The Changing of Diné Women
Nichole Green
Salt Lake Community College
Anthropology 2120 Sacred Traditions
April 25, 2019
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During my research, I learned that the Navajo (Diné) have many stories, myths,
and teachings that are essential tools for educating their youth about the history and
culture of their people. Stories can tell us where we came from, who we are, where we
are going and teach us how to live. Stories are significant to the Diné because if you do
not know the stories, then you are a person without a story. Without a story you have no
history, you have no people, and you have no purpose.
The Diné people have an origin story. It says that before there were people there
was only loneliness and then people were made. From there, every story and myth
builds upon their origin story. They then branch off in different directions each with its
own lessons. Their traditions are complex, and because they are passed down orally,
the myths may vary from one Navajo to the next, but the underlying meanings behind
these stories remain consistent. (McPherson, 2012) The Diné believe that the physical
world is connected with the supernatural world. Myths, stories, and metaphors are all
fundamental to the Diné way of life as they are all connected into their understanding of
their universe.
The Diné religion is grounded in stories about the Holy People. The Holy people
are unseen deities that the Navajo call upon for their advice and guidance. The Navajo
can call upon the divine powers from the holy people by using rituals, song, and
prayers. In every ceremony, corn pollen is used to communicate with the Holy People. It
is used in rituals, as a good luck charm, to ward off bad omens, and in everyday life.
(Mcpherson, 2012)
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One important Holy Person is called, Changing Woman. Changing Women is
believed to be the mother of the original Navajo people. After the emergence of the Holy
People, Changing Woman is said to have grown from an infant into a mature woman in
only about four days. She is their representation of fertility in the Navajo ceremonies.
Changing Woman is very important to the Diné. She is often looked at as the mother of
the Diné.
“Changing Woman, the central figure, is dressed in corn pollen and eats pollen.
She created the Navajos and gave them pollen as a way of living in contact with her.”
(Raitt, 1987, pg 524)
The story of Changing Woman’s maturation represents the first Kinaalda, which
is important puberty rite that Navajo girls still re-enact today. During the Kinaalda ritual,
“the girl is dressed and her hair is arranged to make her resemble Changing Woman.”
(Lincoln, 1977, pg 256)
Menstruating women can not participate in other ceremonies, and they have
restrictions on daily chores. The reason why they can not participate in a ritual is
because they believe that a menstruating woman could weaken the ceremony and
cause harm. The only ceremony that menstruating women can participate in is the
Kinaalda ceremonies because it is thought that the singer is counteracting the danger
with the Blessingway songs. (Wright, 1982)
Among the Diné a young girl's first menstruation is highly celebrated. The
Kinaalda is considered one of the most important ceremonies in their culture. During
which a young girl goes through a transformation to womanhood in the course of five
days and four nights. Kinaalda is a rite of passage ceremony for girls.
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During Kinaalda, the girl will re-enact the same ritual that Changing Woman went
through in the past. By doing this ritual, the young girl learns where she fits into the
world and where her next step in life is. During this ritual, she will learn her main
identity, how to live in the world and how reproduction works.
The Kinaalda lasts for four nights and five days. In this ritual, she is isolated from
the outside world so she can be blessed and is transformed into a woman. Kinaalda is a
ritual for girls that happens when she starts her first menstruation period. She is leaving
one part of her life and is entering the next part of her journey of life. She is leaving
childhood behind and is entering womanhood. (Wright, 1982)
During this time she will be taught everything she needs to know about what it is
that makes her a fertile woman, and she will learn her identity. She will also learn about
menstruation taboos. If the ritual is done correctly, she will become a fertile woman.
(Wright, 1982)
Each day she will run to the east, she will work hard with food preparation,
grinding Corn, being remade into a form that resembles Changing Woman.
The purpose of the Kinaalda is to educate the girl on how to participate as an
adult. With proper adult behavior, with the mythical figure, Changing Woman as a role
model. By using Changing Woman as a role model for these young girls, They will learn
how to behave like a proper adult and is a way for her to determine the next step in her
life. She will be taught everything she needs to know to go from a young girl into a
woman. Here she will learn her path, her main identity to live in the world.
The Diné believe that during this phase her body is soft enough that her
personality and body can be reshaped into a woman's body by other’s messaging her
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body to be shaped into a woman throughout the ritual. This is a form of rebirth to the
Diné. (Lincoln, 1977)
Anne Wright, in An Ethnography of the Navajo Reproductive Cycle says:
“The kinaalda is used to prevent disease and not so much as
remedy to disease; it ushers the girl into society, invokes positive blessing
on her, ensures her health, prosperity and well-being and protects her
from potential misfortunes.” (Wright, pg 54. Frisbie, 1967:9)
Corn is used in the Navajo coming of age rite and is very important in the Kinaalda.
Throughout the four day ceremony, she will prepare and grind corn that the participants
harvest themselves.
“Throughout the ceremony the girl only eats things made from corn. A fact that
only emphasizes her tie to the corn and to vegetation in general.” (Raitt, 1987 pg. 23.
Frisbie, 1967:354)
In the morning on the fourth day, a fire is built in a large circular pit in the earth. In
the evening, after the fire dies down the ashes are raked out of the pit. Corn husks are
then laid out in a circular pattern starting from the center where a cross is made to
represent the four cardinal directions. The corn cake batter that she has been making
from scratch throughout the ritual is then poured onto the husks and is covered with
another layer of corn husks, and another cross is made on top in the center for the four
cardinal directions. They then cover the cake with moist dirt and replace the ashes from
the fire on top to bake throughout the night. The fire is kept going while Blessingway
songs are sung over the girl. (Lincoln, 1977)
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“At intervals during the night corn-pollen pouches are passed
around and after each song is sung, each Navajo will take a bit of pollen
on their fingertips, touch their tongues, and the top of their heads and then
make an upward motion towards the smoke hole in the roof of the hogan.
This is done to respect the singing and keep it holy. The goal of which is to
obtain communion and harmony with the gods.” (Raitt, 1987 pg 528)
By using corn pollen in the ceremony, a holy pathway is made for the deities to come
into the ritual. Corn pollen is seen as extremely powerful to the Diné. Not anyone can
collect pollen because of its power, and only a girl can collect pollen because of its
power and while it is being collected a medicine man will sing the Corn Pollen song and
the Talking God song. By singing these songs during collection, it will infuse the pollen
and the girl with more strength. (Raitt, 1987)
The following morning the cake is served, however, she will not eat this cake
herself but will offer it to everyone who has helped her in this rite of passage as if she is
giving her own product as an offering. She will then give four pieces of the cake back to
the earth as an offering for the growing and harvesting corn in the earth. The pieces of
cake are then buried in the place that she cooked the corn cake, and now the end of the
ritual is complete. She is now considered to be ready for womanhood.
I have gained a better understanding of the Diné people by learning about their
traditional beliefs. The Diné come up with stories and myths to pass down their
knowledge to the next generation about how to live in harmony with the world. Belief,
ritual, and religion are woven together in Navajo society. They are a way of life to the
traditional Navajo.
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They believe everything has a male and female component to life opposites can
live in harmony just like male and females do. Everything has a reason that can be
explained. They believe if you follow the ways, unity will ensue for everyone and if you
don't bad things will happen, and the tip of harmony will become unbalanced, and chaos
will engulf the people. The rite of passage ritual plays into this harmony. If a young
woman does not learn and follow the ways of the people she will not be fertile and will
not produce children. If she does not know all the blood taboos in this culture, she could
tip the balance by going to a ritual while menstruating and make the ceremony not work
or cause harm to the ritual. During the Kinaalda all of the songs are in the Diné
language, so it is vital that their language is preserved.
Learning the Navajo language is very important to the Diné people because that
is who they are and without it, they wouldn't exist, and they would start blending in with
everyone else. They would be the lost people. If the youth of the Navajo don’t learn the
language of their people, stories could be lost because their elders would have no-one
to pass them on to.
Today, the Diné language and culture are being taught in schools in the Navajo
Nation. One elementary school Diné Bi’ Olta’ only teaches their students in the Diné
language and on its door leading into the school it states “Béédaałniih: Diné bizaad
bídahwiil’aah. Táadoo biligáana k’ehjí yádaalłti’í. Ahéhee’.” which means “Remember:
We are learning in Diné. Please leave your English outside. Thank you.” (NewsMaven,
2017) The traditional teachings vary with each teacher because they come from
different areas on the reservation. So the students learn multiple ways of their history.
Also, to try and bring back their culture some of the Navajo are sending their children to
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live with their grandparents so that their children will learn the language history, myths,
and stories so that they won't be lost.
I don't think I will fully understand the religious beliefs in a short period of time
that I have been studying this culture, but I want to know more. The ways of these
people have captured my attention, and I am amazed by them. The Kinaalda ceremony
reminds me of the transformation of a butterfly. The butterfly starts life as a caterpillar
and over some time transforms into a beautiful flying creature.
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References
Lincoln, Bruce. "Women's Initiation among the Navaho: Myth, Rite and Meaning."
Paideuma 23 (1977): 255-63.
http://www.jstor.org.libprox1.slcc.edu:2048/stable/40341589.
McPherson, Robert S. 2012. Dinéjí Na`nitin: Navajo Traditional Teachings and
History. Boulder, Colorado: University Press of Colorado. Kindle edition.
Raitt, Thomas M. 1987 "The Ritual Meaning of Corn Pollen among the Navajo
Indians." Religious Studies 23, no. 4 523-30.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/20019246.
Wright, Anne. "An Ethnography of the Navajo Reproductive Cycle." American
Indian Quarterly 6, no. 1/2 (1982): 52-70. doi:10.2307/1183596. https://www-
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