By Trigo Jose Marroquin
Skinwalker art by DoubleOurEfforts on Reddit.
A lot of native myths have been changed from their original stories due to the movie industry. Many people in the Navajo population don’t like to speak of these stories or tales due to the fact they’re rumored to be haunted and call the spirits to be stalkers of you.
When we think of skinwalkers, we think of monsters that have no meat on their bones that Hollywood sold us like in the movie skinwalker ranch. But in reality, they look like any other human. They are Navajo witches who use animal pelts. While they may look like us, they use a magic called “bad medicine” to harm people. They are similar to curses that are placed on someone.
There was a skinwalker by the name of Tall Man. He lived in an old Navajo community. Everyone knew what he did, but no one would attack him due to the fact that, in moments of panic, he could curse many innocent people if he went down.
In the modern day, a common name for this creature is skinwalker, but their Native name is “yee naaldlooshii.” This is a name that would rock any Navajo person to their core, as it’s rumored that if you talk about them, they know about it.
Photo taken from allthatsinteresting.com, by Legends of America.
While there are only stories about skinwalkers, there are many kids’ stories that you would tell around the campfire. My favorite one was told to me when I was young. It was about a little kid home alone with his baby brother and the neighbor’s child. All of their parents were out that night, so he had his brother in bed. He and his friend were watching a movie when, out of the blue, their front door was pounding heavily, making the walls rattle.
In the heat of the moment, his friend ran out while he ran under the bed, forgetting his baby brother on the bed. After what felt like hours of knocking, it ended, and everything seemed normal. He got out from under the bed as more knocking came from the door. He heard his father come in and asked where his friend was. When they went to check on the baby, they found only a puddle of blood with the baby’s head missing. His friend was missing completely, only his shoe left behind with a blood trail leading into the woods.
The father gathered some of his friends and went out to hunt and find the kids. As they left, they were hit by a scent of rotting flesh, but they pushed through. While following the blood trail, they found a house in the middle of a field outside the forest. They looked around the house and the land to see if there was anything left outside, but they only found a blood trail going into the house.
So they went in. The only thing they found was an old couple. They soon questioned the old couple, but they didn’t say anything until one of the hunters noticed blood under a bear-pelt rug. They lifted it, showing an entry to a basement. Once they entered, they smelled rotting flesh and were met with a sight of both animal and human heads — and a figure that looked like the neighbor’s child, but twisted. Once they moved closer, whatever it was melted into the shape of a fox and jumped away.
This story tells two warnings — one for kids, saying you should always care about your little brother when you may be in danger, and the other warning parents about leaving their kids home alone for a while. While skinwalkers are medicine people who choose to do evil and not good, they harm others with “bad medicine” and curse them with bad health.
Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, and southeastern Utah are considered the home of the skinwalker. Are where the skinwalker is found most often, while the specific location known as “Skinwalker Ranch” lies further north in the Uintah Basin, an area traditionally inhabited by the Ute tribe who believe the creatures were sent there as a curse. This Four Corners region encompassing the Navajo Nation remains the true heart of the legend, where the vast, desolate landscape of canyons and mesas provides the perfect cover for these beings to travel unseen by those who do not know what to look for.