As far as dreaming goes, I am not certain why I had peculiar dreams during our heaviest visitation period. It could've simply been the strangeness of the whole situation and my subconscious simply trying to process it all. I don't think that skinwalkers can physically harm a person through dreams. If that were the case, there wouldn't be a whole lot of need for their medicine bundles. The caution with hair in her dream, however, is rather interesting. Hair of the victim is the number one ingredient for a malicious medicine bundle. Many Navajo on the reservation burn their trash as opposed to leaving it out in a can for regular pickup. Hair, fingernail clippings, blood--all bad things to be leaving around outside for the Navajo.

They most often are viewed as being a very large dog. The brown was probably a coyote fur, the most popular skin for them. There is alot of talk about experiences of shooting at said "dogs" and not having it do anything. Kluckhohn even wrote of an account about this phenomena and the assumption by the teller was that what had been fired at was not actually the person beneath the skin but part of the costume itself. Gun jamming is common. A person can have a freshly cleaned, fully functioning gun and it will jam. Why is an absolute mystery. Some in our family would sprinkle ash on it while praying in Navajo to keep it from jamming.

I wouldn't condone killing a skinwalker at all. Number one, they are human beings and they don't generally attack a person directly. Most of what they do is spiritually motivated. That being said, a medicine man would be the more appropriate outlet. However, if one is out in the middle of nowhere and they are getting brazen, it is really common for them to be fired upon. This has its own dangers, however. We had one member of the family get a confirmed hit on a skinwalker. He was found murdered in his home (stabbed to death) shortly after that. It's said that if you kill a skinwalker, you and your family will be forever plagued by skinwalkers for revenge. It's a far safer bet to go with a medicine man.

My apologies for the delay in reply. Been busy here.

Stephanie

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