Navajo

Noun

hónágháahnii

1. he-walks-around-one people, one-who-walks-around clan

Usage notes

After First Man and First Woman reached the Fourth World (this world), their daughter Asdzą́ą́ Nádleehé (Changing Woman) created the Navajo clans by rubbing off bits of her skin to make the first four clans. The hónágháahnii are considered by many to be one of the original four Navajo clans. This is disputed by others because of the clan’s late origin: a certain Navajo man married an Apache woman from the White Mountain Apache tribe (Dziłghą́ʼí) and moved there. The husband was killed on the first night, and the wife determined that someone in a house in a neighboring village was responsible for his death. She went to the house and circled it while chanting a prayer, after which all of the people in the house died. The woman’s offspring became known as the hónágháahnii, the he-walks-around-one people.

See also

• hashtłʼishnii
• kin yaaʼáanii
• tó díchʼíiʼnii
• tó áhání