Changing Woman Goes West and Makes the Clans

Before reading

This episode is summarised from Matthews's Navaho Legends (1897), Zolbrod's Diné bahaneʼ (1984), and the Diné-authored Navajo History (1971). Accounts of the origin of the clans differ by family and clan, and the version below is an outline, not the authoritative telling. Many Diné families teach that origin stories are told in winter.

The Sun's request

When the monsters have been overcome, the Sun asks Changing Woman to come and live with him. In widely published tellings she agrees on conditions: a beautiful house must be built for her in the west, on the water, furnished with everything she needs, so that she will not be lonely while he travels each day. The Sun builds the house, and Changing Woman goes to live there. Each evening the Sun returns to her in the west.

Loneliness in the west

In her house in the west, Changing Woman is lonely, and she thinks of the land to the east where the Earth Surface People are few. She decides to make more people.

The first clans

In the tellings recorded by Matthews and others, Changing Woman rubs skin from different parts of her body, from her breast, her back, and beneath her arms, and from it she forms the first people of four clans. The number and names of the first clans differ between tellings. She gives them instructions and sends them east, toward the land between the sacred mountains, with animal companions, in some tellings bears and other animals, to protect them on the way.

The journey east

The people travel east, meeting others and learning as they go, until they reach the land bounded by Sisnaajiní, Tsoodził, Dookʼoʼoosłííd, and Dibé Ntsaa. Other clans join them later, in many tellings from other peoples, which is why the clan system includes clans with origins among neighbouring nations.

Clans today

The clan system that Changing Woman began remains central to Diné life. A Diné person introduces themselves by four clans: the mother's clan, to which one belongs; the father's clan, for which one is born; the maternal grandfather's clan; and the paternal grandfather's clan. Clan relationships determine kinship, marriage, and responsibilities, and the introduction by clans is a daily reminder of the story of Changing Woman.

Changing Woman today

Changing Woman remains in the west, and she continues to grow old and young again with the seasons. She is honoured as the mother of the Diné, and her story connects the renewal of the earth, the coming of age of girls, and the identity of every Diné person.

A note on sources

Matthews recorded one account of the clans' origins in the 1880s; Diné clan histories are far richer and more varied than any published summary, and many belong to particular clans and families. This site does not attempt to list the clans or tell their individual histories.