() (also spelled ''Ahsonnutli'', ''Estsanatlehi'', and ''Etsanatlehi'' in older sources), meaning "the woman who changes",
is one of the
creation spirits of the
Navajo. According to the Navajos, she created the Navajo people by taking old skin from her body and using her mountain soil bundle (a bag made of four pieces of buckskin, brought by her father from the underworld) to create four couples, who are the ancestors of the four original Navajo clans.
She helped create the sky and the earth.
She is the mother of twins
Monster Slayer and
Born for Water (fathered by the sun).
In English sources she is usually named Changing Woman.
Her parents were Long Life Boy and Happiness Girl, who "represent the means by which all life passes through time."
She is associated with a young Navajo woman's entry into puberty, and the , a four-day rite at that time. Changing Woman is celebrated in the
Blessing Way, a Navajo prayer ceremony that brings fortune and long life.
In the
American Southwest
The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural region of the United States that generally includes Arizona, New Mexico, and adjacent portions of California, Colorado ...
, she is also known as Whiteshell Woman (who, in some accounts, is her sister), Turquoise Woman, Abalone Woman, and Jet Woman. Other names include White Painted Woman (from the
Apache), Iatiku (from the
Keresans), and Moon Woman (from the
Pawnee Pawnee initially refers to a Native American people and its language:
* Pawnee people
* Pawnee language
Pawnee is also the name of several places in the United States:
* Pawnee, Illinois
* Pawnee, Kansas
* Pawnee, Missouri
* Pawnee City, Nebraska ...
).
See also
*
Diné Bahaneʼ
( nv, "Story of the People"), the Navajo creation myth, describes the prehistoric emergence of the Navajo as a part of the Navajo religious beliefs. It centers on the area known as the Dinétah, the traditional homeland of the Navajo, and form ...
References
External links
Earth's Sacred Wonders; Visions of the Divine, Episode 3PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
Navajo mythology
Creator goddesses
Goddesses of the indigenous peoples of North America
{{NorthAm-myth-stub