Diné Creation Story
Usually a Diné elder is called upon to explain why clanship is important. He will always go into a storytelling mode to show how extensive it is from the time a Diné child is born to have over thousands of relatives across the Diné Nation, the United States, and in other countries. When a Diné child is born, he is born without a name. He is given a name at his first Blessingway ceremony or a blessing from an elderly family member a couple of days after he is born. He is given a Diné name; a traditional (warrior) name, a nickname (define what they have done, how he looks, or a description of how their inner and outer personality is), where he’s from, by his clan, or after a relative. Along with his name, four clans are passed down to him from his parents, two from his mother and two from his father.
These clans were created by Áłtsé Asdzą́ą́n, Changing Woman. At the time of the beginning there were only the Diné Holy People, Changing Woman, First Man and First Woman, Twin Warriors, and many animal beings living. She decides there should be more people not looking like animal beings, but human beings, so she created people. I have included short version stories of the Diné Emergence, Changing Woman, and the Twin Warrior’s journey to help lead into the origins of the clans. These stories, which were instilled in many of us Dine people to remember and follow the disciplines they teach us, are passed down in families, in schools, and through my unit.
Diné clans will open the doors to creating a bigger family beyond a child’s immediate family. These clans are going to be his root as he grows and identifies himself as one person to thousands others. Establishing kinship among people through clans helps create more acquaintances and creates a bigger community.
Diné Emergence
My father, Amos Lincoln, who is a well-known Diné medicine man, informed me orally that when you are going to talk about any of the Diné Holy Beings you must always begin your stories from the beginning of time of the Diné people with the Emergence story, Hajíínéé. He says the Diné went through three worlds and each world consist of only Holy Beings, Diyiin Diné’é, and they looked more like animals, insects, and Mist Being. My father begins telling the story after he smokes a special mountain tobacco to clear his mind and to focus. He begins…. “The First World was the black world where only flying insects lived and this is where Áłtsé Asdzą́ą́n, First Woman and Áłtsé Hastiin, First Man were the first two made, along with the Coyote, Áłtsé hashké which means "first scolder”, and this is where the natural laws were established. They escaped this world from fire. The Second World was a blue world where Beings and the flying insects escaped, plus there were swallows, and larger animals like foxes, badgers, wolves, and mountain lions already living. They escaped from this world due to the world freezing up. The Third World was the yellow world where the bluebird was the first to enter, then First Man and Woman, with all the other Beings following thereafter. In this world there were squirrel, chipmunk, mice, turkey, deer, cat, spider, lizard, and snake beings already living. There was just too much power struggle among the Beings, but what made them escape this world was after Coyote stole water monster’s baby and therefore it started to rain and flooded this world. All the Beings then escaped by climbing a reed, that was planted by First Man, into the Fourth World.”
Fourth World - Glittering World
Amos continues and becomes a bit more serious. “When the Holy Beings and the People came into the Fourth World, one of the Beings, Haashch’ééłti’í, Talking God, instructed them to build a sweat house and sing the Blessingway Song. Then they built another house, which was the hooghan. In the hooghan they set up their world in order. They named the four sacred mountains that were placed. In the eastern boundary is Mt. Blanca, Sisnaajiní, near Alamosa, Colorado. In the southern boundary is Mt. Taylor, Tsoodził, northeast of Grants, New Mexico. The western boundary is San Francisco Peaks, Dook’o’oosłííd, is right next to Flagstaff, Arizona. The northern boundary is Mt. Hesperus, Dibé Nitsaa, is near Cortez and Durango, Colorado. Amos says that in many of our prayers and songs, we include the names of our Holy Beings, the names or our mountains, and what they are dressed with along with the protectors. These mountains became the boundary for the Diné. When you go beyond it, you sing the mountain songs so you will always be protected while you’re away from the Diné land and when you come back into the Dinéland, you sing it again to let the Holy Ones know you’re back home.”
Áłtsé Asdzą́ą́n, Changing Woman Or Yołgaii Asdzą́ą́n, White Shell Woman
My mother, Lorissa, tells of Áłtsé Asdzą́ą́n, Changing Woman. “Many times we tell of a myth of how a woman or man comes of age within such a short time, or even overnight, who have that spiritual sense. Áłtsé Asdzą́ą́n, Changing Woman, comes closest to being the representation of the earth, Nahasdzáán, and of the natural order of Yádi hi Bii' Bi Haz'ánígíí, the universe, as to any other brief way of describing her. Her representation is a symbol of a cycle in seasons and in life itself: birth, toddler, adolescent, young adult, old age, and death. Changing woman is in our prayers, songs, and our inner self as a human being.” The story is always told with reverence.
Lorissa continues. “One morning, First Man and First Woman saw a dark cloud over Ch'oolii, Gobernador Knob, which is by Farmington, New Mexico. They heard a baby crying and they climb Gobernador Knob and in the clouds of mist they found a baby girl. She was the daughter born of darkness and the dawn was her father. Under the directions of the Holy People, they fed her sun-ray pollen, cloud pollen, plant pollen, and the dew off of flowers. They named her Áłtsé Asdzą́ą́n, Changing Woman. She is within all of us as Diné, because she is our Mother. She grew within days from a baby to a young woman and she came of age, puberty stage, a Blessingway ceremony, where the first Hooghan songs were made, was held over her, called Kinaalda, Walked Into Beauty, that lasted for four days. Within this ceremony she received another name, Yołgaii Asdzą́ą́n, White Shell Woman with white representing pure.
Today, young Diné girls have the same ceremony as a passageway to womanhood. The Kinaalda is a teaching to young girls of what their responsibilities will be in life. They learn about their culture, language, and each feels responsible for her family. At the end of the ceremony, the girl is now a woman. She was Changing Woman during her ceremony she came out to be White Shell Woman. So, when you hear Changing Woman and White Shell Woman, they are the same. Changing Woman grew up near Dził Na'oodilii, El Huerfano Mesa, near Farmington, New Mexico.”
Twin Warriors; Tó Bájísh Chíní, Child Born Of Water, And Naayéé Neezghání, Monster Slayer
My father, Amos starts the story again. “As Changing Woman grew, she married the Johonaa’ei, The Sun, and bore two son, twins, Naayéé’neizghání, Slayer of Monsters, and Tóbájíshchíní, Born for Water. They were warriors and became heroes to the Diné. They grew up with their mother on Earth and became strong young boys and powerful warriors. This was still at the beginning of the movement into the Fourth World, so there were also giants living in this world. Changing Woman never let the Twins play or go too far from their home due to the evil giants living nearby, and one day a giant followed the Twins’ footprint back to the hogan. The giant asked Changing Woman whose tracks those were, and she responded saying that she wished she had children so she would not be so lonely. With that, the giant believed her and he went away. Right after this, Changing Woman told the Twins to go to their father, The Sun, to get help on getting rid of the monsters, because they were eating the people. As they started their journey, they met Na’ashje’ii Asdzą́ą́n, Spider Woman, who taught the boys ways to overcome the obstacles that they needed to pass to get to their father in the sky. As The Twin journeyed to their father, The Sun, they passed all the obstacles that were presented to them. When at the end they reached their father, he gave them lightning bolts as weapons to fight and kill the monsters. The Twins returned back to Earth and killed all the monsters, so the people can repopulate the land. Today, when twins are born, they are revered as good blessings to the family, and many families that do have twins in their family have ceremonies almost every season and to have twins at a ceremony is good too, even if it’s not for them. They are revered back to The Twins, in the Diné Creation Story.”
Áłtsé Asdzą́ą́n, Changing Woman – Creation of The Clans
Lorissa begins, “The creation of the clans are taught from the beginning of a child’s life. As a baby enters our world, he already is identified through his clans. As the child grows, he is told the story of how Changing Woman created the clans. After her sons, The Twins, kill of all the monsters, The Sun took Changing Woman to the Western Ocean and created a beautiful home, made of mist, for her. Some of the Beings went with her and the Beings were still in animal form or Mist Beings. They followed her so she would not be alone. As time went by the Holy Beings got lonely because in the other Worlds they left behind were many of their people still living there. The Holy Beings left the Fourth World and that was the last time they were seen. Changing Woman said that there should be more human people to populate the Fourth World. Her creation of the people was from her body and to each of them she gave them a clan. She started with the four main clans that represented places or things she had witnessed into naming her clans that we still use today. First, from the skin of her breast came the Kiiyaa’aanii clan, Towering House People, for at one time in her travels they rested at a Puebloan ruins while they were in search of water. From the left arm came the Hashlisnii, Mud People, named for a place where they traveled through people making pots out of mud. From the skin under her right arm came the Todich’ii’nii, Bitter Water People, named after drinking of bitter water. From her back came the Honaghaahnii, He-Walks-Around-One People, named after a warrior who used to keep an eye over his people to protect them.”
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