Diné teachers connect Tsoodził quake to traditional teachings
WINDOW ROCK
The ground under Tsoodził moved before dawn Aug. 22, and two Diné teachers of traditional knowledge linked the magnitude 4.1 earthquake to other changes they interpret through Diné teachings, including eclipses treated as spectacle, decades of drought and the declining daily use of Diné bizaad.
The U.S. Geological Survey recorded the quake at 4:19 a.m. about six miles east-southeast of San Mateo, New Mexico, at a depth of about six miles. The summit of Tsoodził was about six miles southwest of the epicenter. No injuries or damage were reported, and the maximum shaking intensity of 4 was classified as light.
Kevin Belin, the director of the Diné Bizaad Institute at Navajo Preparatory School, described the movement of the earth as something that has a name, a story and an interpretation in Diné thought.
The word many Navajos translate as the end of the world, Belin explained, actually describes the movement of land itself, the earth walking.
“It’s been happening eons and eons and eons,” Belin said, “but our interpretation is a large piece of land moves.”
To read the full article, please see the Sept. 3, 2026, edition of the Navajo Times.
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