JAMES MATTHEW COPELAND
HUGH C. ROGERS

The ceremonial imagery of Navajo religion is well known throughout the
world as a result of intensive study of sand paintings as sacred and secular
art (e.g., Wyman 1983). Compared with the long history of Navajo his-
torical, ethnological, religious, and linguistic research, Navajo archaeolog-
ical research is a relatively recent phenomenon. Navajo archaeology, in-
cluding studies pertaining to ceremonial imagery on rocks, has not been as
intensively studied or investigated for nearly as long.

Dinétah is the Navajo name for their traditional and ancestral home-
land. It is roughly defined by the Continental Divide to the east, Chaco
Canyon to the south, the Animas River to the west, and the Colorado-
New Mexico border to the north (see Towner and Dean, this volume)
(Figure 10.1). Central to defining this area are two holy mountains,
Ch'óol'í'í (Gobernador Knob) and Dzil Ná'oodilli (Huerfano Mesa).
These two mountains are sacred to the Navajo because of their association
with the creation story and many events involving the lives of Changing
Woman and the Hero Twins.

The term Dinétah is derived from diné, the Navajo name for them-
selves, and 'atah,' meaning 'among' and may be translated as "among the
Navajo." A natural question arises as to the identity of "who" were
among the Diné, "when" they were among them, and "why" they were
there. A reading of the origin stories of the Diné that appear in the
English literature reveals that after Changing Woman created the
Five-Fingered People (humans: Diné) there was a long and steady gather-

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