Changing Woman (Asdzą́ą́ Nádleehé)

Woman who changes

Asdzą́ą́ Nádleehé, Changing Woman, is often described as the most beloved and benevolent of the Diné Holy People. Her name refers to her renewal: she grows old in winter and becomes young again in spring, in the cycle of the seasons and of life itself. She is associated with the earth, with growth, and with the Blessingway, the ceremony at the heart of Diné religion, which this site does not describe.

Her finding

In many tellings, including those gathered in Zolbrod's Diné bahaneʼ, First Man hears an infant crying on top of Chʼóolʼį́ʼí (Gobernador Knob) in a place of dark cloud and rain and finds a small turquoise figure there, which the Holy People bring to life as a baby girl; she is raised by First Man and First Woman. She grows to womanhood in days, and her puberty ceremony, the first Kinaaldá, is the pattern for the Kinaaldá still held for Diné girls today. Matthews's 1897 version tells her origin differently: a turquoise image found by an unnamed family is brought to life by the gods, together with a white shell image that becomes White Shell Woman, and there is no fostering by First Man. This site does not choose between the versions.

Mother of the Hero Twins

By the Sun, Jóhonaaʼéí, she becomes the mother of Naayééʼ Neizghání, Monster Slayer; in many tellings she is also the mother of his twin, Tóbájíshchíní, Born for Water, while in Matthews's version Born for Water is the son of White Shell Woman. She hides the boys from the monsters and later sends them on their way.

The west and the clans

When the monsters have been overcome, Changing Woman goes to live in the west, in a house the Sun built for her on the water. There, in widely published tellings, she creates the first Diné clans from skin rubbed from her own body, and sends them east to Diné Bikéyah. The clan system she began remains the basis of Diné identity: a Diné person introduces themselves by their clans.