Skin Walkers are a legendary cryptid that have become one of the most feared creatures in all of folklore.

However, their true nature has been seriously misunderstood due to the misrepresentations in popular culture and the Navajo people’s reluctance to discuss them with outsiders 123. In Navajo folklore, a skinwalker is known as Yi naldushi, an evil witch who has forsaken the values and morals of society in favor of a wicked and depraved lifestyle. Their primary purpose is to spread chaos and invert the social order using their powerful magic for nefarious purposes like spreading disease and disrupting the most sacred Navajo rituals. The legend of the shapeshifting entity known as the Skinwalker has largely been relegated to hoax status. After all, it is difficult to believe that a humanoid figure has been transforming into a four-legged animal and terrorizing families in the American Southwest. While unscientific, the Navajo Skinwalker does have deep roots in Native American lore.

To uncover their very messed up origins, we need to get lost in some lore. There are a lot of misunderstandings surrounding Skin Walkers thanks to Hollywood reducing them to Native American werewolves and the internet taking this misrepresentation and running with it. Another huge contributing factor is the Navajo people’s reluctance to discuss skinwalkers at all let alone with outsiders as many believe that discussing them attracts their attention. It’s absolutely their right to do that but when curious outsiders can’t get answers they’re naturally going to make up their own. Our resident historian Meredith Walker used the closest thing to first-hand accounts that are available during her research. Anthropologist Clyde Kluckhohn was one of the first researchers to document Navajo culture in detail, including their beliefs about skinwalkers. He wrote that “the Navajo are reluctant to speak much about them because they believe that when discussed, skinwalkers have a tendency to intrude upon or otherwise disrupt the lives of those who talk about them” . in a book called “A Long Navajo Trails: Recollections of a Traitor 1898-1948”. That traitor was named Will Evans, and during his time living in New Mexico, he put an unusual amount of effort into preserving what he learned from his Navajo customers and friends, including stories, superstitions, and religious practices as he understood them.

One such story came from a customer who Evans refers to as “Tall Man”. He mentions a peculiar neighbor from his childhood named Many Goats Uncle. According to Tall Man, his whole neighborhood suspected Many Goats Uncle of being a skinwalker, so they avoided him at all costs. Trades were kept to a minimum, and he was excluded from community rituals. It should be mentioned that no one had any proof of his skinwalker ways; it was all secondhand stories and hearsay. But whenever a tragic event occurred, he was blamed. Someone would get sick seemingly out of nowhere, and the medicine man’s methods would fail to fight the illness. Elixirs, sand paintings, herbs, chants - they were all useless. And so the medicine man would say, “Well, Many Goats Uncle must have thrown one of his bad medicine darts.” Then they’d cut the skin of the patient to suck out the bad medicine.

As time went on, the community’s fear of Many Goats Uncle grew. And at one point, rumors circulated that he had taken the form of a coyote, dug up the grave of a recently deceased infant, and devoured its body. Then he supposedly used that baby’s hair, clothes, and bones to make the bad medicine he placed in his darts. So whenever a coyote howled at night, the young people would cower and hide while the older folks would say: “There goes Many Goats Uncle. I wonder who’s next?” In conclusion, Skin Walkers are a fascinating and terrifying part of Navajo folklore. While there is much we don’t know about them, it’s important to approach this topic with respect for Navajo culture and traditions. Next we learn about Many Goats Uncle, a man who was suspected of being a Skin Walker by his entire neighborhood. Although there was no proof of his alleged powers, the community avoided him at all costs and excluded him from their rituals. Whenever a tragic event occurred, Many Goats Uncle was blamed. People would get sick out of nowhere, and the medicine man’s methods would fail to fight the illness. Elixirs, sand paintings, herbs, chants - they were all useless. The medicine man would say, “Well, Many Goats Uncle must have thrown one of his bad medicine darts.” Then they’d cut the skin of the patient to suck out the bad medicine. As time went on, the community’s fear of Many Goats Uncle grew. Rumors circulated that he had taken the form of a coyote and dug up the grave of a recently deceased infant to devour its body. He supposedly used that baby’s hair, clothes, and bones to make the bad medicine he placed in his darts. Whenever a coyote howled at night, young people would cower and hide while older folks would say, “There goes Many Goats Uncle. I wonder whose baby he’ll get tonight.”

This story is just one example of how legends develop in Navajo society. It’s fascinating to see how different perspectives - from adult Navajo who had to live alongside supposed Skin Walkers to Navajo children who often make Skin Walkers the culprit of their scary stories - contribute to these tales.

This next story is called “Hastiin & Ashkii”. It is a Navajo ghost story that comes from a book called “Some Kind of Power” by Margaret K. Brady. The story follows a family of five who lived in a small house in the Utah Boonies. Whenever they needed supplies like food and blankets, they would have to ride out to the Trading Post, which was roughly a half-day’s journey away. One day, the parents and daughter headed out for one of these trading post runs, leaving their son, who we’ll call Uski, to take care of the baby. Maybe not the wisest decision, but the baby was a year old so not a complete newborn. Uski had proven that he could be trusted watching over him for a little while. Plus, he invited a friend over to help. Their babysitting gigs started very smoothly. Almost boring. The baby did get fussy here and there, but after some food and a little bit of playtime, Uski successfully put him to sleep. Everything stayed aesthetic until sunset. While the boys were alone and the baby was sleeping, they heard some scratching at the window. But when they looked outside, they didn’t see anything. Then they heard a knock at the door, but when they opened it up, no one was there. So they locked it and went back to their business. The boys were a little weirded out at this point, but as the minutes rolled by and everything went silent again, they started to calm down. When suddenly they heard pounding at the door. Someone wasn’t knocking to see if anyone was home.