Land of the People, Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah

    Article

    Land of the People, also known as Dinétah, refers to the ancestral and traditional homeland of the Navajo. Dinétah extends beyond the political boundaries of the Navajo Reservation to include traditional cultural properties that have been part of Navajo lifeways and cosmology for centuries. Four mountains, or sacred peaks, anchor Dinétah and its people: Mount Blanca (Tsisnaasjini'), Dawn or White Shell Mountain, the sacred mountain of the East, near Alamosa, Colorado; Mount Taylor (Tsoodzil), Blue Bead or Turquoise Mountain, the sacred mountain of the South, near Grants, New Mexico; the San Francisco Peaks (Doko'oosliid), Abalone Shell Mountain, the sacred mountain of the West, near Flagstaff, Arizona; and Mount Hesperus (Dibé Nitsaa) Big Mountain Sheep or Obsidian Mountain, the sacred mountain of the North, in the La Plata Mountains of Colorado.

    Photo Credit

     
    "Flag of the Navajo Nation, a map of Dinétah," by Himasaram is licensed under Public Domain.

    Term Type
    References

     
    Downs, James F.
         1972   The Land. The Navajo. Holt, Rinehart and Winston. New York.