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The Navajo Skinwalker & 'Skinwalker Ranch'

In Jamie Hall's book details here:

www.forteantimes.com/forum/viewtopic.ph ... 314#599314

She discusses this on page 23:

For most North American Indian tribes, there was nothing inherently evil about being a werewolf. However, a few tribes deviated from the normal view, and believed that all werewolves were evil. The Zuni Indians liked werewolves, but the neighbouring Navajo considered them to be evil incarnate. "Skinwalker" is a word that is sued for werewolves, for people who could change into coyotes, and sometimes for other variants such as foxes, owls or bears.

Skinwalkers were sorcerers bent on wrecking people's lives. They were sneaky characters that climbed onto roofs at night to shake poisons or spell ingredients down the smoke hole. Strange sounds on the roof, or anything falling off the roof, were both sure signs that a skinwalker was around. Skinwalkers loved to stir trouble between ghosts and the living. They would dig up corpses, remove a finger or tongue, and then hide this body part in some innocent person's house. The ghost would look for its lost part, and then haunt whoever seemed to have it. This innocent person would be puzzled and horrified when an angry ghost began to persecute them

Some skinwalkers did not have ordinary blood instead they leaked a yellow substance. Skinwalkers were hard to kill, and while they were transformed, they could run much faster than any real animal. By their sorcery, they could stop bullets in midair and cause the engines of pursuing vehicles to die.
Click to expand...

His research is superbly detailled and there are 3 books listed that have Skinwalker in the title (there may be others in the books on Native American folkore also listed):

Brady, M.K. (1984) Some Kind of Power: Navaho Children's Skinwalker Narratives. Univeristy of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.
www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/08748 ... ntmagaz-21

Marika, K. (1972) Werewolves, Shapeshifters and Skinwalkers. Sherbourne Press, Los Angeles.

Teller, J. (1997) The Navajo Skinwalker, Witchcraft, & Related Spiritual Phenomena: Spiritual Clues : Orientation to the Evolution of the Circle. Infinity Horn Publishing, Chinle AZ.
www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/09656 ... ntmagaz-21

This all leaks into other areas of Forteana (polts, general weirdness, etc.) which incterestingly hook into some of the oddity at Skinwalker Ranch.

--------------
There is also a Skinwalker GN:

Synopsis

A killer is leaving a trail of bodies across the country, bodies without skin. The murders started on a Navajo reservation and lead all the way to Washington DC. Can reservation officer Anne Adakai and FBI Agent Gregory Haworth stop the killer before it's too late?
Click to expand...

www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/19299 ... ntmagaz-21

-------------
I also stumbled across another Skinwalker film that sounds more true to the legends:

www.forteantimes.com/forum/viewtopic.ph ... 858#599858
 
Hi TVGeek,
sorry to not have written back sooner.

I thought the book Hunt for the Skinwalker was an impressive look at science attempting to confront the paranormal. The events in the book run the gamut of nearly all types of phenomena, and that is what makes this account so compelling. I recommend it highly to anyone interested in accounts of high strangeness.

Personally, their views on the explanation do seem to answer many of the questions posed by the phenomena. Yet, for me at least, I still find the book disquieting. I've long held the idea that much of paranormal phenomena could be related somehow. I'm glad that someone else has exprssed the same view.

I give it :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: out of five.
 
Well, I've been puzzling over the end of the book for a few days now...

Like I stated before -- it covered almost every aspect of paranormal
activity. They even touched on the disinformation about the alien
base in Dulce, New Mexico.

It ALMOST seems as though the conclusion of the book was written
before the investigation began. It reads like a sales pitch for NIDS.
By that, I mean it states very coherently that standard
science cannot work in paranormal cases because of the fact that there
seems to be intelligence behind the paranormal. Which makes it ultimately unpredictable. Don't get me wrong -- it was a valid stance but it kind of came across like making excuses for why no definite conclusions could be drawn.

I definitely agree with them about how a team like NIDS could not exist
in the academic/governmentally funded world. I've personally seen how
petty and childish academics can be to anyone who threatens their turf.
The scientists at NIDS will be ostracized for life.

They make a very good argument for treating the paranormal like you
would a counterintelligence project. But, to me that implies that
information -- either true or false -- is being passed back and forth.

The author uses the old analogy of a government sending a
delegation to send greetings to a troop of mountain gorillas.
What sort of information / disinformation could we give them --
or the gorilla's to us?

(My opinion is that a criminal police / forensic / CSI tactic
might be a better approach.)

The authors very carefully traced all possiblilties: the military, the Native
Americans, earth lights / seismic phenomena, hallucinogens in the
air/water, even who could be behind a hoax and what their
benefit would be.

They did draw a great parallel with shamans in Siberia who seem
to attract UFO activity during meditation. They acknowledge
that the UFOs appear -- but insist that they are merely a distraction
and are NOT the focus of their meditation. ( I have recently heard
something similiar form a guy I know who meditates. He says that if
rappings or whatever start to manifest -- they seem attracted by the meditation and are there as a sort of test to see if the meditator can keep their concentration where it belongs.)
I thought that was an interesting take.

The final conclusion was that it was not a true skinwalker in the
Apache sense. Skinwalker's are considered evil and deadly. Through the entire investigation, cattle were mutilated and dogs were killed -- but no human was physically injured, apart from being extremely frightened.
A skinwalker would not have hesitated to kill, and there were many
clear opportunities.

If only they had gone further into the stories of
dog-headed men! ;)

TVgeek
 
Mighty_Emperor said:
Someone has extracted something on them here (not sure of the source):

http://forums.sohh.com/showpost.php?p=2 ... stcount=58
Click to expand...

I think I've found the source which has references too so I'll include it here (as the riginal had to be extracted from the Web Archive):

Navajo Skinwalkers

by Doug Hickman

Getting information about Navajo witches, called Skinwalkers, has been kind of difficult; Navajos do not talk about the powers of the dark side of their culture. They do not want any type of retaliation against them. I have even been scolded by my elders not to do my paper on the Skinwalkers. I have been told that if a Navajo witch finds out I am doing my paper on them, I could be witched. This is the twentieth-century, but there is still a great fear of the Navajo witch.

The Navajos have always lived in harmony with their surroundings. Navajo do not kill animals or humans for the sake of killing. The insects and animals have the same right to be here as humans do. It was the insects and animals in the Navajo creation story that showed the Navajos the way to the next worlds.

There is a character in the Navajo folk tales by the name of "Hosteen Coyote." He is the most mischievous of all animals. He causes trouble and disrupts the lives of animals and humans who come in contact with him. However he is not the skin walker. Coyote is always trying to make life as easy as possible for himself, however he does not look to harm other creatures intentionally. However the creatures I will talk about are not Hosteen Coyote, and their intention is to inflict as much pain and misery as possible on other people.

The Navajos are the largest Native American tribe in North America. There are over 170,000 tribal members. As with any culture there are members that do not follow the laws of their people. Some of these people are witches. Some of these witches are called "Skinwalkers." These witches stalk the nights wearing animal skins; they roam the night looking for unsuspecting victims to harm. Through ancient native spiritual abilities and powers they have the ability to imitate the animal whose skin they are wearing. The Skinwalker uses witchcraft. Witchcraft is evil magic a person uses to do harm to another person.

According the Navajo Medicine Woman's website, one of the ways a Skinwalker places its evil hexes is by using a witchcraft bundle. Witchcraft bundles are used to place hexes and curses on a person. They are usually placed where the person lives or is around a lot. One way to fight against the evil magic is by a medicine bundle. These witches are not biased; they will cast their spells upon Navajos and non-Navajos. Medicine bundles are used to prevent and protect the person from hexes and curses. A medicine man will give a person who is infected by evil magic a ceremony to figure out what type of hex is on the victim. Once the medicine man knows what kind of evil magic is on the victim, he will then perform a healing ceremony and give a victim a medicine bundle to help cure the disease.

Is the Navajo Skinwalker the same as the white man's werewolf? Yes, if the Navajo witch wears the skin of a wolf. But the Navajo witches can mimic any animal they choose, not just the wolf. They can be a cat, a coyote, a dog, a bear, whatever the Navajo witch wants to be. The American wolf man was a person who metamorphosed into a hairy creature when there was a full moon. The werewolf is limited to their current surrounding. The wolf man is also limited in his intelligence and abilities; his mind is at the same level as an animal.

The Navajo witches pick their skins for the type of job they plan to do. The coyote skin is for high speed, accurate sense of smell, and the acute agility. The bear skin is for brute strength, however the bear is not as fast as the coyote. Along with their new abilities, the Navajo Skinwalkers still retain their full mental capacities. If the Navajo witch is a fairly or highly intelligent person, when he or she changes into a Skinwalker they carry that intelligence with them and you have a very dangerous opponent. Unlike the wolf man, the Skinwalker will use their whole bag of tricks--mind control, disease, and immobilization powder. A number of hexes and spells can also be used (Navajo Medicine Woman).

The Navajo Skinwalkers use mind control to make their victims do things to hurt themselves and even end their lives. Skinwalkers have been known to place objects in the bodies of their victims. These objects cause pain, illness and even death. The Skinwalker is a very powerful witch; they can run faster than a car and jump mesa cliffs without any effort at all.

Every culture has shape shifters. The people of India have the wer-tiger, in Africa the wer-leopards and wer-jackals, in Egypt the wer- hyenas. Just too name a few. Native Americans have people who can change their shape into birds, deer, or any animal they choose. But they do not all use their shape shifting for evil.

Like I said earlier, it was very difficult to gather information. Navajos do not want to talk about the Skinwalkers. The people I talked to were people who I knew very well. A stranger asking questions about Navajo witchcraft is looking for trouble and will bring trouble. The stranger asking the questions could very will be a Skinwalker looking for his next victim.

Works Cited

* Navajo Medicine Woman

See also:

  • * Brady, Margaret. Some Kind of Power: Navajo Children's Skinwalker Narratives. Salt Lake City: U of Utah P, 1984.

    * Kluckhohn, Clyde. Navajo Witchcraft. Boston: Beacon Press, 1967.

    * Toelken, Barre. "Life and Death in the Navajo Coyote Tales." In Recovering the Word: Essays on Native American Literature. Ed. by Brian Swann and Arnold Krupat. Berkeley: U of California P, 1987.
Click to expand...

http://web.archive.org/web/200404052257 ... lkers.html

The Navajo Medcine Woman site is the site of the person who wrote one of the books mentioned above:

http://web.archive.org/web/200306222048 ... n/Book.htm
 
And another page only in the Web Archive (so again I'm including it here):

COYOTES IN THE MIST: A NAVAJO SKINWALKER PRIMER

By Newton Rialto, Archivist

WHAT IS A SKINWALKER: A Navajo witch who can transform himself/herself into an animal form for the sake of harming others. We have not uncovered any information that describes Skinwalkers in positive terms, so it would appear that all Skinwalkers are considered inherently evil.

ARE SKINWALKERS ALWAYS COYOTES? Although transforming themselves into coyotes appears to be a common Skinwalker trick, they can actually assume the image of many animals. The Navajo make a clear distinction between coyotes (the wild canids), Hosteen Coyote (a Navajo folk character often depicted as a practical joker) and the malevolent witches or Skinwalkers. No matter how you look at it, though, coyotes are probably best avoided while on Navajo land.

DO SKINWALKERS TARGET THEIR VICTIMS? In many cases, yes. The witchdoctor may target enemies within his community for death, then visit and kill them while in animal form. The witch is able to amplify and direct his powers through the use of witchcraft bundles (Blair Witch Project, anyone?), although it is still unclear how this works. In other cases, Skinwalker-related murders appear to be completely random, often befalling the unfortunate wanderer late at night. Many of the Navajo superstitions about the night may have been devised to keep tribe members inside and safe after the sun sets.

DO SKINWALKERS TARGET ONLY NAVAJO PEOPLE? No, anyone is fair game. The first three deaths on this current expedition (all originally described as attacks by rabid coyotes) were of Anglos. Two subsequent deaths have been of Navajo tribe members.

WHAT DOES A SKINWALKER LOOK LIKE? It's hard to say since they can take so many animal forms. The popular coyote-form is usually described as being as large as a full-grown man is and able to walk upright. The Skinwalker can outrun a speeding car and jump up the side of a mesa with no effort whatsoever. Skinwalkers are often described from a distance, seen out a window as they prowl the edges of a village. Sometimes they will trick humans by posing as a hapless hitchhiker on a dark, lonely road. Or a shadowy panhandler looking for a meal outside the local bar. Skinwalkers are usually associated with nighttime, torchlight and a mysterious mist that precedes their arrival.

WHAT SKILLS AND POWERS DOES THE SKINWALKER HAVE? It is noteworthy that the Skinwalker – unlike the werewolf – is able to retain his entire human knowledge and self-awareness. This way, the Skinwalker is more capable of focussing his aggression and hatred on a specific target or engage in elaborate trickery. Additionally, the Skinwalker retains all of his dark magical powers and will employ these as needed. If the Skinwalker does not wish to cast suspicion on himself as a murderer, he may use sorcery to trick his prey into walking off a cliff or seasoning their food with rat poison. If the Skinwalker is interested in making himself known to the local populace, he may actually attack and kill his enemies. Afterwards, he may place an object – a calling card, if you will – inside the victim's mangled body.
Click to expand...

http://web.archive.org/web/200310190116 ... easts.html

This also has the caption for a photo which is intriguing (but raises more quesitons than it answers):

RIGHT: Dr. Bansidhe St. Quinlan compares the size of her hand to a Skinwalker footprint found in a muddy riverbed. This was some of the first physical evidence found on the mythical creatures during the Coyotes in the Mist expedition.
Click to expand...
 
reply.

Just to say thank you Mighty Emperor for going to the trouble to post all those links. I am a bit of a Luddite so my ability with a computer is minimal , so anyway thank you.
 
Sorry to bump this one up just finished the book, and what can I say, well not a lot, it was terrible, it's pretty obvious that when the family moved out so did most of the phenomena, makes one think.

No photographs you would think tha twith the wealth of evidence reported they could have included one or two, and so filled with contradictions, it fact it has made me extremely sceptical about the whole affair, mid way though it I got the distinct impression that the rancher had pulled a right flanker on NIDs, it's not getting good reviews on the US Amazon site. I know that much phenomena is hard to pin down, but the authors seem to have relied on one mans testimony, there is also a general failure to critically analyse the evidence, like who lived there before? what is the background of the family, and why so many contradictions
 
Mystery source for alienbattle tale revealed

Controversy has exploded onto the Internet following a contentious episode of Jesse Ventura's TruTV program "Conspiracy Theory" exposing high strangeness at aerospace entrepreneur Robert Bigelow's Skinwalker Ranch.

At issue: a rumor of a battle with extraterrestrial aliens passed on by physicist Dr. Jack Sarfatti, based upon a story he was told by a "mysterious French woman" Sarfatti has now identified as Antoine Gigal.

In the 1990s, Bob Bigelow funded UFO investigations under a group he founded called the National Institute of Discovery Sciences, also known as NIDS.

Among the many investigations conducted by NIDS was the mysterious case of the so-called Bigelow Skinwalker Ranch in a remote region of Utah, where a variety of paranormal phenomena had been reported.

According to Sarfatti’s account, the French woman “claimed an actual gun battle at Bigelow Ranch with Bob’s paramilitary against aliens out of the wormhole with dead and wounded humans. She was very convincing and Nick Cook heard the strange tale at his private London Club with me and another witness. I debriefed Kit Green and Ron Pandolfi soon after and the story caused a big stir.”

Pandolfi and Green are well known for their interest in unusual phenomena and their history of employment with the CIA. Green confirmed he was the chair of the NIDS science board during the ranch investigation.

“I was asked by the ‘CIA’ not to pursue the story in 2004, but now Bigelow has (allegedly, it seems) opened Pandora’s Box on the story.”

The story of an alien invasion was the latest in a series of odd claims about paranormal events haunting a remote ranch in Utah.

In his 1997 article for Spirit Magazine, republished on line, Dave Perkins recounts on one hellish incident reported by the previous ranch owner.

In the summer of 1994, Terry [Sherman] (a rancher and cattle breeder) and his wife Gwen (employed for 20 years at the local bank) had found their dream ranch ... The family started noticing "glowing blue balls" moving around the property ... Terry described it as "a glass ball about the size of a baseball," which appeared to contain "two blue fluids which intermingled with each other" ... the globe retreated and the Sherman's three dogs, after some coaxing, took off chasing it in snarling hot pursuit ... They lost sight of the ball and then heard a piercing yelp -- the three dogs did not return ... The next day Gwen and Terry found three burned circles in the woods. In the center of each circle, they discovered a greasy blob of what looked to be "shortening or butter" ... Feeling that they could no longer guarantee the safety of their children, they decided to call it quits. They would put the place up for sale and leave the hellish ranch.

The ranch was purchased by Bigelow, the founder of Bigelow Aerospace, a company focused on building inflatable space habitats for the next generation of corporate-backed space explorers.

When Bigelow told the New York Times "people have been killed" by UFOs, Sarfatti resuscitated a tale he had heard at a 2004 meeting in London.

"Why this strange elaborate story? That is the issue whether the events happened or not -- either way ... The issue is where did she get her story from? Why spill it to me?" asked Sarfatti. "Who told her about the ranch if it was not [former NIDS consultant] Jacques Vallee as she alleged?"
Click to expand...

http://stargate007.blogspot.co.uk/2012/ ... -tale.html
 
Mention of NIDS reminds me of the Vermicious Knids, the evil aliens from Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator.
 
gncxx said:
Mention of NIDS reminds me of the Vermicious Knids, the evil aliens from Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator.
Click to expand...

:D Makes me think of the Knights who say Ni!
 
I don't doubt that there is already a thread on this subject but thought I'd start a current one. I'm sure that there are those with more knowledge than me about so it would be good to hear from others and maybe introduce others to it if they are unaware.

I've been reading up on Skinwalker Ranch for the last week and find myself fascinated by it, probably not for the obvious reasons.


For those unaware of the history of this matter, the salient points -

1. George Knapp, a Las Vegas journalist with an interest in matters Fortean begins to write articles, and eventually a book about an isolated ranch in Western Utah. Knapp claimed that in the recent past, a family had purchased this ranch with the aim of working it. From the beginning of their time there they are almost besieged with all manner of strange events- encounters with strange creatures, strange orbs, mysterious lights, cattle mutilations, portals that appearded to let things in and general terrifying weirdness. Knapp gives it the names "Skinwalker Ranch", a reference to the Native American's legend of skinwalkers - a mystic person with the ability to shape shift.

2. Robert Bigelow, a hugely rich businessman with an interest in aerospace technology, hears of these events and activities. He offers to buy the ranch off the family so he can investigate. The family proverbially bite his hand off as they are desperate to leave so terrified they are.

3. Bigelow then secures the ranch and installs his National Institute for Dsicovery Science in there with the aim of investigating these reported strange phenomena. Amongst the investigators was retired Colonel John Alexander, a former Black Ops officer who then went on to lead the military's more esoteric experiments into telepathy, telekinesis and time travel.

4. By their own admission, the research team effectively find, and prove nothing. The best they seem to muster, again by their own admission, is an incident where some of their observation equipment was destroyed in what must have been seconds; an impossible act. Apart from that they tell those who are interested that they have found nothing of worth.

5. The investigations finish. The ranch is still owned by Bigelow and the NIDS have a presence there. It is guarded and secured tightly.


So that's the story I guess. It is claimed, now by various sources, that the wider area has always been a hotspot for UFO sightings as well as Bigfoot sightings. There is talk that native Americans consider the ranch area cursed. The site seems to have become something of a hotspot for those interested in Fortean anomolies as well as New Age types seeking spiritual exploration and beered-up party kids. Very few get close to the ranch due to the tight security and those intrepid trespassers that have report that there is little, if anything, of interest at the ranch. Despite all this interest and many, many stories of close encounters with the most extraordinary things including giant dinosaur-type lizards, wolves that form out of smoke and dog-headed men in trenchcoats smoking cigarettes. There seems to be no hard evidence of any sort. No significant photographs or videos, no anything concrete.

Amongst all this, there has developed much talk of conspiracies...both Bigelow and Alexander are men that seem to generate conspiracy theories whatever they do, wherever they go. It's been claimed that Bigelow has been spurred on to build himself a space craft to escape the Earth as what he learned at Skinwalker scared him that much. Alex Jones, that bastion of good sense and reason, claims Alexander is "probably one of the most scary, living people out there today", with his fingers in all manner of dark conspiracies. Both of these men's activities at Skinwalker have been connected with dark governmental/military research, the likes of which was alleged to have occured at Montauk and Dulce Base.


And then there's me. Overhwelmed by all this. So much talk but so little action, but still there's something I find both eerie and compelling. Have I just bought into the story, created by Knapp and added to by hundreds others, or is there really something occuring which if proved true could be almost beyond comprehension. Portals to other dimensions, travellers flitting between worlds, dark and terrible creatures stalking the deserts, orbs or pure fear whose aim? How are we to know.
 
Apologies. Mods- feel free to delete if desired.
 
I was going to buy this film from Amazon, as the story looked good
 
I haven't seen the film but as I understand it is only very, very loosely based on "real" events.
 
Given what the supposedly true events are, you would think they would have used it. I may still buy it, i think its dirt cheap anyway
 
They seem to have put a more "human interest" element in it. I have to say, the trailer looks half-decent to me. But everything else suggests it's not up to much :)
 
The big black doggy thing walking past the window growling, in the trailer, gave me a right fright lol
 
Just bought it, it was only 49p, so if its no good, no real loss, the plot is this


A scientific research team investigates and documents the supernatural phenomena surrounding the disappearance of eight year old Cody, who vanished in to thin air right before his parents eyes on their Utah ranch. When the group arrive almost a year later, the inexplainable incidents begin to escalate. From otherworldly lights, shadowy figures and even cattle mutilation, the team must decide how far they should go to unlock the mysteries of Skinwalker Ranch and whether the answers are worth risking their lives for.

So its based when the team get there
 
Sone of the orb lights portal doodads looked pretty cool I thought :)
 
LOL, love it when you talk all scientific
It does look interesting, i will let you know, it should take about a week. But i do find this story fascinating, it has an aweful lot happening in it, like it cant decide what to be
 
Please, look into the case then, I think you would enjoy it.

One part of me sees it as the John Keel/Patrick Harpur neoplatonic idea that manifestations are the work of cosmic tricksters...whether they manifest as Bigfoot, aliens, fairies....dog men smoking cigarettes- they are all of the same source and value.

Another part of me sees it as a cracking piece of fiction by George Knapp.
 
I think maybe something did happen, then he blew it all out of proportion.
 
Well, the whole area (according to Knapp admittedly) has long been an area associated with ancient legends and folklore. Along with this, in more modern times, lots of UFO sightings. I guess an English comparison maybe Wiltshire.

It's obviously very possible that Knapp soaked up some of this atmosphere and it fed his writings.

Oh- as far as I can tell the original family have never spoken publicly- interesting.

Also, if it is an entire invention of Knapp- Bigelow and his million dollar reaserch team must have been taken in too. Again, interesting.
 
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