Estsánatlehi

Also known as: the Woman Who Changes (or rejuvenates herself) · Role: divine sister · First appears: Origin Legend III: The War Gods · Part 1

In Origin Legend III: The War Gods · Part 1, the turquoise image became Estsánatlehi, the Woman Who Changes, and the white shell image became her younger sister, Yolkaí Estsán. After the ceremony, the sisters were left alone on the mountain. Four days after they spoke about their pregnancies, Estsánatlehi told Yolkaí Estsán, “It was for this that you lay under the waterfall,” and said she too felt a child moving within her: “It was for this that I let the sun shine upon me.” Estsánatlehi’s child was born first: Nayénezgani.

In Part 3, Estsánatlehi threw four colored hoops toward the cardinal points, raising a gale that stopped the enemies from advancing. When Nayénezgani returned from killing Yéitso, she told him where to find Téelget; she also gave him the location of the Bináye Aháni when he asked. In Part 10, Tsóhanoai asked Nayénezgani to send Estsánatlehi west, and To`badzistsíni said that she must decide for herself, promising only to convey Tsóhanoai’s wishes. Estsánatlehi later sent hoops and knives into the sky, producing thunder, and warned Nayénezgani that the great winds might destroy their house. In Part 13, she refused Tsóhanoai’s embraces and repeated requests to go west, but agreed to go if he met her conditions. He promised, and she went to dwell in a floating house beyond the great water; Tsóhanoai visited her after his daily journey across the sky.

In Origin Legend IV: Growth of the Navaho Nation · Part 1, Estsánatlehi took leave of Yolkaí Estsán, who chose to return to Depe’ntsa. She came back with Hastséyalti for the making of the corn pair, and then directed her sister to stand in the east, saying, “My place is in the west.” In Part 6, living in her western home, Estsánatlehi made people from skin rubbed from her body. She told them they could remain near her or go east to their kindred, and took them to the mainland, where they lived for thirty years, married, and had children. She welcomed the ten surviving members of the Twelve People when they came to her house on the sea, made two people from turquoise to complete their number, and gave them five pets to watch over them on their journey east.