There's a considerable difference between the masks of NW native tribes and skinwalkers. The masks of which you speak are sacred, religious objects. Putting something like this on display or for sale would be really quite bad. Skinwalkers, however, are not sacred. In fact, they are far from it. It is believed that they live in complete opposite of the Navajo way and they are no longer part of the dine. The taboos relating to discussion or depiction of skinwalkers is completely different. I talked about the taboos some time ago. Here's the thread:

[www.hallofmaat.com]

Now, the artist who displayed this picture was shunned and regarded with outrage. And yes, accused of being a skinwalker himself. The toll that the skinwalker taboos take on the people is really quite bad. Did you know that if somebody has unexplained success or newfound wealth, they are suspected of witchcraft or being a skinwalker? If somebody is different, well they could be one as well. Think about what happened in Salem, Massachusetts. The same kind of problem is alive and well on the Navajo reservation. Jealous of a person? Well, hey, they could be a skinwalker. Don't like somebody? Well, they might just be a skinwalker. The Navajo observe the taboo in the very public sense but they do not observe it totally themselves. Look at me, Warwick. I would be accused of either being a skinwalker or being closely associated with them because of what I have gathered on them. What prevails in the face of the taboo is gossip and fingerpointing.

The original intent of the taboo regarding skinwalkers was probably never meant to become as it did. I'm sure it was intended to protect the people from abomination in the form of skinwalkers to little effect (they DO get discussed). However, there is no question that the taboo itself has created an environment that is very inappropriate to the Navajo way of life. This isn't protecting a sacred element of a ceremony, which is unquestionably the right thing to do. It is banning the discussion of an abomination to the Navajo way and a public "ignore" of their very existence.

Stephanie

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