Navajo Witches: The Skinwalker

I feel like everyone has a show that they watch with their family just as background noise or just something to throw on during the day while everyone does their own thing. My family’s is Ghost Adventures. One of the best episodes in my opinion takes the main crew hunting for “Skinwalkers” in Skinwalker Canyon located in historic Navajo land. I recently just re-watched that episode and I realized how many connections the legend of the Skinwalker has to witches and witchcraft. Interested, I decided to research more, and what I found has fascinated me. The Skinwalker has been a mainstay in Navajo culture for centuries. A Skinwalker, or in Navajo language “yee naaldlooshii”, is a harmful witch that has the ability to possess or turn into an animal or a blend between human and animal. These creatures are among the most deadly and dangerous of all Navajo legends. In Navajo culture, one becomes a Skinwalker by conversing with religious figures, like shaman, who practice Skinwalker “magic” and donning animal hides and entering trance-like states by drinking concoctions and taking natural herbal remedies. These witches patrol the darkest corners of Navajo land and plague those who have wronged them. Traditionally, the main drive for one to become a Skinwalker is to take revenge one those who have crossed them. The legend has stayed until today and many tribe leaders claim that Skinwalkers torment those who encroach on their land. Here is the crazy part, Skinwalkers exist! Spiritual leaders practice rituals to contain those who are Skinwalkers and people regularly report being stalked by Skinwalkers. These indigenous witches are drastically different than the traditional idea of the witch, are as equally terrifying, yet conform to the same fears that European and Salem witches represent: a break from the traditional norm in an effort to explain the unknown.

Skinwalkers, in many ways, are similar to the witches media have portrayed as normal. They are social outcasts that don’t fit in to what is considered normal. Their legend originated in a deeply spiritual society, similar to that in Europe, and they’re explains things that religion couldn’t provide an answer for. Their dark magic is one of taboo in Navajo society, much like the witches of Europe and Salem, and those who create Skinwalkers were hunted in the Navajo Witch Purge of 1878 to stop sickness, plague, drought, and poor crop yields that haunted the Navajo people for decades. They essentially were the explanation of all the bad things that happened, much like the witches of Europe. Yet, Navajo Skinwalkers have many intriguing qualities that not only bolster their legend, but complicate the idea of what even is a witch. First, most Skinwalkers are male. This is a drastic change in the comparison to European witches. Why is this? Navajo culture is not as patriarchal as European or American. Furthermore, the fact that most Skinwalkers are male shows that the creation of this legend wasn’t one rooted in fear and sexism, as it was in Europe and Salem, but rather one solely in fear of the unknown. This is largely contributed to the nature of Navajo religion that revolves around nature. When bad things happen, nature punishes the Navajo people through Skinwalkers. This makes the Skinwalker something to fear at another level beyond what people feared in Europe, which most of the time was an outspoken woman. Second, the image of a Skinwalker is arguably much scarier than that of the European witch. Imagine a half human-half animal demon ravaging your home. Their powers, including controlling minds and thoughts, causing instant death, creating illnesses, and even changing weather, combined with this image are truly haunting.

Skinwalkers truly are stuff of legend. They are the witches people still fear today. Sightings happen regularly and those brave enough are trying to find evidence of their continued existence. A story from the early 2000s tells of a man who was making repairs on an old ranch home when he began to hear loud laughter coming from the nearby sheep pens. Thinking he was alone, he went to investigate and found all of the sheep but one huddled in one corner of the pen. However, there was a lone ram separated from the group that was standing upright and laughing in a very human manner. After the man locks eyes with the ram, he sees that his eyes are not that of an animal, but very like a human’s. The animal then casually walked away on all four legs. The Skinwalker belief in Navajo culture likely played a role in why Americans were ready to subjugate Native Americans through most of American history. The Skinwalker represented a break from the norm and fears that could not be explained. The parallels are shocking between the Skinwalker and the European witch. However, I would argue that the Skinwalker is one of same, if not more, fascination and fear. I am looking forward to researching more, but it may be hard to find more, as Navajo leaders will no longer speak of Skinwalkers and their legend to outsiders. Who knows? Maybe one day surfaces that proves the existence of this menacing being.