Mountain Places

Mountain Places

Báshzhiné Dził or Dził Łigai Sí'án White Mountain, 

Dzil Nchaa Si An. I don’t really know anything about these things and if you want to know you should make yourself strong with the pollen i was talking about, that grows on the mountain we will visit to together soon. There are people we are praying for right now that they will become strong. This divine mother knows their names. What we will not be able to do, she will do. So that is all I have been saying since Eileen and Josh were by my side and we would go up to the spring where the oaks and manzanita grow. There were root beer flowers and indian rice grass circles in the red sand. We would feed Sally’s horses and walk down to Easton’s. Susan and Steve were making sweats and we were not afraid of anything because we loved each other. 

Owning the Peace Pilgrim way. Every twelve years with the Saturn return, the holy people wandering star returns up there in the sky. We do same, return and deep within our wellbeing we work to complete our vow to return to mountain places we been to visited before to visit again. Think back to your own rites of passage and changes. You can see the messaging birth, age 12, age 24, age 36, age 48, age 60. All different kinds of things happening at different times in your life, not all different not all the same. Grateful with this commune of sharing at different ages. Singing praying from bottom of mountain to where you go near the top, to renew your promises made before. At the bottom you are praying with creosote aristilochia mesquite looking up at the four directions, while on the top you are praying with pine pollen, cedars looking down in all four directions. What you are doing is paying attention to everything especially your special intentions for the persons, plants and place in the will, in the heart, in the mind, with all the senses to break out love our people, love our place, these plants and mountains. Why am I here? Where am I going? How to do it in the best way? In my thoughts are wellbeing for everyone without exception. This is the rejuvenation wellbeing blessing thankful way. Of course every year when the estafiate comes up we renew, we rejuvenate it calling it the wind, wood liver energy. The rejuvenation like that of Mother Earth happens each year at springtime. So in this way, I happened to be praying for a long time going back and forth for everyone wanting to follow the Wild Herb Ways and for someone named ‘M’ becaused he was supposed to be teaching about the plants. When praying you can not care about effecting a specific change in a specific person because they have free will and what they want to do is what they are going to do based on what is in their mind and in their heart. If you send positive wellbeing and they want to embrace the selfishness of individualism for their own not wanting to have all things in common in a commune Wild Herb Ways sharing all ownership, then you let it go. It was a time of war and a cult had taken over so everyone was on edge, arguing, talking in a loud angry voice, pacing back and forth, yelling and screaming when normally whatever it was would not even be noticed at all. Even women who you would expect to be taking care of babies and baking cookies or making sandwiches were quarrelsome and yelling with a loud voice or strapping items on between their legs creating monsters, carrying knives and guns, drinking like sailors on shore leave. Women were pretending to be men and men were pretending to be women and no one could tell which was which. There was  imbalance and the seasons would go from winter to summer then back to winter. 

      I am talking now about the mountain in the south west, three mountains together like waves on the water, each with saguaro at the base, creosote into juniper and oaks, growth into pine and spruce. There are three mountains together in the south west each one a nicely sitting there mountain there whose feet are in La Gobernadra meadows, waving green with five pointed yellow flowers, waving, big cactus trees with sweet fruit, cholla. Below is the south Gila river with cottonwood trees between them, to south east a Black mountain, farther north is the Rio Grande north and south to Magdalena in the north east then west north to Sierra Blanca, Escadillo and another great mountain lying down in the north west. These are the four sacred mountain areas. Somewhere at the top of each of these mountains is a gourd dipper, filled with water, connected to the north star man and the woman Cassiopeia who are a couple working to pool the water of springs and rivers that flow down to the valleys below. All these sacred mountains must be filled with water by prayers. If they are not filled with prayers then the snow will not come, the rivers will barely flow and dusty wind will make the people angry and no good for working together. We have seen this working to punish them with the damn at Glen Canyon, where the lake and damn are drying up. Where there were many power plants burning coal to better the lives of our people so they could control their destiny with electricity and running water. NGS Navajo Generating Station near Li’chi, San Juan Generating station at Shiprock, Four Corners Generating Station, Cholla Power Plant now they are gone and the high paying jobs are gone. A man could work and have a family with children and they go to colleges. First they closed the mines and tore all the power plants down.  Then the regime government brought in opium, fentanyl, crystal methamphetamine and marijuana to further enslave and destroy with the cult of violent for profit mechanized war star stripe flag waving.

     We call the earth by this name, Mary, for she never grows old. When her age began to show, she simply walked toward the east until she saw her form coming toward herself. She kept walking until her young self merged with her aging self and then, renewed, returned to her home. Among us who proclaim the commune peace pilgrim life born of free will, the name of this eternal was pastel drawn with colored pencil Woman. The colour of sky above us is turquoise blue sky. She wears the sky-goddess cape dazzle blue. She is wife girl friend lover of the sun. She becomes for us the divana pastora, the divine shepherdess. She is the keeper or animals of chipmunks and ground moles, of rabbits and cottontails, of fox, bob cat, wolf and bear. She is the keeper herder of sheep, cows, deer, antelope, elk, buffalo and elk. She becomes for us the queen of the flower world of flowers, coming every spring as Easter La Dama azul. She becomes for us the mistress of animals, The Lady in blue. As we consider ourselves those of us above ground under the mantle of blue, we make it clear by becoming clear, standing with the green, in all directions. This is our journey to peace through peace may all be well, This is the rejuvenation wellbeing blessing thankful way. ings always. She becomes the pregnant sky woman, Virgo, fertile mother La Señora of the night zodiac stars about to give birth, clothed with glory of moon light. She stands with the moon, as the moon supporting both her feet. On her head of beauty is a wreath crown of the 12 star signs along the ecliptic we know as the zodiac, strewn across the dark purple thread she weaves of sky, that are the three fates past, present and future. She becomes for us  la gobernadora. She becomes for us the Larrea tridentata, creosote bush waving in the wind. She becomes for us the she being the queen on mescal bajada flats, greening of queens, flower of flowers, La Dama azul. The Lady in blue. As we consider those of us above ground under the mantle of blue, we stand with the green, in all directions, may all be well, This is the rejuvenation wellbeing blessing thankful way, blessings always. She became the pregnant sky woman, Virgo, La Señora, clothed with glory of sun light. She stands as the moon supporting both her feet. 

      The men We and I were told, so I tell you that they were doing something together, arranging all the stars in the sky. All the stars were laid out on the floor, like a giant puzzle in one hundred pieces. So you had to be careful walking around or you might bump the stars. They put up the Pleiades so in the eastern sky marking it for the first frosts of Autumn and the bear stars with Polaris turning around. They had a lot of good ideas and were doing good work, rearranging the stars of the night sky so everyone could understand what would happen next after that. Before they could finish a coyote walked in. He came by and was dressed in a man’s clothes, he wandered in and lifted his leg, peeing on the floor, near the door way and everyone said, “Why are you pissing in the house?” So coyote said, “What are you doing with all the stars on the floor? I have some ideas on how all the stars should go.” Before they could do anything he started wagging his tail, making a loud barking voice and howling and yap yapping and chasing chipmunk, gila monster and robin knocking over all the pieces of the puzzle. All the stars got pushed around in a big mess like they are today. 

     Then Mary is called changing Adzaas'unnadli said she would do something for a remedy. Thinking she would do it where the Sun first shone in the morning, she seated herself there. She was doing this because she liked it, to be a mother and carry life, so that people might live in a good way. Also she was doing it because to feel good is a power and strength and something people do in normal everyday situations. There were few people and she thought there should be many and she did it for that reason too.

      There were many cliff houses, stone houses, hummingbirds nests filled with white shell eggs guarded by gila monsters, squirrel houses with pine nuts, pine cone chipmunk areas, owls hooting, robins hopping, agave and sotol houses, deer and elk houses, cougar, bob cat and bear houses there. The Great Teacher is a bioregional vitalist teacher of Wild Herb Ways, a peace pilgrim wellbeing advocate teaching love, compassion and empowerment strategies within the war cult dividend. Who being together in a communal supportive environment  authenticate caring embraces Sun sky father as the good shepherd who knows his sheep and the sheep know him. Mary maiden Mary went from the settlement to the top of a high mountain and went where the rays of the rising Sun first strike. Mary used her free will and choice to exist and become for her people. She seduced the Sun and joined herself together. She raised her skirt and the “breath” of the Sun which is wind of the Holy Ghost at her choosing over took her entered her. She went up the mountain four consecutive mornings, and four times the breath of the Sun penetrated her. This girl who had never been married became pregnant and the people were making remarks about it.

         The way that I described, is the way that teachers often work with a plant in order for us to hang out, spend time in a rather relaxed way, with the plant and understand the plant intuitively and experientially. This plant, like all plants is a living being, made by Creator and often times when you approach the plant you want to speak with Creator. Have a conversation between yourself, Creator, and the plant in terms of describing your condition and your intentions for use. Or simply use the plant, as it is, using your sense of taste, smell, touch, sight. Depending on your tradition, and what you are comfortable with, you want to focus on several things, our Creator, the plant which is part of creation as we are, and the specific person for who you are gathering. The idea is that we need to understand the plant within creation made by Creator and then what you are doing, why you're there, and what you're doing. Of course it's possible to just gather the plant, without any woo woo mumbo jumbo. Use the plant, buy the plant at a store and use the plant and never see where it grows, Seattle, Miami, Detroit Michigan, Florida or Albany, New York City, Miami, Chicago, Pahrump, Panguitch, Bitter Water, many places you will go to spread peace and love for your families. 

     It's up to you. For me though this is my approach according to my spiritual background and herbal understanding. Our Creator has created something with this plant, and you are going to create something too with this plant. To do no harm and share the possibility of mitigation of suffering by these herbs, as we are taught, to forgive but never forget. In the sense of not doing the same mistakes over and over. Yet it’s important not to be too heavy handed, Larrea tridentata is the southwest. It defines the south west, it is everywhere. It is plentiful. Many times with wild harvested plants there are serious sustainability issues, ethics of harvesting a wild plant. Considerations such as sustainability, endangered plants, wild harvesting are not at all part of dealing with creosote because of its extreme availability. 

     It's good to work, if you can, with the plant itself, yourself and practice getting into how the plant works in a face to face way directly where the plant grows. 

nadazdi. The Mogollon Mountain, in New Mexico., north of Silver City. Tsegqtee Near Reserve, New Mexico., the north end of Mogollon Mountain.

She became pregnant. She and the one walking around back and forth across the sky, were the only ones who understood about fertility and healing. After nine months she gave birth to a child there where she sat. She went back to the place with her child early each morning for four mornings and on the fourth, the child walked back with her. He was entirely dressed as he walked back with her.

     

     You must know she lives in a turquoise tent palace at the glowing orange western horizon, where each night she beds down her luminous husband, the Sun. She has sister twin or double vagina of Yolkai Estsan, the moon's wife, Estsanatlehi was able to make herself young each time she began to age, accomplishing this in thirty days, so women have this time every month thus her name, the "self-renewing one keeper of mistress of animals, queen of flowers”. 

       On Earth, as in Heaven, full of beauty and balance, the first man and the first woman had a child, Change Woman, also known as the White-painted Woman or Asdzą́́ Nádle. She is accompanied by items flowing from the mouth and tongue that are words and speech and thought, both of which are in a bundle that Change Woman inherits. Change Woman is the mother of twins, she defeats the monsters, and is born for the water. She is the gift of the Gila Monster. At the end of four days Change Woman went up the hill and met with the sun, who asked her to go away and build him a house in the west. She agreed on the condition that she build a house as big as the one she had in the east, and that her sons had told her about. "I want it made floating in the western water," he said, ""from the shore so that in the future, when the people increase, they will not bother me with too many visits. I want all kinds of white stone shells, turquoise, halite, jet, soapstone, agate, and red stone planted around my house, so that they will grow and increase. Then I will be alone there and have nothing to do, for my sons and sister will go with me. Give me animals to go with. All this for me and I will go with you to the west." He promised her all these things and she made elk, buffalo, deer, long-tailed deer, mountain sheep, jackrabbits and prairie dogs to go with her. When she started for her new home, some divine people went with her to help her guide her animals, which were now in excess and increasing daily. At Black Mountain the buffalo broke away from the herd and fled to the east; They never returned and are still in the east. Sometimes the elk went east and never came back. Sometimes a few of the antelope, deer and other herd animals left and wandered east. After a while the woman changed to the big water in the west and went to her floating home beyond the shore. Here she still lives and here the sun meets her when her journey is done, each day as it crosses the sky

A house had been built for her, designed in various colors on the outside, and inside a ladder had been provided. The purpose of this was that she would live by the strength of this food. and too a white shell cornstalk and a turquoise cornstalk were set at her entrance and were made as uprights of the entrance. Their purpose was to make all things known to her. Pollen flowed down on the one to the east and on the one to the west. So at the tip of the one a bluebird regularly gave its call, at the tip of the other a cornbeetle regularly called. One would call regularly in the morning, the other at noon, one in the evening, another at midnight, and one at dawn. They had been made to do just that.

Estsa-eson stroked her hair and face and body to make her good and strong. Then they gave her the lamb that Kai de-Tizi had brought her, and she held it to her bosom, as she had laid it on the blanket. Begochiddy asked the people what name they would give this girl, but all were silent. And while they watched her, she grew older and older until she was a bent woman, and even as they watched her, she grew younger again, and changed before their eyes four times from youth to age, but in the fourth change she remained about twenty years old and she was very beautiful. Begochiddy called the white-haired woman Yultkay Stan, and the rest of the people called her by that name. From this time on, she could always be as old or as young as she wanted, and for this reason she was also called Estsa-ah-lehi, or the Changing Woman. Then he rose from the heap of clothes and returned the lamb to Kay-des-tizhi, the Man-wrapped-in-a-Rainbow. And the people turned their backs to him, and he went to each one and took his head in his hand and lifted them a little and thanked them for their gift. Begdey gave him a large basket full of flowers and gave the flowers to the people who put them in their hair and all were happy and grateful again. In the basket of flowers which he passed around were many poison grasses called Johnjilway, Toh-owhetso, Asgai-binee, Ajah-tohee, but no one received them; they only received the good flowers and the poison grasses were returned to Hogan. The person to whom the ceremony is being given sits to the south of it, the drawings and painting and sings, what I believe is the symbol of Estsan-ah-Lehi, the transforming woman, who never appears in any painting, although she is very sacred. This symbolic object is an ear of corn, strung on strings of turquoise, white shell, and other beads. The short little one, a medicine man living on the eastern side of the Boy, gave the following origin of the sand used in her ritual of blessing from the White sand Range below the osha mountain. This is the rejuvenation wellbeing blessing thankful way. blessing the chant: The story begins with the White Shell Woman. The people of the land had the chant and prayer belonging to Hozhonji, but because they had no painting to guide them, they were constantly mistaken. The White Shell Woman told them that she would help them and would “read” upon them, and use good words upon them, and arrange their arms and legs in a good way, in a blessing way and teach them the painting, the osprey qigong exercises.

     She first took them to a white cornfield. She made her feet in the yellow pollen and then sat herself under a stalk of corn. This corn cob she had planted in the center of the cornfield. Here she said all the chants and prayers and when she was finished, a blue bird came and perched on the cornflower bowl and sang. In this way she knew that she had done everything perfectly. During the night, the White Shell Woman prayed and the next day she made her second painting of her house from the clouds. He built the cloud house again and the chair and the place for the medicine basket. This done, he took the chair and placed a medicine basket full of sputum in front of him and took off his clothes, washed and bathed his body and hair. He finished with a chant and a prayer and then told the people of Earth that he had now taught them the drawings and would use them for rejuvenation wellbeing blessing thankful way, blessings, crops, more children or whatever.

     Water of the sunset. "When all the tribes had been established on this present earth, the Sun said to Changing Woman, `Your work here is finished; you must now go to the place of the sunset, where, far out over the great waters, I have built a house for you. I will send powerful guards with you the Hail, the Thunder, the Lightning, and the Water Ruler. The Wind, the Rain, the Clouds, and the Light have helped me make a beautiful house for you, and I wish you to live where I can meet you in the evening.' This house was built on a beautiful island called `Land that Floats on the Water.' In it were four rooms on each of its four floors, for which there were ladders of black jet, white shell, turquoise, and abalone on the four sides. On top of the house there was a multicolored thunderbird, larger than any that has ever been see, who was the chief of all thunderbirds. On his back he carried small thunderbirds of all the ceremonial colors. In the center of this palace was a large room with an altar decorated with all the colors of every flower that had bloomed and faded on earth, and with the spirits of all the birds. The main entrance was toward the east and was guarded by a white-shell rattle which gave the alarm whenever a visitor approached. To this place Changing Woman came to live forever and meet the Sun in the evenings.

    Changing Woman is also called Earth Woman and White Shell Woman. She is the source of life, the giver of sustenance and destiny to all beings. As the Earth goes through seasonal changes - from the growth of spring and summer to the dying of fall and the coming of winter - so Changing Woman can attain old age, die, and be reborn. She is the symbol of the Female Rains and the presence behind the beauty of lakes, rivers, and mountains.

In the beginning, Changing Woman was found as a baby by First Man; she was reared by First Man and First Woman. She matured quickly, and at the time of her first menstruation a puberty rite was held to which all creatures came. Each creature offered groups of songs to bring Earth Surface People into being and to enable Changing Woman to create this new race and give them the power of regeneration. This is the rite that is still held for  girls entering puberty. Dressed in white shell and molded into the most beautiful of maidens, Changing Woman was given to the Sun. Women are symbolically made into Changing Woman and are therefore wellsprings of beauty and reproduction.

Concerning Changing Woman, the Sun made the following decree: "She will attend to her children and provide their food. Everywhere I go over the Earth, she will have charge of female rain. I myself will control male rain. She will be in control of vegetation everywhere for the benefit of Earth People."

The symbol of the mother as the giver of life is most important. Out of the womb of the Earth, the Holy People emerged; from the womb of Changing Woman the ancestors came; From the womb all relationships are traced through the womb of the mother. The father brings about conception, but it is through the mother that he is related to the children. Brothers and sisters are related to each other through their having been borne in the same womb. There is a word children which means "those who came from the same womb" and which places the emphasis of parentage on the mother rather than on the father. Vegetation is considered the `dress' of the earth and the mountains, a gift bestowed at creation, a function of Changing Woman's annual rejuvenation.

   Changing Woman ('asdza' na'dlehe') is the most fascinating appealing. Sun is attractive, his character obvious and clear. Changing Woman is Woman with a mountain quality. No matter how much we know about her, the total is a great question mark. She is the mystery of reproduction, of life springing from nothing, of the last hope of the world, a riddle perpetually solved and perennially springing up anew, literally.

Although Sun's decree concerning Whiteshell Woman, another name for Changing Woman, also contributes to my opinion: "Whiteshell Woman will go where I live. . . . She will attend to her children and provide their food. Everywhere I go over the earth she will have charge of female rain. I myself will control male rain. She will be in control of vegetation everywhere for the benefit of Earth People." Mirage Talking God and xactc'e'oyan decorated her with all kinds of herbage and flowers wherever they grew.

In sandpainting Earth is set off against Sky, the two making a pair, whereas Changing Woman is really a contrast to Sun. In myth Earth and Sky are primordial, having given rise to Coyote and Badger.

The identification of Changing Woman with Whiteshell Woman is one story that represents Changing Woman as the first and ideal baby, found under supernatural conditions.

First Man reported to his wife that for four days a dark rain cloud had hovered over tc'ol'i'i, the central sacred mountain; finally, the mountain was covered with rain, an indication that supernatural events were taking place. With song he approached the place and he heard a baby cry. He discovered the baby in a cradle consisting of sky messengers-two short rainbows lay longitudinally under the baby; cross-wise at its chest and feet were red sunrays. A curved rainbow arched over the face. Wrapped in a dark cloud, the infant was covered with dark, blue, yellow, and white clouds, held in by side lacings of zigzag lightning with a sunbeam laced through them.

First Man did not know what to do with the baby and took it home to First Woman who, with the aid of Mirage Talking God, reared it.

The eyes of the newly found babe were black as charcoal and there was no blemish (impurity) anywhere on its body. First Man and Talking God agreed that it should be fed on collected pollen moistened with game broth and the dew of beautiful flowers. According to Matthews, Salt Woman said she wanted the child and, presumably, it was given to her. It is thought that since there was no one to nurse it, Sun fed it on pollen. Nourished on such supernatural fare, it grew remarkably fast, developing with miraculous speed.

Changing Woman's adolescence ceremony was the first and most elaborate ever performed, and set a precedent for the future. Ceremonially dressed in whiteshell, the young girl was named-there was an argument about the names Changing Woman and Whiteshell Woman; both were retained-and she was modeled by kneading and pressing; thus she became the most beautiful maiden that ever existed. The entire effort was to make her pleasing to Sun; a cake was baked for his benefit and for him she ran several times to the east. At the appearance of her second menses there was a ceremony at which she raced for Moon's benefit. A rainbow, undoubtedly Sun's messenger, indicating approval of the ceremony, spoke to her: "This is truly Whiteshell Woman" Since from this point on, various tales agree about the essential features of Changing Woman's life and attainment of power, we may pause for a moment to consider a different story of her origin.

The people had been wandering and so many had been devoured by the monsters that only four, an old man and woman and their two children, a young man and woman, were left. They found a small image of a woman fashioned in turquoise. Talking God appeared to the people, bidding them to come to the top of tc'ol'i'i in four days. There they found an assembly of the gods. They had brought the turquoise image with them, and White Body, the counterpart of Talking God, had one nearly like it made of whiteshell. Talking God and xactc'e'oyan transformed the turquoise image into Changing Woman, the whiteshell image into Whiteshell Woman. At the same time they transformed an ear of white corn into White-corn-boy and an ear of yellow corn into Yellow-corn-girl. Then the company dispersed, the gods taking the boy and girl with them and leaving Changing Woman and Whiteshell Woman alone on the mountain.

The stories include Changing Woman's attempt to have intercourse by exposing herself to sunlight and water. People did not yet understand sexual relations, but the girl who had just reached puberty in the one case, the two maidens in the other, had sexual desire.

After Changing Woman had had intercourse with Sun, First Woman warned her of the danger in going away from home alone. She answered, "I am not entirely without knowledge," indicating that Changing Woman was endowed with supernatural power which did not depend upon instruction. Going to gather seeds, she met the white creature on a white horse with white trappings who turned out to be Sun. He instructed her to meet him in an especially prepared brush shelter. First Man built this for her and Sun visited her four successive nights, after which she became pregnant (Ch. 3; Goddard, p. 153; Haile 1938b, p. 91; Matthews 1897, pp. 105, 231; Reichard, Shooting Chant ms.).

Until the world had been cleared of monsters, Changing Woman's home was at tco'l'i'i.

Numerous references agree that living was hard and required a great deal of labor, subsistence consisting primarily of seeds, berries, and small rodents. The story after the first departure of The Twins concerns Changing Woman slightly. For some time she evidently pursued an ordinary woman's life, keeping the home to which the boys returned to report, to rest, and to get new strength and information about the next adventures.

After they had killed the worst of the monsters, Monster Slayer and Child-of-the-water made a second visit to Sun because there were still numerous lesser evils which had not been overcome. Sun gave them five hoops-black, blue, yellow, white, and varicolored-to each of which a large knife of the same color was attached; in addition, he gave them four great hailstones colored like the first four hoops, telling them to ask their mother what to do with them. Changing Woman, protesting that she had never been visited by Sun but had seen him only at a great distance, said she would try to do something with the hoops. By means of the hoops, hailstones, and knives she caused a fierce storm calculated to find every evil and danger no matter how well hidden. She said that now all evil was conquered; when Wind whispered the name of Old Age into Monster Slayer's ear, she would answer no question about it, even when asked the fourth time. The episode led to the tolerance of the powers 'somewhere between good and evil' 

Although she had borne the children destined to kill the monsters, which feats made them the chief war gods with power against all foreign dangers, Changing Woman stood for peace. When the gods assembled to consider the war between Dark Thunder and Winter Thunder, Changing Woman was the first to enter. As soon as the subject was broached, she said decisively, "I did not bear these children to go to war, but to rid the world of monsters." Thereupon Monster Slayer stood up and said, "I shall not go to war with you. My mother is not in favor." Child-of-the-water refused to go for the same reason.

Changing Woman participates in many events, but it is impossible to get them into temporal sequence; indeed, it is not necessary to do so, since she and her decrees are immortal. A secondary theme, the removal of Changing Woman to the west, is almost as important as the primary.

The Twins had overcome the major obstacles to human life upon the earth, and Sun, in reallocating many of the gods, particularly wanted Changing Woman to live in the west, where he had provided a luxurious dwelling for her. Numerous attempts were made at persuasion, the house being described as unusually beautiful, a duplicate of Sun's house at the east. A horse made of a jewel substance belonged to each of the respective directions; there was a jet horse in the center at the root of a perfect cornstalk, which had twelve ears on each side. On the cornstalk's top sat a black songbird. Food was to consist of pollens, the precious stones, and sacred waters. As a final inducement, eternal youth and the road of perfection (sa'a na'yai bike xojo'n) were offered, but even these did not affect Changing Woman.

The gift of power over rain and vegetation, the enumeration of the most desirable garments and ornaments all failed to move her, as did even the disrespectful words of Monster Slayer's counterpart, Reared-in-the-earth, when he told her she had no sense. When, finally, war power-flashing, rattling flint armor and threatening words-was invoked, she consented.

The leader of the party spoke to her gently and told her that she was frustrating her own plan, for she herself had suggested the assignment of the Holy People to different places. She put up a plaintive plea, although she had actually given in: "Perhaps there is no one there and I may be lonesome." She was assured that the Holy Sky People would often meet at her place, and final directions were given for the removal.

Sun asks her consent as a reward for his help to The Twins. Her control over her powerful husband and sons is demonstrated by her indignation at the thought that the boys could make a promise for her or that they should think that anything Sun had done would benefit her. In this version Changing Woman described the house she would accept in the west. She wanted it to be on an island reasonably far from shore, so that numerous people would not bother her. She would have the animals for company. Sun granted all requests.

Changing Woman's power over reproduction and birth extends to all that exists on the earth. Becoming lonely in the home in the west, she created new people and directed them how to reach their relatives in the east.

Many of Changing Woman's gifts are rites or ceremonies, not fully enumerated here. Her decrees are kind. She gave man many songs, created the horse, decreed fertility and sterility. She was present at Rainboy's chant, where she made suds for his bath and laid out his clothes, and at another time brought in ceremonial food. Her presence at an assembly of the gods is pointed out with special respect; other gods bow their heads when she comes in.

The simple rite in which the chanter leads the patient onto the sandpainting of the last day of the Shooting Chant represents the perpetual rejuvenation of Changing Woman. The Eagle Chant story includes an incident of creation. Changing Woman was living on Whirling Mountain, where her five hogans have since become rock. She rubbed epidermis from under her breast and created two women, Whiteshell Woman and Turquoise Woman, who became the wives of Monster Slayer.

RP's Bead Chant story explains that Changing Woman was the mother of five daughters, one of whom was Bead Woman, whose son was Scavenger, hero of the chant.

     The story of The Twins, Whiteshell Woman was the sister of Changing Woman, who The Twins believed was their mother, although she was really their mother's sister. When they journeyed to the east, they found the house of Sun's wife, which is of whiteshell. It is impossible to tell whether this wife was the same woman who, living on the earth, advised them to go to Sun, or whether there are more than one of a kind. However this may be, she was angry at Sun when he returned at night, and questioned him about his behavior on earth, an attitude stereotyped for Sun's sky wife.

After the creation from the stone images, Whiteshell Woman lived with Changing Woman (who, because she was created at the same time, was her sister) on Whirling Mountain, and was the mother of the younger 'Twin,' Child-of-the-water. Whiteshell Woman figured in the life of the children only in a minor capacity. One day, after the children had been discovered and Big Monster had been deceived by Changing Woman, Whiteshell Woman went to the top of a hill to look about and saw a number of monsters hurrying in the direction of their home. She reported to her sister, who raised such a storm that the monsters had to turn back. When Changing Woman was ready to depart for the west, Whiteshell Woman chose to go to La Plata Mountain. For five days she wandered about, consumed with loneliness, until Talking God and the other gods took pity upon her and created more people from corn. Perhaps to indicate that this is a secondary or subsidiary creation, the text continues: "No songs were sung and no prayers were uttered during the rites, which were all performed in one day."

Whiteshell

The next morning the people looked for her in vain. They believed she had gone to tseyi' where she stayed for a time before she went to La Plata Mountain to dwell forever in the house of whiteshell that had been prepared for her. The little girl had a dream in which Whiteshell Woman came to her and said, "My grandchild, I am going to La Plata to dwell. I would take you with me for I love you, were it not that your parents would mourn for you. But look always for me in the gentle rain when it comes near your dwelling, for I will be in it."

In the Eagle Chant, Whiteshell Woman is the sister of Turquoise Woman, both created by Changing Woman from epidermis rubbed from under her breast. Theirs, like the story of all these primordial women, is a tale of wandering and hiding to escape monsters, of a quest for food meagerly rewarded, and of incredible loneliness. Eventually Talking God and xactc'e'oyan gave them corn. Monster Slayer visited their camp and taught them the use of game, eventually taking them to his home as his wives. He showed them how to cleanse themselves ritualistically and gave them beautiful clothes. He provided them with long hair and eyebrows, bright eyes, and smiling mouths.

The Corn Maidens, who with their urban big city dominant culture tricks won Monster Slayer away from Whiteshell Woman and Turquoise Woman, looked exactly like them, and it was only by their bold manners that they could be distinguished from the Navaho girls. Here, then, is an instance of sub-identification: Changing Woman made two girls who were close models of herself and they were for a long time superseded by two other girls sent by Deer Owner who were their replicas