The Navajo Treatment Center for Children and Their Families (NTCCF) offered training sessions last week that provided education on the origin of naayéé’, or monsters, in Navajo teachings.
Understanding the monsters of Navajo society is an important part of defeating them, which is the goal of the Diné Action Plan (DAP). The Diné Action Plan provides a roadmap to address the Navajo Nation’s biggest challenges, known as naayéé’ or modern day monsters. The monsters are identified as suicide, substance abuse, violence, and missing and murdered Diné relatives.
NTCCF Program Manager Anthony Begay leads the Suicide Prevention Task Force for the DAP. As part of the task force objectives, NTCCF invited members of the DAP team to a presentation on the history of suicide from the Navajo perspective and protocols for treatment. The objective in the DAP is to “incorporate cultural education, awareness and empowerment into all prevention strategies.”
Ernest Begay, Traditional Counselor for Utah Navajo Health System, shared traditional and spiritual prevention, intervention, and postvention strategies and tools during his presentation.
“We have to work together as Diné. We have a common enemy. There is no time to be fighting each other,” Begay said.
Begay encouraged a team effort in preventing suicide by using both western modalities and traditional healing aspects.
One teaching in the goal of preventing suicide is for a person to know their origin story and their gifts and talents. This can be done by knowing the story of your name, how your clan originated and the talents of your clan.
On Thursday, February 5, 2026, NTCCF Community Involvement Specialist Joseph Sandoval presented at the Peacemaking Program’s 3rd Annual Winter Conference on the topic of Naayéé’. The two-day conference, which had the theme of, “Hane’ Baa’ákohwiindzin Bine’oodááł dóó Dólzin,” was open to the public and featured various speakers on cultural topics.
“Education has a door. If you know the knowledge, the wisdom, the teaching, the understanding, the prayers and songs, the ceremony, you could utilize those to acquire and be successful to accomplish certain things in your life,” he said
Sandoval explained the four worlds of the Navajo creation story. He told how the naayéé’ came to be and how the Twins killed them, including Yé’iitsoh, Deelgééd, and other monsters that were killing the Diné.
Sandoval tied his presentation to the DAP objectives.
The story of, “Slaying of the Monsters,” is the centerpiece of the DAP. It gives lessons that Diné people can use in defeating modern day monsters. The outreach provided by NTCCF furthers the objective in the DAP to “incorporate cultural education, awareness and empowerment into all prevention strategies.”
NTCCF is planning to hold a Hataałi Summit in the spring, which also addresses the objectives in the DAP.
The Navajo Division for Children and Family Services (NDCFS) leads the effort to implement the DAP, which was approved by Navajo Nation resolution in 2021.
NTCCF is a program under the NDCFS that provides voluntary outpatient counseling and other mental health services to Native American children and outpatient family counseling to individuals, couples, groups or families. Traditional services are also offered by the program.
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