Mt. Hesperus

Dibe Ntsaa is one of four sacred mountains that define the boundaries of Dinetah, the Navajo homeland. First Man placed these peaks in the time before this world, creating a sacred geography that persists regardless of modern political boundaries. The mountain was named Hesperus by an 1874 survey, after the evening star—an unintentional acknowledgment of its association with darkness and the night sky.

According to Dine Bahane', the Navajo creation narrative, the Holy People traveled upward through four underworlds before emerging into the present Fifth World. Upon arrival, First Man and First Woman set about creating order. They placed four sacred mountains to mark the boundaries of Dinetah—the homeland where the Navajo people would live.

Dibe Ntsaa was created as a replica of a mountain from the Fourth World, fastened to the ground with a rainbow—the symbol of peace and harmony—and covered in darkness. The mountain was assembled from Black Jet, the dark stone that would later become coal and lignite, and adorned with obsidian. To the north, they placed a blanket of darkness over the peak. Darkness Girl, Chahalgaii, became its inner form.

Each mountain received its associations: Blanca Peak in the east with white shell and dawn; Mount Taylor in the south with turquoise and blue sky; San Francisco Peaks in the west with abalone and yellow twilight; and Dibe Ntsaa in the north with jet and darkness. Together they established the four directions, the four times of day, the four stages of life. The Navajo people would live within these boundaries, protected by the mountains First Man had placed.