22 SACRED PLACES T he four sacred mountains mark the boundaries of the traditional homeland of the Navajo people, or Diné. The mountains also form the spiritual center of the Navajo Nation, playing a central role in the tribe’s creation story, in which their ancestors emerged onto the land from four underworlds. Place names, oral history, rock art, and archaeological sites document the sacredness of the region to the Navajo. Geography is integral to the spiritual and cultural values of the Navajo; they believe that their people must remain within the boundaries defined by the mountains in order to live in harmony with nature and one another. The four sacred mountains embody powerful teachings of the Navajo religion. The First Man replicated the underworld mountains by mixing soil with sacred matter, placing the mountains on the new land in the four cardinal directions and breathing into them so that they would grow. Each of the sacred mountains is associated not only with a direction but also with a particular material and ceremonial color and has its own personality that reflects that of the holy being within it. Mountains are viewed as hogans, or houses, in which a variety of plant and animal forms may also live with the holy being. The sacred mountain of the east is Mount Blanca (Blanca Peak), called Tsisnaasjiní, or Dawn Mountain, located near Alamosa in San Luis Valley, Colorado. The Navajo associate it with white shell and describe it as covered in daylight and fastened to the ground with lightning. Mount Humphreys, in the San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff, Arizona, is the sacred mountain of the west. Called Dook´o´ooslííd, it is secured to the ground with a sunbeam and is associated with the abalone shell and the color yellow, representing twilight. Mount Hesperus (Hesperus Mountain), or Dibé Ntsaa, is the sacred mountain of the north, located in the La Plata Mountains in Colorado. The Navajo believe that it is held to the earth by a rainbow and symbolically covered with darkness, and they associate it with the volcanic rock obsidian. The sacred mountain of the south is Mount Taylor, called Tsoodził, or Blue Bead. Secured to the ground by a knife, it is associated with the turquoise stone and the color blue, for the blue sky. Located north of Laguna, New Mexico, Mount Taylor is the high point of the San Mateo Mountains and the highest point in the Cibola National Forest. The Navajo believe that the deities, plants, and animals that reside within the four sacred mountains have the power to protect and heal those who pray to them. The health and strength of the people come from the mountains; they are the sacred reference points for all aspects of Navajo life. The Search for Meaning The Four Sacred Mountains of the Navajo
