Skin-walker

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In Navajo (Navajo: Diné) culture, a skin-walker (yee naaldlooshii) is a type of harmful witch who has the
ability to turn into, possess, or disguise themselves as an animal, usually for the purposes of harming people.
Most skin-walker magic is done with the intent to commit murder.

Contents
1 Background
2 Legend
3 Methods of destruction
4 See also
5 Notes
6 Further reading

Background
In the Navajo language, yee naaldlooshii translates to "by means of it, [he or she] goes on all fours".[1] While
perhaps the most common variety seen in horror fiction by non-Navajo people, the yee naaldlooshii is one of
several varieties of Navajo witch, specifically a type of ’ánti’įhnii.[1] The legend of the skin-walkers is not well
understood outside of Navajo culture, mostly due to reluctance to discuss the subject with outsiders (in part
because strangers may be witches themselves), thus people are led to draw their own conclusions from the
stories they hear.[2] Navajo people are reluctant to reveal skin-walker lore to non-Navajos, or to discuss it at all
among those they do not trust.[3]

Navajo witches, including skin-walkers, represent the antithesis of Navajo cultural values. They are evil
reflections of goodly medicine men and women, performing twisted ceremonies and manipulating magic in a
perversion of the good works medicine people traditionally perform. In order to practice their good works,
traditional healers learn about both good and evil magic. Most can handle the responsibility, but some become
corrupt and can become witches.[4]

Legend
The animals they transform into are typically coyotes, as are associated with the malicious trickster Coyote, but
can include other animals such as wolves, owls, or bears. They can also possess living animals or people and
walk around in their bodies by locking eyes with them,[5][6] as is a taboo in Navajo culture.[7] Skin-walkers may
be male or female but are typically male.[4]

Skin-walkers are believed to have a secret society, living among Navajo, and can look like anyone else. They
only teach their magic to others if they commit the horrible act of murder against a sibling. They are detectable
by having an unusual amount of wealth, presumed to be acquired through underhanded means,[4] or by
behaving in ways that resemble Coyote, such as smiling too much. They are typically only Navajo or otherwise
Indigenous,[4] but they may occasionally be Anglo.[6]

Skin-walkers might wear body paint in a mockery of what is worn by goodly medicine men.[4] In the dead of
night, they are said to sneak off to a cave to meet and perform a twisted mockery of the holy chants conducted
by medicine men in order to work their evil magic.[4]
Skin-walker stories told among Navajo children may be complete life and death struggles that end in either
skin-walker or Navajo killing the other or partial encounter stories that end in a stalemate. The home is viewed
as a place of safety and strength, so Navajo are usually safe in the domestic environment. Skin-walkers act as
an antagonistic alien force, so they have power in an alien environment. A story about a Navajo who meets a
skin-walker out in the woods away from home is a sure skin-walker victory story. Skin-walkers typically
cannot gain access to a home and may be scared away by threats of violence but some are successful with home
invasions and will rape women or kill children,[4] but family members will always kill the skin-walkers in the
end. Encounter stories are similarly composed as Navajo victory stories, with the skin-walkers approaching a
hogan and being scared away. The end result is a sense of temporary safety with continued fear of the skin-
walker, but to vocalize this is an Anglo-derivative faux pas.[7]

Anglo variations on skin-walker stories typically take the form of partial encounter stories on the road, where
the protagonist is temporarily vulnerable, but then escapes from the skin-walker in a way not traditionally seen
in Navajo stories that take place away from home.[8][9] Sometimes Navajo children take Anglo folk stories and
substitute generic killers like The Hook with skin-walkers.[8]

Methods of destruction
Reportedly, a skin-walker can be killed through a mortal wound to the neck area. Whether this is through
means of slitting its throat or total decapitation.
A bullet or arrow rolled in white ash shot through the skin-walker's heart is said to be able to kill it.
Whether white ash refers to a specific color of ashes or the white ash plant itself, or possibly both, is
unclear.
Learning a skin-walker's true name and saying it aloud is said to destroy it, similarly to the legend of
Rumpelstiltskin. [10]

See also
Witchcraft - Diné / Navajo
Huaychivo
Nagual
Shapeshifter
Skinwalker Ranch
Werewolf
Little People of the Pryor Mountains

Notes
1. Wall, Leon and William Morgan, Navajo-English Dictionary. Hippocrene Books, New York City, 1998
ISBN 0-7818-0247-4.
2. Hampton, Carol M. "Book Review: Some Kind of Power: Navajo Children's Skinwalker Narratives (http
s://whq.oxfordjournals.org/content/17/3/366)" in Western Historical Quarterly. 01 July 1986. Accessed
17 Nov. 2016.
3. Keene, Dr. Adrienne, "Magic in North America Part 1: Ugh. (http://nativeappropriations.com/2016/03/m
agic-in-north-america-part-1-ugh.html)" at Native Appropriations, 8 March 2016. Accessed 9 April 2016.
"What happens when Rowling pulls this in, is we as Native people are now opened up to a barrage of
questions about these beliefs and traditions…but these are not things that need or should be discussed by
outsiders. At all. I'm sorry if that seems 'unfair,' but that's how our cultures survive."
4. Kluckhohn, C. (1944). Navaho Witchcraft. Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America: Beacon
Press.
5. Carter, J. (2010, October 28). The Cowboy and the Skinwalker. Ruidoso News.
6. Teller, J., & Blackwater, N. (1999). The Navajo Skinwalker, Witchcraft, and Related Phenomena (1st
Edition ed.). Chinle, Arizona, United States of America: Infinity Horn Publishing.
7. Brady, M. K., & Toelken, B. (1984). Some Kind of Power: Navajo Children's Skinwalker Narratives. Salt
Lake City, Utah, United States of America: University of Utah Press.
 8. Brunvand, J. H. (2012). Native American Contemporary Legends. In J. H. Brunvand, Encyclopedia of
Urban Legends (2nd Edition ed.). Santa Barbara, California, United States of America.
9. Watson, C. (1996, August 11). Breakfast with Skinwalkers. Star Tribune.
10. "cryptid" (https://howtokillamonster.wixsite.com/cryptid/skinwalker). cryptid. Retrieved 2017-08-12.

Further reading
Brady, Margaret (1984). "Some Kind of Power": Navajo children's skinwalker narratives. University of
Utah Press.
Morgan, William (1936). "Human-Wolves among the Navaho". Yale University Publications in
Anthropology. 11.
Salzman, Michael (October 1990). "The Construction of an Intercultural Sensitizer Training Non-Navajo
Personnel". Journal of American Indian Education. 30 (1): 25–36.

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This page was last edited on 12 August 2017, at 02:31.

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