Navajo legend has it that Bird Monsters () nested on the peak and fed on human flesh. After Monster Slayer, elder of the Warrior Twins, destroyed at Red Mesa, he killed two adult Bird Monsters at Shiprock and changed two young ones into an eagle and an owl. The peak is mentioned in stories from the Enemy Side Ceremony and the Navajo Mountain Chant, and is associated with the Bead Chant and the Naayee'ee Ceremony. There are a number of other legends regarding what the Shiprock pinnacle might be. Some Navajo traditionalists argue that it is a geological anomaly that may have originated as a work of the 'star people'.