Kinníki

Also known as: Donikí · Family: Navaho (Diné`) · Role: the poor Navaho whom the Eagles named Kinníki · First appears: The Great Shell of Kintyél · Part 2

In The Great Shell of Kintyél · Part 1, the poor Navaho agreed to be lowered toward the Eagles’ nest in return for lifelong abundance of food. At Tsedezá, Wind warned him that the Pueblo people would not bring him back if he cast down the eaglets. He climbed into the nest instead, leaving the basket swinging outside.

On the third day, he resisted the Pueblos’ fire-arrows; at the end of the fourth day they left him in the cave to die. Soon after dark, the male Eagle and the mother of the eaglets arrived and thanked him for protecting the younger eaglet, calling him Donikí. The male Eagle gave him food and water that he could not exhaust. The Eagles later flew away without giving him the eagle-plume dress, and at Tsótsil they released him while carrying him and the eaglets upward. Two Arrow-snakes bore him through the sky-hole to the upper world.

In Part 3, Wind warned him against visiting the northern pueblo. After seeing that warriors had been slain in battle, he chose to join the next war party. Spider Woman welcomed him into her house and asked him to bring her new plumes; she gave him a cane and instructions for gathering tumble-weeds and dealing with bees. In Part 4, he returned with the plumes, and she thanked him for helping her friends, the Eagles, by slaying their enemies. He showed the Eagle People the bees and tumble-weed seeds as proof. Great Wolf and Fox promised him maidens in marriage, and Great Wolf gave him his house, saying, “Sadáni, my son-in-law, this house is yours.”

In Part 5, the maidens bathed and fed him. He sent the young bees and tumble-weed seeds down through the sky-hole, learned the Eagles’ songs and ceremonies during twenty-four days among them, and returned to Tsótsil on his own wings. The people of Kintyél agreed to employ his younger brother for a healing ceremony; Kinníki taught him the rites and songs learned among the Eagles during twelve days in a medicine-lodge. Three days after the people’s conference, Kinníki selected the great shells of Kintyél and Ki'ndotliz for the dance. In Part 6, on the evening of the last day, he rose into the sky with the great shell of Kintyél and disappeared into a cloud.