The San Francisco Peaks anchor two distinct cosmologies at once, one marking the edge of a homeland and the other housing beings who are said to live there for half the year.
A boundary marker for the Dine
In Navajo, or Dine, tradition the peaks are Dook'o'oosliid, one of four sacred mountains marking the outer boundaries of the traditional Navajo homeland, Dinetah, alongside three other peaks in different directions; together the four are understood to define the space within which Navajo life and ceremony are properly oriented.
Home of the Kachina, for part of the year
Hopi tradition holds that Kachina spirits, who bring rain and act as intermediaries between people and the natural world, reside on the peaks for roughly half of each year before travelling to Hopi villages for the remaining ceremonial season. Much of the specific ceremonial content associated with the Kachina tradition is restricted within Hopi religious practice itself and is not shared publicly, a closure this entry notes rather than describes further.
One mountain, many nations
Beyond the Dine and Hopi, at least eleven other tribal nations hold their own distinct traditions connecting them to the peaks, making the mountain a point where several separate cosmologies converge on the same physical landform without merging into a single shared account of what it means.