Skinwalkers are sometimes considered to be the purest remnant of Navajo culture still existing on the reservation today. According to old stories in regards to them, they were ostracized and excommunicated from the Navajo tribe long ago after a disagreement and this disconnection is probably one of the factors that has perhaps led to their maintaining of very old traditions. Skinwalkers are fairly outside the law. The Navajo, generally, will not call the police if one should happen to be lurking around their house. The skinwalker is not for the police to deal with but a medicine man.

There is a serious taboo in regards to skinwalkers that limits information being dispersed in regards to them, both within the tribe and outside of it as well. The first taboo is discussion of them, which is prohibited. The reason for this taboo is twofold: endangerment and guilt by association. Many Navajo believe that discussing skinwalkers openly will draw the skinwalkers' interest to the person doing the talking (or perhaps even the listening). It is not considered safe to talk about them at all, though they are discussed but never really named. Skinwalkers are often referred to as simplying being a "visitor" and the activities that they may have done are tightly confined to "being visited". You might find somebody who may say that they were "visited last night" and mention how tired they are. That is generally the extent of the conversation. However, discussion of skinwalkers and their activities will occur within family units. Oftentimes, the skinwalker will not just plague one individual family group within a larger family. They may also be visiting cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents as well. Therefore, closed communication in regards to their activities is somewhat essential in order to properly handle it (ie arranging a blessing way).

The second discussion taboo is basically a social constraint. If a Navajo talks too much about skinwalkers or seems to be very knowledgable in their activities, they run the risk of being declared one by knowing too much. Skinwalkers live in stark opposition to the Navajo Beauty Way. To be declared a skinwalker is not only dangerous from fear of repercussions but also a severe insult to any Navajo.

The discussion taboo also serves to protect the skinwalkers as well. The lack of information sharing in regards to them prevents overt observation of their activities, particuliarly by outsiders who are less likely to be superstitious in regards to them. To impress on the reader as to how well the discussion taboo works, nearly every resident on the Navajo reservation, irregardless of race, is aware of skinwalkers. This, at present, is roughly a little over 150,000 people with knowledge in regards to skinwalkers, often gained by close secondhand information (a close friend or family member who may have had firsthand experience). A small, unidentifiable portion of this population has had firsthand experience with skinwalkers. Considering that skinwalkers have been in existence within the tribe for centuries, the sparse amount of publicized or published information in regards to them is severely limited.

Running a simple search on the internet using the keyword "skinwalker" will generate nearly 20,000 hits. A high portion of these hits are in reference to skinwalker fiction (ie Smallville episode, a comic book and Hillerman's book/movie). The smaller portion is either firsthand or secondhand accounts of actual visitations and repetitions of a Coyote tale that supposedly discusses their origin (which could very well be a Navajo urban legend in itself which I will discuss in another post). The firsthand accounts are often from what would be construed as "outsiders" (not a member of the navajo tribe) who may have had a SW native american friend that attempted to help them understand what they had encountered. Books on the topic are often limited as well. Once again, mostly gained from secondhand accounts though sometimes firsthand. There is one book in particuliar that was a serious attempt at studying skinwalkers but the author, an anthropologist, was resigned to garnering this information by querying Navajo hitchhikers who were more likely to discuss them without fear of repercussion. My copy has disappeared but I am pretty sure that it was Clyde Kluckhohn's "Navajo Witchcraft". It is an excellent book and I highly recommend it.

Detailed information in regards to skinwalkers is extraordinarily limited even with taking literature and information on the internet into consideration. Because of this, relegating skinwalkers into being purely paranormal and supernatural is quite easy. They are confined to being described as were-creatures with seemingly supernatural abilities and attributes. It is not uncommon for a Navajo describing an account to encounter pure disbelief and even ridicule in discussing them with outsiders. All of this limits the availablity of information, examination of skinwalkers, and, by social constraint, keeps them safely tucked away in an unfavorable field of study. With so much resulting superstition and disbelief surrounding them as a direct result of discussion taboo, skinwalkers are protected by the taboo as well.

This will be the first of, hopefully, several posts in regards to skinwalkers that I will write. In following posts, I will go into skinwalker's appearance, traits, abilities, and origin stories. I am in breach of the discussion taboo by making these posts but considering that my family is already plagued by them and has been so for generations, there is not a whole lot to fear. lol

Stephanie













In every man there is something wherein I may learn of him, and in that I am his pupil.--Ralph Waldo Emerson