Navajo Mountain Chant

Navajo Mountain Chant

Nine days at the end of winter

Among the Navajo Indians of Arizona, the nine-day Mountain Chant marks a transition in the seasons. It takes place in late winter, at the end of the thunderstorms but before the spring winds arrive. The chant is also considered a healing ceremony, performed not only for individuals who are sick but to restore order and balance in human relationships.
The Mountain Chant is based on a legend that chronicles the adventures of Dsilyi Neyani, the eldest son of a wandering Navajo family. He is captured by the Utes while hunting one day, but he manages to escape. During his long journey to rejoin his family, he encounters many hazards and learns a great deal about magic and ceremonial acts—rituals that play an important role in the Mountain Chant. He is gone so long that when he finally returns, his family is now the size of a tribe and relaying his adventures to them takes several days. The rituals he brings back are so compelling that messengers are immediately dispatched to find more witnesses to what he has learned.
The Chant consists of four ceremonies, all based on the same legend. Perhaps the most moving ceremony takes place on the final day, when the medicine man emerges from the lodge or hogan at sunset and begins to chant, while a circle of evergreens eight to ten feet tall—each concealing a man holding the tree—moves to create a circular enclosure with a bonfire in the center. The bonfire is lit, and later in the evening dancers whose bodies are covered in white clay (to protect their skin from the heat) rush into the circle and perform.

CONTACTS:
Navajo Tourism Department
P.O. Box 663
Window Rock, AZ 86515
928-810-8501; fax: 928-810-8500
www.discovernavajo.com

SOURCES:
DancingGods-1931, p. 208
HolSymbols-2009, p. 615