Diné (Navajo) TraditionMountain
Sisnaajiní (Blanca Peak)
The sacred mountain of the east bounding Diné Bikéyah, in the Sangre de Cristo Range of southern Colorado, associated with white shell and the dawn.
About Sisnaajiní (Blanca Peak)
The eastern boundary
Sisnaajiní, known in English as Blanca Peak, is the sacred mountain of the east, one of the four that bound Diné Bikéyah. It rises to about 4,370 metres in the Sierra Blanca massif of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in southern Colorado. It is associated with the east, with the dawn, and with white shell.
A holy mountain
In the Diné origin story the sacred mountains were set in place by the Holy People after the emergence, each with its own adornments and associations. Soil and other materials from the four mountains are used in ceremonies that this site does not describe.
Today
The mountain lies outside the present boundaries of the Navajo Nation, on land that includes private and public holdings. Diné people continue to regard it as sacred, and the protection of the sacred mountains is a recurring concern of the Navajo Nation.
On the map
Sisnaajiní (Blanca Peak) among other places of the Diné (Navajo) Tradition.
Sources and further reading
Source notes
These references are recorded in the catalog. Their passage wording and translation have not been checked, so quotations are not displayed here.
- Washington Matthews, Navaho Legends
About this entry
By Elizabeth Stein for Mythos Atlas. About the author. Editorial notes are grounded in the site's cited sources and can be challenged through the contact page.
Coordinates mark where the myths place a site, or where the tradition locates it today. Mythic realms are left off the map or marked as symbolic placements.