Quileute Legends – Navajo Skinwalker – Yee Naaldlooshii
In a few Native American legends, a skin-walker is a human with the supernatural power to turn into any animal he or she wants. Similar lore can be witnessed in cultures throughout the world and is frequently referred to as shapeshifting. In Quileute Tribe Legend , a traveling shape shifter encountered a wolf and transformed him into a human, creating the first Quileute.
Perhaps the best documented skinwalker beliefs are those pertaining to the Navajo yee naaldlooshii (literally “with it, he goes on all fours” in the Navajo language). A yee naaldlooshii is one of many forms of Navajo witch. Technically, the term refers to an ’ánt’įįhnii who is using his (rarely her) powers to travel in animal form. In a few adaptations men or women who have achieved the highest level of priesthood then perpetrate the act of slaying an immediate family member, and then have therefore acquired the evil abilities that are affiliated with skinwalkers. This Legend suggests that the yee naaldlooshii is attained whereas with the Quileute Legend suggests that they are descended from wolves.
Navajo Skin-Walker
Some Navajo also think that skinwalkers posses the power to steal the “skin” or physical structure of a human. The Navajo believe that if you engage eyes with a skinwalker they can immerse themselves into your body. It’s also told that skinwalkers avoid the light, similar to the stories of Vampires in the Twilight Saga , and that their eyes gleam like an creature’s when in human being shape and once in beast form their eyes don’t radiate as an animal’s would.
Since animal hides are applied mainly by skinwalkers, the hide of beasts such as bears, coyotes, wolves, and cougars are stringently tabooed. Sheepskin and buckskin are likely two of the few pelts utilised by Navajos; the latter is utilised only for ceremonial occasions.
Frequently, Navajos will speak of their brush with a skinwalker, although there’s a heap of hesitance to divulge the report to non-Navajos, or (clearly) to verbalise of such scaring matters at dark. Occasionally the skinwalker will attempt to breach into the house and assault the inhabits within, and will oftentimes bang on the walls of the home, bang on the windowpanes, and climb up onto the roofs. Sometimes, a unusual, animal-like shape is watched standing outside the window, looking in. It has been told that a skinwalker might assault a vehicle and make a automobile accident. The skinwalkers are depicted as being fast, quick, and out of the question to overtake. Although a few attempts have been made to shoot or kill one, they are not typically successful. Occasionally a skinwalker will be hunted, only to lead to the house of somebody known to the tracker. As with the Quileute Werewolf Legend, sometimes a injured skinwalker will escape, only to have someone show up afterwards with a similar injury which reveals them to be the witch. It’s told that if a Navajo was to recognize the individual behind the skinwalker they had to say the full name, and about three days afterwards that person would either get ill or die for the wrong that they’ve committed
According to Navajo legend, skinwalkers can have the ability to read individual’s thoughts. This is also another quality of the first Quileute in the Twilight Saga. They also have the power to make any individual or animal noise they prefer. A skinwalker may use the vocalization of a relative or the cry of a baby to lure victims away from the safety of their homes. Again, This is also another quality seen in the movie Twilight.
A few tribes think that skinwalkers and other witches can use the spit, hair, or shoes and old garmenting of a individual to make curses that will assault that specific person. Because of this many Navajo will never spit or leave shoes outside. They also take avid caution to see that any hair or nail clippings are destroyed. Children are advised that if they urinate outside to kick dirt across the area so that a skinwalker can’t utilize it to establish a curse against them.
