Skin-walker (mythology)

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This article is about the legendary creature. For other uses, see Skin-walker.

A skin-walker is a person with the supernatural ability to turn into any animal he or she desires, generally in a Native American context. Similar creatures can be found in numerous cultures' lores all over the world, closely related to beliefs in werewolves and other "were" creatures. The Mohawk Indian word "limikkin" is sometimes used to describe all skin-walkers.

1 Navajo Skinwalker: the Yee Naaldlooshii
2 Hopi Skinwalking
3 Norse Beliefs
4 Use in pop-culture
5 References
6 Notes
7 See also
8 External links

[edit] Navajo Skinwalker: the Yee Naaldlooshii

Main article: Witch (Navajo)

Possibly the best documented skin-walker beliefs are those relating to the Navajo yee naaldlooshii (literally "with it, he goes on all fours" in the Navajo language). A yee naaldlooshii is one of the several varieties of Navajo witch (specifically an ’ánt’įįhnii or practitioner of the Witchery Way, as opposed to a user of curse-objects (’adagąsh) or a practitioner of Frenzy Way (’azhįtee)). Technically, the term refers to an ’ánt’įįhnii who is using his (rarely her) powers to travel in animal form.

The ’ánt’įįhnii are human beings who have gained supernatural power by breaking a cultural taboo. Specifically, a person is said to gain the power to become a yee naaldlooshii upon initiation into the Witchery Way. Both men and women can become ’ánt’įįhnii and therefore possibly skinwalkers, but men are far more numerous. It is generally thought that only childless women can become witches.

Although it is most frequently seen as a coyote, wolf, owl, bear, fox, or crow, the yee naaldlooshii is said to have the power to assume the form of any animal they choose, depending on what kind of abilities they need. Witches use the form for expedient travel, especially to the Navajo equivalent of the 'Black Mass', a perverted sing (and the central rite of the Witchery Way) used to curse instead of to heal. They also may transform to escape from pursuers.

A skinwalker is usually described as naked, except for a coyote skin, or wolf skin. Some Navajos describe them as a mutated version of the animal in question. The skin may just be a mask, like those which are the only garment worn in the witches' sing.

Because animal skins are used primarily by skin-walkers, the pelt of animals such as bears, coyotes, wolves, and cougars are strictly tabooed. Sheepskin and buckskin are probably two of the few hides used by Navajos, the latter is used only for ceremonial purposes.

Often, Navajos tell of their encounter with a skin-walker, though there may be some hesitancy to reveal the story to non-Navajos, or (understandably) to talk of such frightening things at night. Sometimes the skin-walker will try to break into the house and attack the people inside, and will often bang on the walls of the house, knock on the windows, and climb onto the roofs. Sometimes, a strange, animal-like figure is seen standing outside the window, peering in. Other times, a skinwalker may attack a vehicle and cause a car accident. The skin-walkers are described as being fast, agile, and impossible to catch. Though some attempts have been made to shoot or kill one, they are not usually successful. Sometimes a skinwalker will be tracked down, only to lead to the house of someone known to the tracker. As in European werewolf lore, sometimes a wounded skinwalker will escape, only to have someone turn up later with a similar wound which reveals them to be the witch.^[1] If someone was to find out who the skin walker really is one could say his/her name and say "you're a skin walker" they would instantly die.

There are many ways to protect oneself from a skin-walker, which may include one of the several protection ceremonies from a "medicine man" or singer, or simply rubbing cedar ash on one's body if forced to walk outside at night. Corn pollen may also be used, as well as "ghost beads", or juniper berries.

[edit] Hopi Skinwalking

In ancient Hopi culture there was a ritual ceremony once performed called the Ya Ya Ceremony. In this ceremony members would change themselves into various animals using the hide from the animal they chose, and the members use certain animal attributes like sight, strength,etc. The ceremony was banned after members developed a disease of the eyes.

[edit] Norse Beliefs

In Norse folklore, a skin-walker is a person who can travel in the shape of an animal and learn secrets, or take on certain characteristics of an animal. The person is then said to be wearing that animal's hide. The most well-known example of the latter is the warrior who takes on the strength and stamina of a bear, called "bear shirt" or ber sarkur, the origins of the word berserker; similarly, there were wolf-based warriors, called ulfheðnar or "wolf-coats". They were said, aside from the battle-rage the animal spirit granted, to have the ability to send out their soul in the form of their animal, in a practice called hamfarir or "shape-journey". There were also female oracles who wore cat-skin gloves, and called upon the goddess Freyja for visions of the future.

The use of an animal shape for other purposes was considered unholy, and people accused of having such abilities were frequently cast out or summarily executed. Females so charged got off more lightly.

[edit] Use in pop-culture

The first skin-walker film is The Werewolf, a 1913 lost film.

Skinwalkers (1986) is also the title of a mystery novel by Tony Hillerman.

Skin-walkers feature prominently in Thunderhead (2000) a novel by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child.

Skinwalker is also the title of a graphic novel published by Oni Press written by Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir with art by Brian Hurtt (ISBN 1-929998-45-7)

There is a TV movie called Skinwalkers [1] which probably deals with the Native American Skinwalker in the most realistic manner.

There is also a forthcoming film also entitled Skinwalkers [2] which appears to take a more traditional Western horror movie approach just lifting the name.

A skin walker is the villain in the movie Shadowhunter (1993).

In the television series Smallville, one episode was titled 'Skin Walker'. It involved a Native American female with the ability to change into a white wolf. She attacked people working on sacred land to protect it. The source of her power was the exposure of her ancestors to Kryptonite (in Smallville parlance meteor rocks) by Kryptonian visitors to Earth in pre-historic times.

Skinwalkers were mentioned in the movie Arizona Werewolf, a version of which retitled Werewolf was shown on Mystery Science Theater 3000.

The television series Werewolf spotlighted the Skin Walker myth in an episode of the same name.

The protagonist, Mercedes (a.k.a. Mercy), in Patricia Briggs' novel, Moon Called (2006), is a skinwalker with the ability to change into a coyote.

In Supernatural, Dean and Sam mention skinwalkers during the episode 'Skin', associating them with other shapeshirters and agreeing that all such creatures can be killed by a silver bullet to the heart.

[edit] References

Wall, Leon and William Morgan, Navajo-English Dictionary. (Hippocrene Books, New York City, 1998 ISBN 0-7818-0247-4)

Brady, M.K., Some Kind of Power: Navaho Children's Skinwalker Narratives. (University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City, 1984 ISBN 0-87480-238-5)

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

Teller, J. The Navajo Skinwalker, Witchcraft, & Related Spiritual Phenomena: Spiritual Clues: Orientation to the Evolution of the Circle. Infinity Horn Publishing, Chinle AZ, 1997 ISBN 0-9656014-0-4)