An Introduction by Janine Pease Woman of the White Shells "You have a hard life to live" Heart of the Family White Painted Woman "We have never forgotten" Changing Woman and White Shell Woman Our Power "May our Mother bless you " Learning through listening A Woman of Value Family Life "May the Great Spirit protect my youth" "I am an old woman now"

Slide 7 of 14 The two divine sisters, Changing Woman and White Shell Woman, were left on the mountain alone. The women remained here four nights; on the fourth morning, Changing Woman said: “Younger sister, why should we remain here? Let us go to yonder high point and look around us.” They went to the highest point of the mountain, and when they had been there several days, Changing Woman said: “It is lonely here; we have no one to speak to but ourselves; we see nothing but that which rolls over our heads (the sun), and that which drops below us (a small dripping waterfall). I wonder if they can be people. I shall stay here and wait for the one in the morning, while you go down among the rocks and seek the other.” In the morning Changing Woman found a bare, flat rock and lay on it with her feet to the east, and the rising sun shone upon her. White Shell Woman went down where the dripping waters descended and allowed them to fall upon her. At noon the women met again on the mountain top and Changing Woman said to her sister: “It is sad to be so lonesome. How can we make people so that we may have others of our kind to talk to?” White Shell Woman answered: “Think, Elder Sister; perhaps some day you may plan how this is to be done.” Four days after this conversation, White Shell Woman said: “Elder Sister, I feel something strange moving within me; what can it be?” Changing Woman answered: “It is a child. It was for this that you lay under the waterfall. I feel, too, the motions of a child within me. It was for this that I let the sun shine upon me.” —Navajo legend about the birth of their tribe