The story of Hweeldi
93-year-old revels in Navajo lore during ‘remembrance days’

By Natasha Kaye Johnson
Diné Bureau

NAVAJO MOUNTAIN, Utah — John Holiday, 93, sat underneath the shade below the announcer’s booth in a lawn chair.

He watched as people dashed toward the finished lines, grabbing prizes and treats. The sight made him laugh a bit, and it was apparent he was enjoying himself. Throughout the day, community members shared their fondest memories of past annual “remembrance days.” Some shared memories of riding horses for three straight days to get to the festivities because there were no horse trailers, while others shared memories of hoarding candy as a child, while dressed in their best traditional attire.

But when asked what he remembered about the festivities as a young child, Holiday, from Oljato, Utah, said Naatsis’aan (Navajo Mountain). For Holiday, being at the celebration reminded him of stories that he was told as a young child about the mountain.

As he began to share a story, he gestured toward the mountain that could be seen just beyond the arena of events that were crowed by families enjoying themselves.

It was in Navajo Mountain, he explained in Navajo through translator Willie Grayeyes, where a prayer was made through Tse’nani’ahi (Rainbow Bridge). The prayer, Holiday continued, was made by six medicine men, who came together in one last plea to the Holy People for the Navajo people be released from the Hweeldi. He went on to share the names of the medicine men, that translated into names, like “Light Hair on the Forehead,” or “Meanness Spreader,” and “The One who Wears only a Loin Cloth,” “Tall Man,” and “Slim Man.”

During the time of the Long Walk, Holiday explained, many Navajo people hid on the mountain so that they would not be taken to the prison. For the Navajo people, Tse’nani’ahi is two petrified rainbows, one male and one female, in perfect union. The arch is located by the San Juan and the Colorado Rivers where the Cloud and Rain People were born. Before Lake Powell was filled and tourists invaded the area, Navajo chanters would make pilgrimages to Rainbow Bridge to perform ceremonies to bring rain and leave offerings to the Holy People.

After making the first prayer at Tse’nani’ahi, the medicine men climbed to the top of Naatsis’aan, Holiday explained, and made another plea that the Navajo people be released. From there, they traveled to Monument Valley and another prayer was offered at the top of a formation that looks like a snake. Holiday said the prayer was made on the rock that represented the head of the snake. The medicine men then traveled to Beautiful Mountain, where a fourth prayer was offered.

Four other prayers would then be offered, he said. The medicine men traveled to Sandia Mountain, and then Bluebird Mountain, just east of the Sandia Mountains. From there, they went to Corn Pollen Mountain, and to a mountain that translates to “Small Insect Mountain.”

It was not long after these prayers were conducted, Holiday went on to explain, that the Navajo people were told that they could return home.