Dookʼoʼoosłííd (San Francisco Peaks)

The western boundary

Dookʼoʼoosłííd, the San Francisco Peaks, is the sacred mountain of the west, whose highest summit, Humphreys Peak, reaches about 3,850 metres north of Flagstaff, Arizona. It is associated with the west and with abalone shell. The peaks are sacred to many Native nations of the region, including the Hopi, for whom they are the home of the katsinam, as well as the Diné.

A contested mountain

The peaks have been the focus of long legal and political disputes over the Arizona Snowbowl ski resort, including its use of treated wastewater to make artificial snow, which the Navajo Nation, the Hopi Tribe, and others opposed as a desecration. In Navajo Nation v. United States Forest Service (2008), a federal appeals court ruled against the tribes. The dispute is often cited in discussions of sacred-site protection in the United States.

In the story

Along with the other sacred mountains, Dookʼoʼoosłííd was set in place by the Holy People after the emergence, and it marks the western edge of Diné Bikéyah, toward which Changing Woman went to live.