Sacred
Turquoise
Mountain (Tsoodzil in Navajo; Mount Taylor, named for
President Zachariah Tayor, in "Anglo"; el.11,301 ft.)
is the traditional marker of the southern boundary of Dinetah,
the Najavo homeland. Linda and Mike Woal lived in sight of Tsoodzil
at Continental Divide, New Mexico. As we came to understand the
significance of the landscape to the Dine (The People;
the Navajo))— counterpart to how Anglo people see their
Holy Land—we came to appreciate the beauty of Tsoodzil as
far beyond its physical presence. |
Tsoodzil (Tsoodzil—Turquoise Mountain—is Bluebead Mountain Trading's inspiration.) |
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Dine Behane, the Navajo Creation story, says, "From top to bottom through Tsoodzil in the south, they ran a great stone knife to fasten it to the firmament. Then they adorned it with turquoise. They adorned it with dark mist. They adorned it with many different animals.They adorned it with the heavy mist that brings the slow, gentle female rain. On the peak of Tsoodzil in the south they placed a large bowl of turquoise. In that bowl they put two eggs of the Dolii, the Bluebird, for they also wanted feathers on that mountain. They next covered those eggs with a sacred buckskin to make them hatch. Which explains why so many bluebirds dwell there to this very day. All that they had placed on Tsoodzil in the south they now covered with blue sky. And from a portion of substance which they had brought with them from the world below, they fashioned Dootl'izhii nayoo'ali ashkii, the Boy Who Is Bringing Back Turquoise. And they fashioned Naadqq'lq'i nayoo'ali at'eed, the Girl Who Is Bringing Back Many Ears of Corn. These two they stationed therte to dwell forever as the male god and the female god of Tsoodzil, or Mount Taylor as it is called in the language that Bilagaana [a White person] speaks." (Zolbrod, P. 1984. Dine Behane: The Navajo Creation Story. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.) From the Sacred to the Commercial . . . Since we founded our trading company when we lived in view of Tsoodzil, and since we were so struck by the spirit of Turquoise Mountain, we wanted to name our venture after the turquoise gemstone which is so distinctively Navajo. We asked Navajo friends if we—provided we conducted Bluebead's business in the spirit of harmony—could call our little trading post "Bluebead Mountain." That was OK. "Harmony" refers to the governing Navajo idea of Hozho: balance, equilibrium, beauty! Bluebead vows to do business that way, so that every artcraft exchange is, equally, a sharing of spirit and values. Yes, we really do believe in that!
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