Diné (Navajo) TraditionMountain
Dibé Ntsaa (Hesperus Mountain)
The sacred mountain of the north, usually identified with Hesperus Mountain in the La Plata Mountains of southwestern Colorado, associated with jet.
About Dibé Ntsaa (Hesperus Mountain)
The northern boundary
Dibé Ntsaa, "big mountain sheep", is the sacred mountain of the north, usually identified with Hesperus Mountain, the highest summit of the La Plata Mountains in southwestern Colorado, at about 4,035 metres. It is associated with the north and with jet (black stone).
Identification
Most sources identify Dibé Ntsaa with Hesperus Mountain, but some Diné accounts and scholars have identified the northern sacred mountain differently, and this site notes that the identification is not uniform.
In the story
With Sisnaajiní, Tsoodził, and Dookʼoʼoosłííd, Dibé Ntsaa bounds Diné Bikéyah, the land into which the people emerged and within which, in the Diné understanding, they belong.
On the map
Dibé Ntsaa (Hesperus Mountain) 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.