Healer of the Water Monster

The Navajo call themselves the Diné, which means “the People.” The sovereign Navajo Nation is the largest federally recognized tribe in the United States with over 375,000 members. For centuries, the Diné have kept their traditional stories alive through oral tradition. These stories hold religious significance and “should be respected in the same ways that people respect Bible stories” (Reese, Debbie & Mendoza, Jean. “Tips for Teachers: Developing Instructional Materials about American Indians.” American Indians in Children’s Literature, 1 Oct. 2020). Brian Young draws from his people’s stories in Healer of the Water Monster, and he underlines the spiritual importance of these texts: “The culture and Holy Beings depicted belong to a nation of people. [....] I hope that I have done enough to demonstrate that I both cherish and revere the Holy Beings and the stories from which they originate” (356). Young strives to celebrate and respect his people’s traditional beliefs and stories through his novel.

In particular, Healer of the Water Monster takes inspiration from the Navajo creation story, also known as the Emergence Story. Because the Diné pass on their culture from one generation to the next through oral tradition, there is not a single, definitive version of the Emergence Story. The details vary slightly from place and place and “from family to family” (355). Across these variations, the creation story relates how humanity journeys through a series of worlds to reach their current home. The Emergence Story begins in Nihodihil, a world of darkness like “a floating island in mist or water” (Carey, Harold, Jr. “Navajo Creation Story—The First World.” Navajo People, 12 Mar. 2011). First Man and First Woman are formed from clouds and lack defined shape in the mist-like First World. The first humans are joined by beings who later become animals and insects, including Coyote, who acts as a trickster figure. Due to the small size of the First World, its denizens quarrel and decide to leave. First Woman, First Man, the animals, and the insects ascend to the Second World, also known as Ni’hodootl’izh. There they encounter birds and animals locked in a bitter war.

Coyote learns that the creatures of the Second World wish to leave, and First Man finds a way to bring everyone up to Nihaltsoh, the Third World. The Third World is expansive and contains rivers and sacred mountains. Coyote spoils the peace and happiness between the water monsters and the other creatures. In Navajo historian Harold Carey Jr.’s retelling, Coyote steals two baby water monsters, and their father forces the humans and other land beings to flee to the Fourth World. In Young’s version, only one baby water monster is kidnapped, and Mother Water Monster pursues the land beings. In Nihalgai, the Fourth World, First Man and the others prepare an offering to appease the water monsters. Coyote returns one baby water monster, but he keeps the other to be “the gentle rain that would moisten the earth and help them to live” (Carey). With the Holy Beings’ help, First Woman and First Man build four sacred mountains and farm the land.

In addition to the expected differences between retellings of the Emergence Story, Young’s novel contains original ideas that intentionally depart from the traditional tale. The most significant of these changes is Young’s decision to have water monsters leave the Third World, follow humanity’s “ancestors into this current world,” and “protect bodies of water” (357). This adaptation gives the novel its premise and helps Young explore the connections between humans and the environment and between the natural and the supernatural.

Other connections to and reinterpretations of the Emergence Story appear throughout Healer of the Water Monster. In the traditional story, the Fourth World is plagued by monsters that attack and devour people. The Holy Beings answer First Man and First Woman’s prayers by sending an infant to them in a cloud: “The Holy People helped First Man and First Woman raise the baby girl. They named her Changing Woman” (Carey). After Changing Woman grows to adulthood, she has twins named Child Born of Water and Monster Slayer, and her sons destroy the monsters. In Young’s novel, uranium is “the petrified blood of the Enemies felled by the Hero Twins” (142). Additionally, Changing Woman is one of the many Holy Beings who appear to the protagonist. Young’s novel contains many connections to the traditional story as well as some creative reinterpretations.