The Navajo creation story involves three underworlds where important events happened to shape the Fourth World where we now live.

The Navajo were given the name Ni’hookaa Diyan Diné by their creators. It means “Holy Earth People” or “Lords of the Earth”. Navajos today simply call themselves “Diné”, meaning “The People”. The Tewa Indians were the first to call them “Navahu”, which means “the large area of cultivated land”. The Mexicans knew them as “Apaches Du Nabahu” (Apaches of the Cultivated Fields), where “Apache” (Enemy) was picked up from the Zuni Indian language. The “Apaches Du Nabahu” were known as a special group somewhat distinct from the rest of the Apaches. Alonso de Benavides changed the name to “Navaho” in a book written in 1630. The English name the Diné officially use for themselves is “Navajo”. Recently, Navajos have been referring to call themselves by their original name, “Diné”.

According to the Diné, they emerged from three previous underworlds into this, the fourth, or “Glittering World”, through a magic reed. The first people from the other three worlds were not like the people of today. They were animals, insects or masked spirits as depicted in Navajo ceremonies. First Man (‘Altsé Hastiin), and First Woman (‘Altsé ‘Asdzáá), were two of the beings from the First or Black World. First Man was made in the east from the meeting of the white and black clouds. First Woman was made in the west from the joining of the yellow and blue clouds. Spider Woman (Na ashje’ii ‘Asdzáá), who taught Navajo women how to weave, was also from the first world.

Once in the Glittering World, the first thing the people did was build a sweat house and sing the Blessing Song. Then they met in the first house (hogan) made exactly as Talking God (Haashch’eelti’i) had prescribed. In this hogan, the people began to arrange their world, naming the four sacred mountains surrounding the land and designating the four sacred stones that would become the boundaries of their homeland. In actuality, these mountains do not contain the symbolic sacred stones. The San Francisco Peaks (Dook’o'oslííd), represents the Abalone and Coral stones. It is located just north of Flagstaff, and is the Navajo’s religious western boundary. Mt. Blanco (Tsisnaasjini’), in Colorado, represents the White Shell stone, and represents the Navajo’s religious eastern boundary. Mt. Taylor (Tsoodzil), east of Grants, New Mexico, represents the Turquoise stone, and represents the Navajo’s religious southern boundary. Mt. Hesperus (Dibé Nitsaa), in Colorado, represents the Black Jet stone, and represents the Navajo’s religious northern boundary. Pictures of these sacred mountains can be found by clicking here.

After setting the mountains down where they should go, the Navajo deities, or “Holy People”, put the sun and the moon into the sky and were in the process of carefully placing the stars in an orderly way. But the Coyote, known as the trickster, grew impatient from the long deliberations being held, and seized the corner of the blanket where it lay and flung the remaining stars into the sky.

The Holy People continued to make the necessities of life, like clouds, trees and rain. Everything was as it should be when the evil monsters appeared and began to kill the new Earth People. But a miracle happened to save them, by the birth of Ever Changing Woman (Asdzaa Nadleehe) at Gobernador Knob (Ch’óol’í’í), New Mexico.

Changing Woman grew up around El Huerfano Mesa (Dzil Na’oodilii), in northern New Mexico. She married the Sun and bore two son, twins, and heroes to the Navajo people. They were known as “Monster Slayer” and “Child-Born-of-Water”. The twins traveled to their father the Sun who gave them weapons of lighting bolts to fight the dreaded monsters. Every place the Hero Twins killed a monster it turned to stone. An example of this is the lave flows near Mt. Taylor in New Mexico, believed to be the blood from the death of Ye’iitsoh, or the “Monster who Sucked in People”. All of the angular rock formations on the reservation, such as the immense Black Mesa (Dzil Yíjiin), are seen as the turned-to-stone bodies of the monsters.

With all of the monsters dead, the Navajo deities, or “Holy People”, turned their attention to the making of the four original clans. Kiiyaa aanii, or Tall House People, was the first clan. They were made of yellow and white corn. Eventually other clans traveled to the area round the San Juan River, bring their important contributions to the tribe. Some were Paiutes who brought their beautiful baskets. Others were Pueblos who shared their farming and weaving skills. Still others were Utes and Apaches.

For her husband, the “Sun”, to visit her every evening, Changing Woman went to live in the western sea on an island made of rock crystal. Her home was made of the four sacred stones: Abalone, White Shell, Turquoise, and Black Jet. During the day she became lonely and decided to make her own people. She made four clans from the flakes of her skin. These were known as the Near Water People, Mud People, Salt Water People, and Bitter Water People. When these newly formed clans heard that there were humans to the east who shared their heritage, they wanted to go meet them.

Changing Woman gave her permission for them to travel from the western sea to the San Francisco Peaks. They then traveled through the Hopi mesas where they left porcupine, still commonly found there today. Then they traveled toward the Chuska Mountains and on to Mt. Taylor. Finally, the people arrived at Dinetah, the Diné traditional homeland, and joined the other clans already living there. Dinetah is located in the many canyons that drain the San Juan River about 30 miles east of Farmington, New Mexico.

http://www.lapahie.com/Creation.cfm

The first people came up through three worlds and settled in the fourth world. They had been driven from each successive world because they had quarreled with one another and committed adultery. In previous worlds they no other people like themselves, but in the fourth world they found the Kisani or Pueblo people.

The surface of the fourth world was mixed black and white, and the sky was mostly blue and black. There were no sun, no moon, no stars, but there four great snow-covered peaks on the horizon in each of the cardinal directions.

Late in the autumn they heard in the east the distant sound of a great voice calling. They listened and waited, and soon heard the voice nearer and louder than before. Once more they listened and heard it louder still, very near. A moment later four mysterious beings appeared. These were White Body, god of this world; Blue Body, the sprinkler; Yellow Body; and Black Body, the god of fire. Using signs but without speaking, the gods tried to instruct the people, but they were not understood. When the gods had gone, the people discussed their mysterious visit and tried without success to figure out the signs. The gods appeared on four days in succession and attempted to communicate through signs, but their efforts came to nothing.

On the fourth day when the other gods departed, Black Body remained behind and spoke to the people in their own language: “You do not seem to understand our signs, so I must tell you what they mean. We want to make people who look more like us. You have bodies like ours, but you have the teeth, the feet, and the claws of beasts and insects. The new humans will have hands and feet like ours. Also, you are unclean; you smell bad. We will come back in twelve days. Be clean when we return.”

On the morning of the twelfth day the people washed themselves well. Then the women dried their skin with yellow cornmeal, the men with white cornmeal. Soon they heard the distant call, shouted four times, of the approaching gods. When the gods appeared, Blue Body and Black Body each carried a sacred buckskin. White Body carried two ears of corn, one yellow, one white, each completely covered with grains. The gods laid one buckskin on the ground with the head to the west, and on this they placed the two ears of corn with their tips to the east. Over the corn they spread the other buckskin with its head to the east. Under the white ear they put the feather of a white eagle; under the yellow ear the feather of a yellow eagle. Then they told the people to stand back and allow the wind to enter. Between the skins the white wind blew from the east and the yellow wind from the west. While the wind was blowing, eight of the gods, the Mirage People, came and walked around the objects on the ground four times. As they walked, the eagle feathers, whose tips protruded from the buckskins, were seen to move. When the Mirage People had finished their walk, the upper buckskin was lifted. The ears of corn had disappeared; a man and a woman lay in their place.

The white ear of corn had become the man, the yellow ear the woman, First Man and First Woman. It was the wind that gave them life, and it is the wind that comes out of our mouths now that gives us life. When this ceases to blow, we die.

The gods had the people build an enclosure of brushwood, and when it was finished, First Man and First Woman went in. The gods told them, “Live together now as husband and wife. “At the end of four days, First Woman gave birth to hermaphrodite twins. In four more days she gave birth to a boy and a girl, who grew to maturity in four days and lived with one another as husband and wife. In all, First Man and First Woman had five pairs of twins, and all except the first became couples who had children.

In four days after the last twins were born, the gods came again and took First Man and First Woman away to the eastern mountain, dwelling place of the gods. the couple stayed there for four days, and when they returned, all their children were taken to the eastern mountain for four days. The gods may have taught them the awful secrets of witchcraft. Witches always use masks, and after they returned, they would occasionally put on masks and pray for the good things they needed – abundant rain and abundant crops.

Witches also marry people who are too closely related to them, which is what First Man and First Woman’s children had done. After they had been to the eastern mountain, however, the brothers and sisters separated. Keeping their first marriages secret, the brothers now married women of the Mirage People and the sisters married men of the Mirage People. But they never told anyone, even their new families, the mysteries they had learned from the gods. Every four days the women bore children, who grew to maturity in four days, then married, and in their turn had children every four days. In this way many children of First Man and First Woman filled the land with people.

Based on a legend reported by Washington Matthews in 1897.

Coyote was walking along one day when he saw some small birds playing a game. They were sliding down a hillside on a rock. As they slid they removed their eyes and tossed them up into the treetops.

Then they said, “My eyes, come back,” and the eyes returned to them.

Coyote watched them for a long time. He decided he wanted to play that game.

He trotted over to the players and said, “I want to play that game, too. Please take my eyes out.”

“No,” they all said, and went on playing.

Coyote kept begging to be allowed to play. The fourth time he asked them they said he could play.

They removed his eyes and handed them to him. As he slid down the hillside he tossed them into a tree. Then he called out, “My eyes, come back to me.”

They came back into his hands. Coyote was very excited and wanted to play again.

The small birds warned him, but he wouldn’t listen; and the fourth time he slid down the hill the eyes did not come back when he called to them.

“Where are my eyes?” he cried. “Tell me, where are my eyes? I can’t go anywhere without eyes.”

“We warned you not to play this game,” the birds told him, but they felt sorry for him.

“We could make him some eyes,” one of them said. “Let’s go get some pitch.”

They went to the forest and gathered pitch from pine “trees,, and they pressed it into Coyote’s empty eye sockets.

After a while. Coyote could see again. And he disappeared, happy that he could use his new eyes.

Not far away, some people were celebrating and feasting.  Coyote, who was hungry, swiftly approached the crowd and asked to help cook the food. They agreed; so he joined the people and assisted with the cooking. In that way he hoped to get something good to eat.

As he went close to the fire, however, his eyes began to melt. He became worried and tried to keep away from the heat. But the people urged him to stay near the fire so that he could help cook.

Coyote faced away from the flames while he tried to turn the meat cooking in the hot coals, and he grabbed a red hot piece of wood, burning his hand. He dropped the coal and yelled.

The people wondered why Coyote was afraid to get near the fire and why he picked up a hot coal. Then they noticed that Coyote’s yellow shining eyes were made of yellow pine pitch, and Coyote jumped away from the people and ran off.

That is why coyotes even today have yellow eyes.

Taken from Coyote Stories of the Navajo People, Navajo Curriculum Center Press, 1974 School Board, Inc. Rough Rock Arizona.

Coyote was walking one day when he met Old Woman. She greeted him and asked where he was headed.

“Just roaming around,” said Coyote.

“You better stop going that way, or you’ll meet a giant who kills everybody.”

“Oh, giants don’t frighten me,” said Coyote (who had never met one). “I always kill them. I’ll fight this one too, and make an end of him.”

“He’s bigger and closer than you think,” said Old Woman.

“I don’t care,” said Coyote, deciding that a giant would be about as big as a bull moose and calculating that he could kill one easily.

So Coyote said good-bye to Old Woman and went ahead, whistling a tune. On his way he saw a large fallen branch that looked like a club. Picking it up, he said to himself, “I’ll hit the giant over the head with this. It’s big enough and heavy enough to kill him.” He walked on and came to a huge cave right in the middle of the path. Whistling merrily, he went in.

Suddenly Coyote met a woman who was crawling along on the ground.

“What’s the matter?” he asked.

“I’m starving,” she said, “and too weak to walk. What are you doing with that stick?”

“I’m going to kill the giant with it,” said Coyote, and he asked if she knew where he was hiding.

Feeble as she was, the woman laughed. “You’re already in the giant’s belly.”

“How can I be in his belly?” asked Coyote. “I haven’t even met him.”

“You probably thought it was a cave when you walked into his mouth,” the woman said, and sighed. “It’s easy to walk in, but nobody ever walks out. This giant is so big you can’t take him in with your eyes. His belly fills a whole valley.”

Coyote threw his stick away and kept on walking. What else could he do?

Soon he came across some more people lying around half dead. “Are you sick?” he asked.

“No,” they said, “just starving to death. We’re trapped inside the giant.”

“You’re foolish,” said Coyote. “If we’re really inside this giant, then the cave walls must be the inside of his stomach. We can just cut some meat and fat from him.”

“We never thought of that,” they said.

“You’re not as smart as I am,” said Coyote.

Coyote took his hunting knife and started cutting chunks out of the cave walls. As he had guessed, they were indeed the giant’s fat and meat, and he used it to feed the starving people. He even went back and gave some meat to the woman he had met first. Then all the people imprisoned in the giant’s belly started to feel stronger and happier, but not completely happy. “You’ve fed us,” they said, “and thanks. But how are we going to get out of here?”

“Don’t worry,” said Coyote. “I’ll kill the giant by stabbing him in the heart. Where is his heart? It must be around here someplace.”

“Look at the volcano puffing and beating over there,” someone said.

“Maybe it’s the heart.”

“So it is, friend,” said Coyote, and began to cut at this mountain.

Then the giant spoke up. “Is that you, Coyote? I’ve heard of you. Stop this stabbing and cutting and let me alone. You can leave through my mouth; I’ll open it for you.”

“I’ll leave, but not quite yet,” said Coyote, hacking at the heart. He told the others to get ready. “As soon as I have him in his death throes, there will be an earthquake. He’ll open his jaw to take a last breath, and then his mouth will close forever. So be ready to run out fast!”

Coyote cut a deep hole in the giant’s heart, and lava started to flow out. It was the giant’s blood. The giant groaned, and the ground under the people’s feet trembled.

“Quick, now!” shouted Coyote. The giant’s mouth opened and they all ran out. The last one was the wood tick. The giant’s teeth were closing on him, but Coyote managed to pull him through at the last moment.

“Look at me,” cried the wood tick, “I’m all flat!”

“It happened when I pulled you through,” said Coyote. “You’ll always be flat from now on. Be glad you’re alive.”

“I guess I’ll get used to it,” said the wood tick, and he did.

http://eserver.org/fiction/coyote-and-the-giant.txt

In the beginning Great Grandfather Spirit had just finished creating the Earth and all the animals, and he felt pleased with his creations. After some time the animals fighting each other over witch of them will be the leader of all the other animals.

Coyote was not into fighting asked Grandfather Spirit to make a man and a women to rule over all the animals of the earth. Grandfather Spirit loved the idea and went to work on the man and woman right away. Grandfather Spirit was having a hard time coming up with an image to make man and woman in. Coyote came to him to see how the creations were coming. When he saw Grandfather Spirit having trouble with man and woman, Coyote with all his magic turned himself into a man. When the creator saw this, he thanked Coyote and went to work the man in the image Coyote showed him. Once he created man out of the Earth he then blew life into man and man came to life. Grandfather Spirit told man the he will make man a mate. Grandfather Spirit started making an image that looked exactly like the man. Coyote and said” no no no Grandfather Man won’t find a woman who looks like this attractive. Here is how a woman should look like.” then Coyote again transformed himself into am image of a woman. Grandfather Spirit studied this image and went to work on creating woman out of the earth. when done the woman looked just like the image of the woman that Coyote showed the Creator. Grandfather Spirit then blow life into the woman and man and creator said this was good. The Creator told Man and Woman that they are now the new leaders of the land and to treat the Earth and all who dwell on it like family because they all come from Mother Earth. Grandfather Spirit thanked Coyote for his help and to show his thanks he gave Coyote the more magical powers then any other animal.