Source recordTranslation
Diné bahane': The Navajo Creation Story
Paul G. Zolbrod · 1984 · English (from Diné sources recorded by Matthews and others)
Translation
Diné bahane': The Navajo Creation Story
Paul G. Zolbrod
A continuous English rendering of the Diné creation story, from the lower worlds through the emergence, the birth of Changing Woman, the Hero Twins, and the origin of the clans. Widely read, and criticised by some Diné readers for combining versions into a single narrative by a non-Diné author.
About this work
A continuous English rendering of the Diné creation story, from the lower worlds through the emergence, the birth of Changing Woman, the Hero Twins, and the origin of the clans. Widely read, and criticised by some Diné readers for combining versions into a single narrative by a non-Diné author.
Where to start
Read with the introduction, and alongside Diné-authored sources that present these stories in their own terms.
Figures in the text
Heroes and divinities who feature prominently, with where they appear.
Key scenes
Turning points of the work, in reading order.
The Finding of Changing Woman
First Man finds an infant girl on Chʼóolʼį́ʼí, and she is raised by First Man and First Woman.
The Scattering of the Stars
Coyote grows impatient as the stars are placed carefully in the sky, and scatters the rest.
Stories drawn from it
Retellings in the atlas that quote or cite this work.
The Emergence Through the Lower WorldscreationIn 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.
The Finding of Changing WomanoriginIn 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.
The Hero Twins' Journey to Their FatherheroThe twin sons of Changing Woman set out to find their father, the Sun; guided by Spider Woman, they pass through deadly places, survive the Sun's tests, and return with armour of flint and arrows of lightning.
Monster Slayer and the MonstersheroAfter Yéʼiitsoh, Monster Slayer destroys the other monsters that prey on the people, from the horned Déélgééd to the monster eagles of Shiprock, but spares Old Age, Cold, Poverty, and Hunger when each explains why the world needs it.
Changing Woman Goes West and Makes the ClansoriginWith the monsters gone, Changing Woman goes to live in the west in a house the Sun built for her on the water; there she makes the first Diné clans from her own skin and sends them east to the land between the sacred mountains.
About this record
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.
Dates and authorship follow standard scholarly references; for many ancient works both are approximate or disputed.