Navajo Creation Story

[Q tha ish]

Q THA.. ISH IS FROM THE REDHOUSE PEOPLE CLAN(Navajo translation = Kin lich i'nii) BORN OF THE COYOTE CROSSING PATH PEOPLE CLAN (Navajo translation = Ma'iideeshgiizhinii)!!

Dine Clans: When a Navajo baby is born, he or she belongs to the clan of the mother. The clan name passes on through her to her children. When a young man marries, it must be to someone completely outside of his clan. This way, the blood would be strong and produce healthy offsprings. Even though people in his clan are not all blood-related, it is considered inappropriate to marry within one's own clan. This rule is strictly observed. Should it occur, it would be considered as "incest" to the Navajo people.

An important Navajo custom is to introduce one's maternal and paternal clans on both sides of his family when meeting another Navajo or introducing yourself to the Navajo public for the first time. In the Navajo way, this is how Navajos know where you came from. Navajo children are "born to" the mother's clan and take her clan name, and are "born for" the father's clan. Therefore, Navajos precisely know who they are through identification by their mother's, father's, maternal grandfather's and paternal grandfather's clans.

In the Navajo way, two Navajos of the same clan, meeting for the first time, will refer to each other as "brother" or "sister". Navajos that are cousins to each other in the American sense, think of each other as "brother" or "sister" in the Navajo sense. Father's and mother's cousins in the American way are thought of as aunts and uncles in the Navajo way. Grandparent's brothers and sisters in the American way are thought of as grandma's and grandpa's in the Navajo way.

Quanna has many brothers, sisters, Aunts, Uncles, Grandmas, and Grandpas, in the Navajo way, that are her Cousins, her father's and mother's cousins, and her grandparent's brothers and sisters in the American way.

When a Navajo is in strange surroundings, it is not uncommon for his relatives (in the Navajo way) or his clan members, to have the responsibility for his housing, food, and welfare, while this individual is in the immediate area.

A Navajo through his own clan (his mom's clan) and the clan groups to which his father as well as his spouse belong, has a great potential for personal contacts. This complex network of inter-relationships served in the past to fuse the scattered bands of Navajos and other American Indians together as a Navajo Tribe.

Origin: First man and first woman were created by the Holy People (basketmakers), and brought to the surface through a series of underworlds.

The Navajo story of their origin is long and complicated with many versions varying to as having come through twelve underworlds grouped by fours into three layers, or "rooms" which are also called worlds.

We will find this story. And we did. Here is a short version:

Navajo Creation Story:

Only the Creator knows where the beginning is.

The Creator had a thought that created Light in the East.

Then the thought went South to create Water, West to create Air, and North to create Pollen from emptiness.

This Pollen became Earth.

Light, air, water, and earth is contained in everything within nature; all of the natural world is interconnected and equal. All of these elements mixed together, and the first thing created were the Holy People.

These Holy People were given the job and responsibility of teaching what is right and wrong. Holy people were given the original laws, then they created the earth and human beings.

The Creator with the help of the Holy People created the Natural World. They created humans, birds, and all of the Natural World was put in Hozjo (BALANCE).

This Hozjo (harmony, balance, and peace) is dependent on interconnectedness. All of the Natural World depends on another. The Navajo say they are glued together with respect, and together they work in harmony.

To the Navajo this present world is the fifth. The place of emergence into this level was Xajiinai, a hole in the La Plata mountains of SW Colorado.

The Holy People have the power to hurt or help, and centuries ago taught the Dine how to live in harmony with Mother Earth, Father Sky and the other elements: man, animals, plants, insects.

The Dine believe that when the ceremonies cease the world will cease.