Immediately into the first episode, Dark Winds season 3 starts off just as strong, with McClarnon's Joe Leaphorn and Kiowa Gordon's Jim Chee investigating the disappearance of two boys, who are rumored to have been taken by the monster known as Ye'iitsoh.

The Ye'iitsoh certainly lives up to its terrifying origins only a few minutes into Dark Winds season 3, episode 1. McClarnon's Joe Leaphorn wakes with a start in the desert at night, appearing to be injured or drugged – but most of all, he's terrified. When someone with the steel nerves of Joe Leaphorn is petrified to the point of tears, whatever pursues him can only be pure horror. His terror, and the reveal that follows, sets up Dark Winds season 3 to be what appears the darkest, creepiest season of the series yet.

Ye'iitsoh Translates To Big Monster In Navajo

It Haunts The Deserts Of The Navajo Reservation

The title of the Dark Winds season 3, episode 1, "Ye'iitsoh," immediately sets the tone for the whole season. In the Navajo language, "Ye'iitsoh" translates to "big monster" or "big god" – a simple, straightforward description of one of the most terrifying and fascinating entities in Diné culture. The first glimpse of what we later learn is the Ye'iitsoh, only five minutes into Dark Winds season 3, lives up to its reputation.

When Leaphorn drags himself behind a boulder and peeks over the edge to see what pursues him, he sees something that is clearly not human. Instead, it looks like a corpse or a ghoul, gray and shadowy and appearing to be wrapped in a shroud-like, tattered garment that half-covers its face. At the same time, though, branches and vines stick out from its back, indicating that it also has some sort of natural, primal ties to the land. Interestingly, though, despite its name, what Joe sees doesn't appear to be a giant, but human-sized, though that could also be a matter of perspective and camera angle.

Ye'iitsoh In Native American Folklore Explained

It Has A Long And Complicated Mythology

As with most mythology that has spread across a people over centuries, the concept and description of the Ye'iitsoh has shifted, as have the stories about it, depending on the teller. In most versions of the mythology, Ye'iitsoh was a member of the Anaye, a collection of evil god-like monsters in Navajo mythology. Of the Anaye, Ye'iitsoh was the most feared, a monstrous, giant entity with an insatiable hunger who killed and ate humans. He strode over the land, killing and consuming, and his bloodlust and gluttony were so vast and unending that Ye'iitsoh threatened to wipe out the Diné people, whether because he consumed all their food or consumed the people themselves, killing and tossing handfuls of people into his mangled mouth in one swipe.

While the names change in different versions of the story, most agree that the way Ye'iitsoh was stopped was when he was killed by two heroic twins, the sons of the powerful god Tsohanoai, the Sun Carrier; other versions have them as the twins of the sun itself, Jóhonaaʼéí. The twins were given gifts of lightning bolts and arrows made of sunbeams from their father, which they used to strike the giant multiple times before finally felling and killing him. In some versions of the story, they are aided by Tsohanoai/Jóhonaaʼéí. In others, they are aided by Níłchʼi, the wind god, and in still others, they are aided by both Tsohanoai/Jóhonaaʼéí and Níłchʼi, though it's the twins who physically slay Ye'iitsoh in all versions.

In Navajo belief that's less mythology and more folklore, Ye'iitsoh is the Diné people's version of a Sasquatch, a large, hairy creature living in the wild.

In Navajo belief that's less mythology and more folklore, Ye'iitsoh is the Diné people's version of a Sasquatch, the large, hairy, venerated creature of the wild. It is still a giant compared to humans, but not the Anaye monster who could swallow up entire canyons and mountains in its stride. This wild person version of Ye'iitsoh has been immortalized in ancient drawings such as the Witch Wells petroglyphs. While still a creature worthy of cautious respect, the wild Ye'iitsoh has lived more or less peacefully alongside the Navajo people. Some of whom have claimed to have seen the wild creatures for generations, both human and Ye'iitsoh sharing their ancestral lands while treating each other with wary respect.

La Llorona Was Also Mentioned In Dark Winds Season 3, Episode 1

Navajo & Chicano Culture & People Are Inextricable In Some Ways

While the Dark Winds episode and season are primarily influenced by the legend of Ye'iitsoh, that wasn't the only folklore that the first episode incorporated. When they find the missing child's bike covered in blood, Jim Chee mentions that the Navajo cops believe La Llorona, the so-called Ditch Witch of Mexican folklore, did it. He then explains that the Chicano kids in his school would mess with them by telling them the legend that if the vengeful spirit catches anyone messing around in her sacred arroyos, she'll chop their heads off with a machete. "Yeah," replies Joe Leaphorn. "It's like Ye'iitsoh in Navajo."

Chee's story might seem a little off-topic, but it's actually a really thoughtful and smart way to incorporate Native American and Mexican culture together.

Chee's story might seem a little off-topic, but it's actually a really thoughtful and smart way to incorporate Native American and Mexican culture together. It's almost impossible to extricate Chicano culture from Native American, particularly in the Southwest. Plenty of Latinos view themselves as Indigenous Native Americans and plenty of U.S.-born Native Americans have ancestral lines that can be traced back to Mesoamerica. Both Indigenous groups share cultural and genetic ties, and it stands to reason that, over centuries, their myths and stories also started to overlap and mimic each other. Chee bringing up the Mexican legend of La Llorona is a direct nod to that.

The whole scene is an elegant way to highlight and illustrate the ways in which Native American culture is also Latino culture, and vice-versa. Chee's story also confirms that Native American kids from the reservation went to school with Chicano kids, and it's noticeable that the missing kid, Ernesto, who is later found murdered, carries a name of Latino origin. This converges nicely with Bernadette Manuelito's new role in Dark Winds as a Border Patrol Agent and her story. Altogether, Dark Winds season 3 is making a clear effort to more directly tie together the Navajo and Chicano people, along with Diné and Mesoamerican folklore and culture.

What Ye'iitsoh Means For Dark Winds Season 3

It Might Actually Be Worse If It's Symbolic

As for what Ye'iitsoh means for Dark Winds season 3, that's not quite clear. This season is already darker and far creepier than the previous seasons, even Dark Winds season 1, which had a side-plot that delved into Navajo witches and skinwalkers. Right now, the Ye'iitsoh is being portrayed as a literal physical entity, a living monster that roams the deserts and that has supposedly snatched up the kids. But viewed figuratively, Ye'iitsoh could also be a symbolic manifestation of how Joe Leaphorn's guilt about kidnapping BJ Vines and leaving him in the desert to die of exposure at the end of Dark Winds season 2 has become a monstrous, all-consuming thing that threatens to devour his sanity.

It's also worth noting that the vision Joe Leaphorn sees doesn't actually appear to fit the usual description of Ye'iitsoh, whether the world-devouring giant of Navajo mythology or the Sasquatch-like hairy man of folklore. Instead, the corpse-like visage and the wrappings that are akin to a burial shroud lean toward something more like a zombie or ghoul. Joe Leaphorn's already fracturing mind may very well be hallucinating what he believes BJ Vines looks like now – a rotting corpse that insists on coming back from the grave – and mistakenly believing it to be the Ye'iitsoh. In any case, it would appear the torments for Joe Leaphorn – both real and imagined – in Dark Winds season 3 are only getting started.