Skinwalkers
Posted by: Loren Coleman on August 10th, 2007
One of Linda Godfrey’s illustrations of you-know-what.
The movie Skinwalkers opens today, so it might be time to learn more about Skinwalkers: What Are They?, from The Daily Grail.
“The Best Fortean Cryptozoology Book of 2005″ picked here at Cryptomundo was Hunt for the Skinwalker: Science Confronts the Unexplained at a Remote Ranch in Utah by Colm A. Kelleher and George Knapp.
Kelleher and Knapp are the authors of the Skinwalkers item at TDG.
I first wrote about Skinwalkers in 1975, in
Creatures of the Other Edge, on pages 109-111.
“They go very fast,” the Diné man told anthropologist William Morgan (as I quoted from “Human-Wolves Among the Navaho,” in Yale Publications in Anthropology, XI, 1936).
And so they may….
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
All I know about them is from Hillerman’s Dineh-tah novels. Sounds more like drug-aided hypnotism along with wearing a wolf-skin, not unheard of in animism, though Hillerman’s portrait of Dineh beliefs isn’t textbook animism, I wouldn’t think.
Can’t wait to see this movie.
I am very fascinated with the whole “Skinwalker Ranch” deal which is not really named because of classic Skinwalkers. No matter what you believe that story sends chills down your spine.
I have also read some very interesting stuff from a woman at the Unexplained Mysteries forum that lives on a reservation and has had interaction with Skinwalkers. She really explained the whole deal quite completely and unfortunately her family has been harassed by these mystical beasts. you’d be surprised at how she explains it.I will try and track down the link.
If you say werewolf, instantly people either:
A: zone out because werewolves aren’t real (or so they believe)
B: start thinking of all the movies theyve seen and dismiss it, or
C: actually pay attention because they believe.
I dismissed werewolves once, but now, if there can be bipedal apes, why not bipedal wolves?
I am a Native American and quite frankly I do not think that they have enough factual information to make a movie about skinwalkers. We don’t talk about them as we believe to do so will give them power over us. I don’t like to see movies that are based “loosely” on facts(it leaves alot of room for garbage fill in). If you want to know about skinwalkers may I suggest Clyde Kluckhohn? or try asking a Native American- some of us will answer the questions if they are asked correctly.
http://www.huntfortheskinwalker.com/articles/Path_of_the_Skinwalker_Part1.pdf
http://www.huntfortheskinwalker.com/articles/Path_of_the_Skinwalker_Part2.pdf
http://www.huntfortheskinwalker.com/articles/Path_of_the_Skinwalker_Part3.pdf
This links are helpful to understand the story behind the book.
In my area there are stories of werewolves (“lobisomens” in portuguese) but the transformation is different. If the person detects a trail or the scent of an animal, it will become that animal.
I’ve heard some really interesting stories on this, but I think this particular werewolf would kick butt in my country.
Hmm, Skinwalker = Werewolf? Apparently I need to brush up on my Native American mythology. It was my understanding (From stories in my childhood. My family is part Navajo.) that a Skinwalker was something like a human priest/druid/shaman who attained such a level of power that they could shape shift into any animal including other humans. I was told they often took on the form of naked little children and would cry outside your window to lure you outside or cry like a wounded animal for the same reason. We got conflicting stories as to whether they were good or bad in nature as some stories said they punished wrong-doers while others described them as tricksters or even violent and cruel. I guess I need to go do some research.
You’re right, it’s not the same.
I’m the one who need to brush up on my Native American mythology. I was mistaken by the photo.