The Sacred Mountains

"In the beginning..." All primitive peoples — including our own ancestors, whatever their origin — at some time in their history selected certain localities to be set apart as shrines for religious reasons. The various Indian tribes of Arizona are no exception. They combined geographic features with supernatural (or deified) entities and occurrences, so that their sacred mountains are actual locations where legendary events are said to have happened. It's not surprising, then, that when tribal elders or historians tell the stories relating to the sacred mountains, the almost invariable opening line is: "In the beginning, when this world was set up . . ."

But the sacred mountain stories are linked to a concept difficult for nonIndians to understand because they are predicated on Indian concepts of time. To the Indian, time is a circle. The past is not irrevocably past. It is eternally present. What the Indian calls beginning time (or legend time or sacred time) is not at the end of a long line stretching back into the past. It is not linear at all. It folds back on itself.

Further, chronological time, in the generalized Indian view, is a trap that results in loss of purity and potency. To get out of touch with beginning time is to become ill or unbalanced in mind, body, or spirit.

As a specific example, when the family of an ill Navajo person requests a medicine man to perform the great nine-day healing ceremony called Mountaintop Way, the whole idea is to return the patient to beginning time, to get him back to the basics that will restore him to health.

Beginning time stories are repeated again and again during the nine days. Dry-paintings depicting some of the beginning time dieties are made for the patient to sit upon, so he can absorb their supernatural powers. Strong emetics, made from "growing things gathered from each of the sacred mountains" are given the patient to drink.

Repetitive prayers, chants, and exhortations are made to Dsilyi Neyani (Master of the Mountains), including this one: "Restore for me my feet, legs, body, mind, and voice. Restore all for me in beauty. Make beautiful all that is before me. Make beautiful all that is behind me. Make beautiful my words."

Since the 1880s, non-Indian guests at Mountaintop Way ceremonies have attested to stories of patients being "miraculously" healed. As such a guest myself, I can tell you I still thrill to remember the ceremony's final words, said by medicine man and patient in unison. "In beauty, it is finished; in beauty, it is finished..." It can make you believe in the magical mountains of myth, that ceremony can. But enough of this. We have sacred mountains to explore.

Unlike the Anglo linear concept, time is a circle to the Indian, with no beginning and no end. Thus these images pecked into solid rock near San Francisco Peaks, background, are not of the far past but instead part of the eternal present. Through the technique of double-exposure, Photographer David Muench has captured perfectly the mood and the character of this place of power for both the Hopis and Navajos.

Nuvátukya'ovi of the Hopis

To the Hopi as well as the Navajo, San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff is a sacred mountain. It is not the home of just one diety but many spirit kachinas and a place of natural forces, as witnessed by the clouds that so often shroud its high peaks and the winds that buffet its rugged slopes.

Starting with Soyal, about mid-December, kachinas come down from their lofty home on the peaks and perform night dances in the kivas (underground ceremonial chambers) to turn the sun back on its course again.

Mid-January marks the beginning of Powamuya, bean planting ceremonies celebrating the start of the planting season and a time to initiate new members into Powamuya and kachina societies.

Kachina is a combination of kachi-life, and bjeana-to bring. Throughout the following weeks and months, kachinas will bring ceremonial dances to various village plazas. In reality, these ceremonies are hopes and prayers for a complete, abundant, and happy life. But they are not for Hopi alone. Rather, they are for all mankind. All life-sustaining forces in the universe.

The Nieman (going home) ceremony is held in late July. At that time the kachinas return to Nuvátukya'ovi (snowcapped mountains), the San Francisco Peaks. On these sacred peaks they will remain, watching the people, listening to their prayers, and waiting for Soyal to start again a new life-cycle for all who are Hopi (peaceful people).

Scenic photographer David Muench, whose scores of pictorial interpretations of the Southwest have captivated Arizona Highways' readers since the early 50s, traveled alone nearly 8000 miles over a period of two years to capture the visual excitement and the haunting beauty of the Sacred Mountains on these pages.

"I really had it in mind to see if I could find and photograph what it is that contributes to that mystical quality of sacredness in the peaks and ranges of the desert and high country," David says.

"I believe I found what I was searching for."

The Sacred Mountains on this and the following pages are the photographic results of that long search. Taken with insight and artistic imagination, they represent a very personal vision of this beautiful Southwestern land.

Nuvátukya'ovi (San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff) is the home of the kachinas, a source of pride, inspiration, and reverence to the Hopi. Again, Muench has used the double-exposure technique to bolster both mood and color.

Slanting Mountain of the Pimas

Anthropologists, ethnologists, and historians have told us that every culture and societal group on earth has its own legend of a Great Flood.

Superstition Mountain

One version of the Pima tribe's flood story was told by the late Anna Moore Shaw, the first of the Piman-speaking people to compile tribal legends into an English-language anthology.

"You see that white line running the length of Slanting Mountain over there? The mountain you call Superstition. Your people say that is just a layer of light-colored rock, sediment from the time this area was covered by a sea. We say that was the line made by the foam of the waters during the big flood.

"And there is a canyon, among all the box canyons in that mountain, that is called the Valley of the Frozen People. As the flood waters rose, the Pimas scrambled up the slope to avoid the torrent. In those days, not just people, but birds and animals, too, could talk. The Pimas kept begging the birds to fly higher and higher to peck holes in the sky so the sun could come dry up the waters.

"But the birds - swallows, buzzards, ravens, and hummingbirds - couldn't peck through the sky-ceiling. All they could do was hang there by their beaks as the water reached high enough to drench their tails, causing them to be drenched and to remain drenched-looking for all-time." Meanwhile, the Pimas scrambling up the slope realized the birds couldn't save them. They became petrified with fear and turned to stone. You can still see them there, standing as they stood during the final hours of the four-day flood that overflowed the banks of the Salt and Gila rivers and the lands of the Pima people.

"But I'itoi (Elder Brother) survived, and as he stood atop Slanting Mountain surveying the desolation, he declared that the land would once more come alive with song and laughter," Mrs. Shaw concluded.

Indeed, Elder Brother's after-the-flood feats are legendary among both the Pimas of Central Arizona and their linguistic cousins, the Papagos, who live farther to the south.

Fraught with the white man's own myths and legends, the Superstition Mountains east of Phoenix also play a key role in the tribal lore of the Pima Indians.

Papago Home of l'itoi Baboquivari Peak

Though the story of l'itoi varies from location to location and locations can vary from l'itoi's home in the Estrella Mountains near Phoenix (for the Pima Indians) to Baboquivari Peak west of Tucson (for the Papago Indians) - the stories told about him are even more varied.

Anthropologists say their research indicates that l'itoi or Elder Brother is regarded as a deity of the people, but not necessarily a benevolent one. Like another character, Coyote, who is mentioned in beginning time, l'itoi was sometimes devious, greedy, and mischievous.

That's why he needed a hiding place in which to elude his enemies, enemies he had made because of his own unsavory schemes. He found such a place, according to Papago legend, in a cave on the flank of Baboquivari Peak, which he entered after going over the mountain top and through maze-like corridors known only to himself.

Sometimes his enemies did succeed in killing him (and oftimes those enemies were his own people, according to the anthropological version) but, to their surprise, l'itoi would appear again in the villages, as alive and mean as ever before. At length, the womanizing old warrior didn't show up anymore, and the people sighed with relief and said, "Good riddance."

But Papagos today tell a more likeable version of the l'itoi story, the story of a good guy with magical powers, who came to this world from the world on the other side, leading his people, whom he had turned into ants, up here through an ant hole.

After converting them back into people, into Papagos, he helped them in a variety of magical ways (his maze-like corridors to his magical home were really examples of how to overcome obstacles on the road of life).

And today, I'itoi is the male figure woven into Papago baskets above the pattern of a maze. The baskets are an everyday reminder that his people, like l'itoi himself, must take the twists and turns of life in stride, in order to rise above obstacles.

Baboquivari Peak, dramatically captured here in doubleexposure, left, is a major element in Papago Indian legend. It is here that I'itoi, Elder Brother, makes his home. And on the flanks of the great mountain, he was said to have found a magic cave, perhaps like this one, right, where he could hide from his enemies.

The Apaches' Dzil Ligai

Mountains are important the world over because they define boundaries. But mountains are more, much more, than boundary markers defining tribal space. The Pueblo people, for instance, believe that four sacred mountains are pillars which hold up the sky. As such, they are imbued with a strong aura of mystery and sanctity. And this sacred meaning transcends all other meanings and functions.

Mount Baldy

It is known that the Navajos, the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico, the Pimas, and the Yuman-speaking tribes subscribe to the belief that four mountains define the tribal territory of their own groups. Because these tribes are so numerous and once occupied contiguous territories and because tribal lands were sometimes defined by the federal government there is today a complex mosaic of overlapping tribal worlds defined by mountains.

The Apaches, most recent mountain dwellers among all Southwestern Indians, may well have first defined their territory with four sacred mountains. But today, on the Fort Apache Reservation, Mount Baldy is "the" sacred mountain. Dzil Ligai (White Mountain), the Apaches call it. To them, it is the source of life, sacred in song and prayer, home of the wind and of the gahns, the supernaturals known as mountain spirits.

"All Apaches who pray include the White Mountain in their prayers," according to Edgar Perry, the young scholar-historian who is recording the history and legends of the tribe. From his office in the Apache Cultural Center at Fort Apache, White Mountain is an imposing presence.

"When our people are away from their homeland, they pray for the people back home and for the mountain. When our medicine men pray, they face the mountain.

"My grandfather told me that in the old days, people made long journeys on foot up to the top of the mountain to worship. On their way they gathered stones and piled them into little altars at the top of the mountain to signify that it is a holy place."

Mary Riley, a longtime member of the tribal council, spent childhood summers on the family ranch near the bald peak.

"We mention White Mountain in all our prayers," she said. "It has special power. When we mention it, our prayers are answered. When you take a prayer feather to the medicine man, you include White Mountain in your prayer. There are many sacred songs about White Mountain, but only medicine men can sing them, no one else. The Wind lives in a cave there, and all the winds on earth originated there."

Though White Mountain seems bleak and barren at the summit, it overlooks a lush, forested land patched with grassy meadows. One hears the whistling wind, sees the panoramic view of a high country paradise, and knows this is the place for an Apache to offer prayers of thanksgiving to Usen, his creator. It is a place to feel a rush of gratitude for its beauty, and when one departs, the holy place comes back in memory to be revisited in the mind's eye again and again. Even if one is not an Apache.

Spirit Mountain of the Mohaves

Traditionally, Mohaves told simple little creation stories to their children, stories geared to children's understanding. As the children grew older, they were told increasingly complex stories. Today, many of the grandparents who are expected to carry on the oral history of the tribe's origins must defer to others "because when we were shipped off to government boarding school we lost the threads of the story and even our native language."

Newberry Mountains

One remembers this simple childhood story: "When Amaat-ti-vill, the Creator, arrived from across the ocean to Avi-Kwa-Ah-Meh (now known as Spirit Mountain), he decided this was the place to create things. So he made human figures of soil figures like gingerbread men cookies. When he baked them, the first batch was too dark, so when he breathed life into them, he sent them away. The next batch was too light, so they also were sent away. Finally, a batch was just right. So he let those people stay by the red river (the Colorado) near Spirit Mountain forever. Those people were the Mohaves, of course."

Claude Lewis, a member of the Mohave Tribal Council, a man who is as much at home arguing water rights before a U.S. Supreme Court referee as he is attending bird dances on his own reservation, provides what he believes to be the "adult" version of the story: "In the beginning, when Amaat-ti-vill created all living things from the soil atop Avi-Kwa-Ah-Meh, the people were all the same color and all spoke the same language. When he began to teach them about overpopulation and death, it was really to teach them the act of purification now known as cremation. He sacrificed himself to set an example to the people, an example of purification. As the ground was being dug for his funeral pyre, one group of people left the area, never having witnessed the ceremony. Those people today are the ones who bury their dead. Other people departed, going out in all directions. In the eons since the beginning, those people's colors and languages changed.

"Full-blooded Mohaves are still cremated on funeral pyres. They still revere the place where Amaat-ti-vill's cremation was said to have taken place in the area of Bullhead City, close to the channel of the river. And we still believe that when we die, we will go to a paradise where there is no sickness or want, where melons grow all year long, and a good time is had by all. And we mean 'all.' All Mohaves go there because they never get bad. Amaat-ti-vill's teachings keep them good.

"Spirit Mountain is revered as the place chosen by the Creator to begin the world. But even the medicine men go to the Dark House up there only in their dreams. They say there is so much power up there even they lose their sense of hearing by going there."

"Our old people believe the story of Dark House is true. I believe it is true. Sometimes when I encounter a gifted white person, I think, 'If you were a Mohave, I'd know where you got that talent.'"

Sacred Mountains of the Navajos

In the beginning, four worlds ago, the Navajos lived peacefully under the guidance of four chiefs whose territorial boundaries were indicated by light: white in the east; blue in the south; yellow in the west, and black in the north.

Mountains of the Four Directions

But when all the people began to quarrel among themselves, the chief to the east said, “You pay no attention to my words. You are disobedient. You must go to another world.” So they went through a hole in the sky and joined the Swallow People. But again they became quarrelsome and were told to leave. In the Third World, they joined the Grasshopper People. Once again they bickered and were sent through another hole in the sky to the Fourth World.

There, First Man and First Woman and their progeny lived in peace in a world similar to this one, until First Man and First Woman had a spat and decided to live apart. When that happened, all the birds and animals began fleeing to the west, as though something were menacing them. On the fourth day, the people saw a vast flood approaching from the east. They quickly planted reeds that shot up to the sky and joined together to make one enormous tunnel for the people to climb through into this world.

First Man and First Woman, now reunited, led the way, and the others followed.

In the beginning, when this world was set up, First Man and First Woman created the four cardinal mountains from earth brought with them from the lower world. Then the mountains were placed on a sacred buckskin and sung over ceremonially before the deities of the four directions lifted them up and placed them where they now stand.

To the east, they placed the white mountain, Sis na jin, known in English as Blanca Peak in New Mexico; to the south, blue, Tso'dzil or Mount Taylor, also in New Mexico; to the west, yellow, Dook Oslid or San Francisco Peak in Arizona, and to the north, black, Debe'ntsa or the La Plata Mountains of Colorado.

To site the legend of Mount Taylor as an example: it was fastened to the earth with a great stone knife, thrust down from top to bottom. It was decorated with turquoise, since the color of the south is blue, and with dark mist and gentle rain, and all kinds of wild animals. On its summit was placed a bowl of turquoise containing two bluebird eggs covered with sacred buckskin. Over all was spread a covering of blue sky. It is the home of Turquoise Boy and Yellow Corn Girl.

(Left) A wind-beaten bristlecone pine lives out the ages atop the San Francisco Peaks. Created by First Man and First Woman of Navajo legend, Dook Oslid, the mountain of the west, was fastened to the earth with a sunbeam. It is one of the four sacred terrestrial boundaries of the Navajo, defining traditional tribal territory.

(Right) Debe'ntsa (La Plata Mountains of Colorado) form the northern boundary of the Navajos. According to legend, this range was fastened to the earth with a rainbow, over which the First People spread a blanket of darkness, then decorated it with obsidian.

(Following panel, pages 28-29) Lava field on the slope of New Mexico's Mount Taylor, the Navajo's Tso'dzil, sacred mountain of the south. Fastened to the earth with a stone knife and covered with a blanket of blue, Mount Taylor forms part of the complex mosaic of tribal worlds of the Southwest.

All the mountains have their prayers and chants. For Mount Taylor this is the chant still used today: "For ages and ages the plans have been made. For ages and ages the plans of the Holy Mountains have been made. For Tso'dzil, the mountain of the south, the plan was made. The plan was made in the home of the First Man. The planning took place on the top of the Beautiful Goods. They planned how a strong Turquoise Boy should be formed. And how the Master of the Mountain should be made. How he should be made like the Most-High-Power-Whose-Ways-Are-Beautiful..."

There are few Navajos even today who cannot name the four sacred peaks that bound the traditional Navajoland. But some other sacred places, including mountains, are known only locally. There are two huge supernatural figures outlined by two mountain ranges that divide the reservation roughly into thirds. One is the "Goods of Value Range" of which Chuska Peak is the head, the Lukachukais the body, and the Carrizos the legs. The other is "Pollen Range," of which Navajo Mountain forms the head, Black Mountain the body, and Balakai Mesa the legs.

Three other mountains said to be sacred, but possessed of less potency than the four directional peaks, are Gobernador Knob and Herfano Mountain in New Mexico and Navajo Mountain in Utah.

Other sacred sites are places where offerings and prayers are made - the travel shrines scattered throughout the reservation. These piles were formed, stone by stone, by devout Navajos who placed their offerings with a prayer for a safe journey. Turquoise beads and dustings of corn pollen are usually in evidence at these shrines. Both are considered oblations.

Though the four sacred mountains themselves are surrounded by beliefs that are strange to the non-Navajo, their mountain powers are taken for granted by medicine men trained to work in the realm of supernatural things.

(Preceding panel, pages 30-31) Blanca Peak, in the Sangre de Christo range of New Mexico, is known in Navajo legend as the White Mountain, Sis no jin. It forms the traditional eastern boundary of the reservation. It was said to have been fastened to the earth with a bolt of white lightning and covered with a blanket of daylight.

(Left) Navajo Mountain, in southern Utah, forms part of the Navajos' "Pollen Range," one of two sacred ranges that divide their reservation roughly into thirds.