Boy (Darkness Boy and the Obsidian Boy). The Navajo lunar deity is Yolkai Estasan . Called White Shell Woman, because she is made of abalone, she is the sister of the turquoise-sky goddess, Estanatlehi , Changing Woman. Ruling the ocean and the sunrise, she is also creator of fire and maize. Her home is made of the four sacred stones: abalone, white shell, turquoise, and black jet. Reprinted as Navajo Indian Myths , Aileen O'Bryan's collected stories were originally published in 1956 as "The Dine: Origin Myths of the Navaho Indians," by the US Government Printing Office, as Bulletin 163 of the Bureau of American Ethnology of the Smithsonian Institution. The Navajo expression for abalone is "the-particular-one-that-is-iridescent, the-one-whose-various-colors-scintillate." To the Navajo and Apache, the haliotis shell of "many-colored flecks" is often used in myths and ceremonies to signify spotted horses.	mountain adornment In another story told to O'Bryan by Hastin Tlo'tsi hee, she recorded this narrative regarding the importance of the sacred abalone: sacred mountains of the dine dook�o�osl��d, abalone shell mountain, san francisco peak "...when First Man and First Woman fastened Dook oslid (the sacred mountain in the West) to the earth with a sunbeam, they covered the mountain of the West with a yellow cloud. They adorned it with haliotis shell [abalone], yellow corn, black clouds, and the male rain, and they called many animals to dwell upon it. "They placed the abalone shell basket on the summit; and in it they placed the two eggs of the tsidiltsoi, the yellow warbler. These birds were to become its feather. The Black Wind was told to go to the West and guard the doorway of the Abalone Shell Boy." Author Carrie M. Miner offers this creation story related to abalone, from the Navajo's oral history, in in an Arizona Highways article (April 2003), "Navajoland": how the world was shaped "the sacred prayers of the white shell woman" made of abalone photo: duke wassaja sine, artist "First Man and First Woman shaped the new world into a vision of beauty. They created the moon and sun and stars so that the People would have night and day and seasons. "Bounding the land were four sacred rivers and four sacred mountains formed from materials first man had brought into this new land of and dreams. The rivers -- the Colorado, the Little Colorado, the San Juan and the Rio Grande -- marked the boundaries of the land created for the People. "In the east First Man and First Woman created Horizontal Black Belt (known as Blanca Peak - Tsisnaasjini' in Colorado), made of white shell, fastened to the Earth with lightning and covered with a blanket of daylight. "Then they located Blue Bead Mountain (Mount Taylor - Tsoodzil, east of Grants, New Mexico) in the south, filling the dome with turquoise, pinning it to the Earth with a stone knife and covering the newly formed mountain with blue sky. "Light Always Glitters on Top (the San Francisco Peaks - Dook'o'osl��d, located just north of Flagstaff) in the west contained abalone shell, secured with a sunbeam and covered in yellow twilight."
According to the Sia of New Mexico, in their story of the sun's creation, the spider made the sun from white shell, turkis, red stone, and abalone shell. San Francisco Peak, the Navajo's Sacred Mountain of the West, is located immediately north of Flagstaff, Arizona. Navajos believe the peak marks the rightful western boundary of the Navajo Nation. The peak is actually made up of three peaks: Humphrey Peak (11,940 feet), Agassiz Peak (12,300 feet), and Fremont Peak (11,940 feet). Reader caveat: Colin G. Calloway, in his First Peoples: A Documentary Survey of American Indian History , says about O'Bryan's work: "Sam Ankeah may have done an excellent job of translating his uncle's words, and O'Bryan may have written them down faithfully. But any translation is inadequate to accurately convey the culturally specific concepts of one people in the language of another people.... can this English version of the Navajo emergence story give us any more than a glimpse of the Navajo worldview?"	songs of creation Recounting yet another Navajo tale including abalone, Katherine Berry Judson, in her classic "Myths and Legends of California and the Old Southwest," tells the lyrical story of Hasjelti and Hostjoghon which links "songs" to "creation" -- a notion somewhat similar to the Australian aboriginal concept of Dreamtime during which the world was "sung" into being: hasjelti and hostjoghon "Hasjelti was the son of the white corn, and Hostjoghon the son of the yellow corn. They were born on the mountains where the fogs meet. These two became the great song-makers of the world. "To the mountain where they were born (Henry Mountain, Utah), they gave two songs and two prayers. "Then they went to Sierra Blanca (Colorado)and made two songs and prayers and dressed the mountain in clothing of white shell with two eagle plumes upon its head. "They visited San Mateo Mountain (New Mexico) and gave to it two songs and prayers, and dressed it in turquoise, even to leggings and moccasins, and placed two eagle plumes upon its head. "Then they went to San Francisco Mountain (Arizona)and made two songs and prayers and dressed that mountain in abalone shells with two eagle plumes upon its head. "They then visited Ute Mountain and gave to it two songs and prayers and dressed it in black beads. Then they returned to their own mountain where the fogs meet and said, "We two have made all these songs."
The Navajo hogan is more than a place to eat and sleep. The concept of it as "home" bears little resemblance to the Western view. The hogan is a gift of the gods, occupying a special place in the sacred world. Every ceremony ends with a sacred hogan chant and everyone inside the hogan must be awake when it is sung. Traditional Navajo Prayer * Dark young pine, at the center of the earth originating, I have made your sacrifice. * White shell, turquoise, abalone beautiful, jet beautiful, fool's gold beautiful, blue pollen beautiful, reed pollen, pollen beautiful, your sacrifice I have made. * This day your child I have become, I say, watch over me. Hold your hand before me in protection, stand guard for me, speak in defense of me. As I speak for you, speak for me. As you speak for me, so will I speak for you. * May it be beautiful before me, * May it be beautiful behind me, * May it be beautiful below me, * May it be beautiful above me, * May it be beautiful all around me. * I am restored in beauty. * I am restored in beauty. * I am restored in beauty. * I am restored in beauty. translated by Gladys A. Reichard. From Women in Praise of the Sacred	sacred home Fr. Berard Haile, who gathered a great many Navajo legends in his book An Ethnologic Dictionary (The Franciscan Fathers, St. Michels, AZ, 1910), provides one version of how the first Navajo hogan -- which in the Navajo language means "home place" -- was created. Comprised of white shell, abalone, turquoise, and obsidian -- bringing the home and sacred mountains into one sacred unit -- the roof reflects the sky; the walls, the likeness of the Navajo's surroundings (the upward position of the mountains, hills, and trees); and the floor is ever in touch with "the earth mother." the first hogan traditional navajo earth hogan "The poles were made of precious stones such as white-shell, turquoise, abalone, obsidian, and red stone, and were five in number. "The interstices were lined with four shelves of white-shell, and four of turquoise, and four of abalone and obsidian, each corresponding with the pole of the respective stone, thus combining the cardinal colors of white, blue, yellow and black in one gorgeous edifice. "The floor, too, of this structure was laid with a fourfold rug of obsidian, abalone, turquoise, and white shell, each spread over the other in the order mentioned, while the door consisted of a quadruple curtain or screen of dawn, sky-blue, evening twilight, and darkness. "As a matter of course the divine builders might increase its size at will, and reduce it to a minimum, whenever it seemed desirable to do so."
In Navajo belief, abalone, di tcili , is associated with the color yellow and represents mature vegetation as well as Black Wind, whose house is of abalone. All the sacred stones are mythical basket materials. Frequently the basket is of one stone with a contrasting rim -- white shell rimmed with turquoise or the reverse; abalone rimmed with red stone or the reverse, jet with an abalone rim or the reverse.	the beginning of birds Associating the four sacred stones to the creation of birds at the time the gods first made earth and sky move, Fr. Haile recorded this Navajo myth: giving life to earth and sky "Now, on the Earth side of Creation, First Man placed eight winds, and on the Sky side eight thunders, dark mist and "he-and-she" rains. Near Mountain Woman on the Earth side he placed Dark Mountain with beads of Jet for Dark Mountain, Abalone for Yellow Mountain, and White Shell for White Mountain. "Then on the Dark Mountain he placed bands of Jet for the White Headed Eagle, on Blue Mountain another Eagle, on Abalone Mountain a Hawk, and on White Mountain the White Eagle and the Hawk.
Weaving is a complicated art, and Navajo girls today need years to learn it from a female relative, practicing every day. If a tribe member is asked today when weaving was learned, she -- for Navajo weavers are always women -- (although Pueblo weavers are men) will tell you that they were taught by Spider Woman, "in the beginning." Yet the Navajo weaving technique exactly duplicates, point for point, that of the Pueblos, who have been weaving since 600 AD. The notion that Navajo's didn't weave until relatively recently can be gathered from the fact that all known specimens of Navajo weaving are in wool. Therefore they must have been made after the introduction of sheep by Coronado's men (ca. 1540). (Prior to that, they wove with yucca and other vegetable fibers).	spider woman Yet another Navajo legend involving abalone is the story of Na ashje'ii 'Asdz�� ("Spider Woman"), who, through Changing Woman, first taught Navajo women how to weave: how navajo women learned to weave spider woman photo: st. thomas studio "Spider Woman instructed the Navajo women how to weave on a loom which Spider Man told them how to make. "The crosspoles were made of sky and earth cords, the warp sticks of sun rays, the healds of rock crystal and sheet lightning. The batten was a sun halo, white shell made the comb. "There were four spindles: one a stick of zigzag lightning with a whorl of cannel coal; one a stick of flash lightning with a whorl of turquoise; a third had a stick of sheet lightning with a whorl of abalone; a rain streamer formed the stick of the fourth, and its whorl was white shell." Like Changing Woman, the weaver is an eternal creator who weaves both an individual product of her own mind and a more universal product from the mind of the tribe.