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Mythos Atlas · Printable worksheet

Diné (Navajo) Tradition

Diné (Navajo), within Diné Bikéyah, the land between the four sacred mountains

Name Date

1. Who's who

Write the letter of each figure's role next to their name.

  1. 1.Changing Woman (Asdzą́ą́ Nádleehé)
  2. 2.First Man (Áłtsé Hastiin)
  3. 3.First Woman (Áłtsé Asdzą́ą́)
  4. 4.Monster Slayer (Naayééʼ Neizghání)
  5. 5.Born for Water (Tóbájíshchíní)
  6. 6.Coyote (Máʼii)
  7. 7.Spider Woman (Naʼashjéʼiiʼ Asdzą́ą́)
  8. 8.The Sun Bearer (Jóhonaaʼéí)
  • A.the lower worlds and the emergence, the relationship of women and men
  • B.protection of the Diné, the destruction of the monsters, war and courage
  • C.leadership in the lower worlds, the ordering of the world, power used for good and ill
  • D.the renewal of life and the seasons, motherhood, the origin of the clans
  • E.disorder and change, the scattering of the stars, death (in some tellings)
  • F.the sun, fatherhood of the Hero Twins, trial and recognition
  • G.weaving, help and protection, knowledge
  • H.protection, the Hero Twins' partnership

2. Family and relationships

Fill in each blank with a name from the word bank.

Word bank: First Man (Áłtsé Hastiin) · Monster Slayer (Naayééʼ Neizghání) · The Sun Bearer (Jóhonaaʼéí)

  1. 1. is the spouse of First Woman (Áłtsé Asdzą́ą́).
  2. 2. is the spouse of Changing Woman (Asdzą́ą́ Nádleehé).
  3. 3. is a sibling of Born for Water (Tóbájíshchíní).
  4. 4. is a parent of Changing Woman (Asdzą́ą́ Nádleehé).

3. Short answers

  1. 1. What was Changing Woman (Asdzą́ą́ Nádleehé) associated with, and which symbols help you recognise Changing Woman (Asdzą́ą́ Nádleehé)?

  2. 2. What was First Man (Áłtsé Hastiin) associated with, and which symbols help you recognise First Man (Áłtsé Hastiin)?

  3. 3. Retell “The Emergence Through the Lower Worlds” in two or three sentences. Who is involved, and what changes by the end?

  4. 4. Retell “The Finding of Changing Woman” in two or three sentences. Who is involved, and what changes by the end?

Answer key: Diné (Navajo) Tradition

1. Who's who

  1. 1. Changing Woman (Asdzą́ą́ Nádleehé): D
  2. 2. First Man (Áłtsé Hastiin): C
  3. 3. First Woman (Áłtsé Asdzą́ą́): A
  4. 4. Monster Slayer (Naayééʼ Neizghání): B
  5. 5. Born for Water (Tóbájíshchíní): H
  6. 6. Coyote (Máʼii): E
  7. 7. Spider Woman (Naʼashjéʼiiʼ Asdzą́ą́): G
  8. 8. The Sun Bearer (Jóhonaaʼéí): F

2. Family and relationships

  1. 1. First Man (Áłtsé Hastiin)
  2. 2. The Sun Bearer (Jóhonaaʼéí)
  3. 3. Monster Slayer (Naayééʼ Neizghání)
  4. 4. First Man (Áłtsé Hastiin)

3. Short answers (guidance)

  1. 1. the renewal of life and the seasons, motherhood, the origin of the clans. Symbols: turquoise, the house in the west. (mythosatlas.com/deities/changing-woman)
  2. 2. leadership in the lower worlds, the ordering of the world, power used for good and ill. Symbols: white corn (in some tellings), the medicine bundle. (mythosatlas.com/deities/first-man)
  3. 3. In the Diné origin story, beings journey upward through a series of lower worlds, leaving each because of wrongdoing or disaster, until, fleeing a flood caused by Coyote's theft of the Water Monster's child, they emerge through a reed into this, the Glittering World. (mythosatlas.com/stories/the-dine-emergence)
  4. 4. In many tellings, First Man finds an infant girl on Chʼóolʼį́ʼí amid dark cloud and rain; raised by First Man and First Woman, she grows swiftly to womanhood, and her puberty ceremony becomes the first Kinaaldá. (mythosatlas.com/stories/birth-of-changing-woman)

Generated from the Mythos Atlas catalog. Traditions vary between sources; accept well-supported alternatives.