Centaurs in North America

When you think of a 'Centaur' the vision is usually of a mythological creature from Greek origin. It's head, arms, and chest are those of a human and the rest of its body, including four legs, hindquarters, and a tail is like that of a horse.

There is the legend of Ixion who was purified by Zeus of a first murder of kin, a horrifying deed. The shameless man repaid this honor by trying to seduce Hera. The goddess told her husband. When Zeus learned about this passion he made a disguised model of Hera, a cloud likeness, to see how obsessed he was with his wife.

Ixion was so deeply in love with Hera that he slept with the disguised model. Zeus punished Ixion by chaining him to a winged and fiery wheel, which revolved forever in Tartarus. The cloud gave birth to a creature named Centaurus. It was Centaurus that descended upon a herd of Magnesian mares and conceived the Centaurs.

There have been stories of similar creatures throughout the ages but in locations that you'd most likely not imagine.

I received the following email from M.B. who is Native American:

Hey Lon...this is a second hand account that I heard from my father's trusted friend. I'm sorry I can't provide any more details than what I was told from the witness.

When my father's friend was younger he was a Deputy for the Apache Reservation Police. I believe it happened in the early 1980s, but not sure. One night he was on patrol in his squad car alone on the reservation. He was driving along the deserted highway that passed through town. When he reached the church he saw something moving back and forth along the church, peering into the windows. He stopped the car on the highway, and observed for a while. It was too dark to make out much at first. Then, the dark shape took notice of him and began moving out of the shadows and into the front of the church.

I forget exactly whether he then moved the police car into the parking lot to intercept the man, or if he stopped the car shortly after making a move but either way the headlights helped illuminate what he saw.

Under the orange light of the street lights was a 8 foot tall Demon-Centaur!!! The bottom half was indeed a dark haired horse, while where the neck and head should have been was the upper torso of a man. The man was staring right at him as it strolled by, all 4 hooves clanking on the pavement. His skin was a dark red and it had horns on either side of his head. He said they were like ram horns, curled around on either side of his skull. He was terrified and while the thought of shooting the beast crossed his mind, he reasoned against it. He didn't want to provoke it and have it attack him. It completed crossing the road, and down a steep slope into a farmland field below. Once it reached this open ground, he watched as it started to run away as fast as possible until it disappeared into the darkness and trees beyond.

He was deeply troubled after the encounter and couldn't reason why a demonic creature would be looking into a building as holy as a church. The way he told the story, you couldn't help but believe it to be true and I'm sure that it actually happened.

I've had weird encounters myself, and lots and lots of 2nd hand stories from friends/family on the Navajo and Apache Reservations. I shouldn't talk about many of those though. Being Native American, talking about these weird things can have negative repercussions to those involved. M.B.

I contacted my friend JC Johnson who confirmed that there have been similar sightings in the Four Corners / Navajo Reservation area for some time. In fact he forwarded a sketch of one of these creatures by Leonard Dan.

Sketch by Leonard Dan

I recall a strange sighting in Michigan in 2006:

Location: Between Battle Creek & Bellevue, Michigan - January/February 2006 - night

A woman driving alone on a road between both towns had to slow down for a stop sign. Suddenly a creature of very large size jumped up over a snow bank and ran “10 yards a second”. It was coming towards the car. She further described the creature as “enormous and its body as white as the snow around it”. It had tiny little legs, like animal goat legs but very small. She had the impression that parts of it were like a man and other parts of it were an animal. According to her it either grabbed, or reached for the door handle but he car was locked. She said its fingers were incredibly long, “long, long fingers and nails”. It was so incredibly fast that she did not see a face or anything else. She mentioned that another car of people had also seen it too; they had stopped and looking at it at one point.

Source: unknowncreaturespot “2006 Michigan centaur sighting”

There was another incident in Melbourne, Florida:

"Three friends and I saw an apparition, possibly of a demon, when we were all around 10 years old. Myself, another boy and his two sisters were riding bikes together down a sidewalk that ran along the outskirts of our neighborhood The end of that sidewalk is at a beach-side highway in Melbourne, Florida.

Nearing the highway, with me leading the pack, the boy put his hand on my shoulder and made me stop riding. When I looked back at them, both girls were staring straight ahead with tears in their eyes, and the boy pointed for me to look. Not knowing what they could be pointing at because I had just been looking that direction when they stopped me, I looked and saw what I can only say was a centaur on the sidewalk in between us and the highway. The sun had just risen above the horizon and was at the creature's back, so the whole figure was cast in shadow, but I could make out that it had a very muscular, had a reddish torso, a horse's four legs and was over six feet tall. Next to it was a thicket of palmetto and palm trees from which a person could have jumped out in a clever costume, although the quickness of appearance and the incredible detail of the creature would make me doubt that.

Needless to say, my first move was to turn around and jet, and the others had already done so. Before we pedaled around the corner, I looked and it was still standing there, and I was very relieved that it was not chasing us. After we had reached a safe distance, we celebrated our escape.

Unfortunately, I lost touch with my friends when I moved away that year. When I came back at the age of 15, I lived right by the sidewalk again, and one night from my room, I heard frantic yelling by the road, and came out to discover that a kid had been struck by a car crossing from the beach over to the sidewalk where I had seen the centaur. The family was much too shaken up for me to talk with them, and the boy had been killed instantly, so I won't know if he saw something, but it is a very odd coincidence, if that.

I've just started trying to recontact my friends to see if they saw the same creature as I, or if we all saw our own version of what we thought the devil looked like, as we didn't discuss it in detail at the time." - paranormal.about.com

A few years ago, there were Centaur-like sightings in the Cree Nation of Alberta, Canada:

"There is definitely a growing phenomena up here in Alberta, Canada. Specifically, the location is better known as Hobbema, a place comprised of 4 distinct Cree Indian reservations. These sightings I speak of occur on the Samson Cree reserve, in and around the high school area.

When I first heard about it, I was skeptical and proceeded to tease my friends, thinking they were trying to pull to wool over my eyes. They were neither insulted nor deterred from sharing with me that in conjunction with their own personal experiences, there is an actual video tape of this "centaur" creating violent havoc inside the school in a hallway near a main exit. Other stories they shared have to do with sightings at night, where the centaur actually chases them or appears suddenly out of nowhere.

It is far to easy to pass this off as "something in the water," for the Hobbema Cree peoples of this area have experienced generations of trauma. The brief history of this location has everything to do with the discovery of rich deposits of oil in the middle of the 1900's. Once harvested, the residents of this area became incredibly rich. However, due to the lack of a holistic education, and decades of dysfunction throughout the community wrought by the Canadian government and the Churches, the locals were unable to fathom and properly adjust to their fortune to the fullest extent.

This resulted in various forms of chaos throughout the later part of the century, for the oil royalities were distributed to every reserve member, and their children as well when they turned 18. The mortality rate increased over time in this area, most due to suicide and murder. Today, we see an entire generation of youth, that have completely bought into the ghettoization of their communities and are largely atheist.

In regards to the phenomena of the centaur sightings, it is known throughout the remaining Spiritual community of this area that these "beings" are making themselves known because in the eyes of the youth, there is nothing to believe in anymore. Sightings as such are creating panic and fear, and the phenomena has therefore become demonized by word of mouth.

I am not a community member of this area. Nor have I seen or witnessed anything of the like. However, I have heard this from more than one person from that area and at this stage, I cannot write it off to just coincidence. When I heard of this website, and the kind of work being conducted in communities across the United States, I realized I had to submit something herein in the hopes of generating interest, and hopefully to come across someone else that believes in something of this sort." - pennstateprs.com

Then there was this follow-up to the post:

"I have heard of many stories like this in First Nation reserves in Saskatchewan. I actually have heard of one in Cotes FN, Kawcatoose FN, Kamsack area and in 2003 there was the sighting of a Centaur at Standing Buffalo's FN Pow Wow. I think that it appears to people to tell others that there's something wrong. That there is something wrong in the community. Maybe black magic? We all know as native people that there native people who do practice the bad ways. Sure, there are the good ways but on the other hand so is the dark ways. Personally, I think that when native people practice these dark ways that this centaur or thing will appear to help those ones that practice such bad practices. This thing helps them. I have heard so many stories of this centaur. the most famous one is the sighting at Standing Buffalo powwow. I do not know what the Elders did over there. One Elder had to have a special ceremony and singers were requested from far away to help in the ceremony. The singers who were traveling from far away could sense this evil thing and one singer actually turned around and didn't attend the ceremony because he was afraid. The spirits were afraid of the old man conducting the ceremony. But the spirits helped by taking that evil thing centaur and banishing it to the pits of the mountains. I know there are a lot of native people who have heard such stories and I am curious to know what did their Elders do in such circumstances?" - pennstateprs.com

The following video was sent to me last summer from a resident in York County, PA:

Click for video - Unknown Creature - Hoof, Hand, Paw or What?

There has not been an identification to date....the witness has not captured further evidence. Here is the original link Unknown Creature for more details.

NOTE: Are there Centaurs or similar creatures roaming North America? Could these be interterrestrial beings? I'd been interested in your comments and/or evidence that you may have. Thanks...Lon

Skinwalker Chronicles IV

This past December, I posted Skinwalker Chronicles that referenced stories of the infamous malevolent witch capable of transforming itself into a wolf, coyote, bear, bird, or any other animal. Since that time, I have received several anecdotes and inquiries about Skinwalkers. A few weeks ago, I compiled a few anecdotes and posted Skinwalker Chronicles II and Skinwalker Chronicles III. The following are several more anecdotes that were forwarded or referred to me:

My grandpa lived in Myton, Utah. He always told stories about skinwalkers and how they could take the form of any animal or anyone you knew. I asked him one day "Did you ever meet one?"

He told me "Yes - a very long time ago before you were even born - before your mother was born, when I was still so young and foolish. I went to the Skinwalker Valley. It is a valley where life never wanders to, not even the crows the very guardians of death will never go. They fear the evil that lives out there."

".....you went out there didn't you'" I asked.

He nodded, "yes...to show them nothing existed out there - nothing but they're fears. But I was wrong."

He continued to say that he had gone up to Skinwalker Valley in his old truck to prove to everyone that everything they though they knew were just stories to scare them. He remembered the grass was black as if it had been burned. The trees dead but still alive. He he had seen a house - it was old and the roof was caved in the door gone. He walked to it. There were marks on the sides of the house. Animal skeletons were everywhere around the house as if it were a sacred buriel ground. He then heard her. His grandmother she died long ago but he heard her. They were calling for him, for his life, for his skin, for his blood and for his soul. They were the lost souls they could change form, from man to beast. They chased him, they had scared him but they never forgot him. Whenever I visited him he would have something of his that was brand new broken the next day - crushed or killed. He finally stopped keeping his dogs outside.

"Its just another story" I finally told him after awhile. My curiosity was no longer there. I was just bored by this time.

"Its true" he said, but he wasn't angry.

"Prove it" I snapped at him. He turned around and pulled his shirt up. All I could do was gasp - his back was torn here and there. Not one part of it unmarked. The width of the claw marks looked too straight and too far apart to be human.

I was scared. I started to cry. I remember my mother running to see what was the matter. She screamed and yelled at grandpa as she held me but he didn't do anything but stare at the field across the road from his house. She finally gave up and carried me in but as I looked over my ma's shoulder. I saw a black dog with white eyes, it was watching him and he was watching it as if waiting for it to come to him. It never did.

I never saw that dog again. My grandpa died 2 months later. They said his heart gave out but I knew that was a lie. His arm had fresh marks and his dog died from loneliness - it was still a pup.

Never look into a skinwalker's eyes, for it will never forget you - sooner or later it'll have your soul.

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My grandpa would tell me this story when I was little. He said that he was in the field on his horse one day, when he saw a badger walk by. Then he got his rope, got off his horse and put it around the neck of the badger. He said it was so strong that it was dragging him so he let go. He watched it go behind some bushes and then saw the rope sort of poking out from the bushes. But the rope wasn't moving, so he thought it might of gotten loose and left. When he went to get his rope he saw an old man with no clothes hunched behind the bush. They looked at each other for a few seconds and my grandpa got scared. So he got back on his horse as fast as he could. When he looked back he saw the old man climbing over the hill.

Then one time it happened to me. I was in school at the time and I used to live in the mountains so the bus would drop me off and I would have to walk for half a mile to get to my house. I was walking down the hill and I heard something walking on leaves, so I looked down the hill and I saw a guy with no clothes crawling - but he was like an animal too. He had white feathers in his hair. When I saw his face he looked like a wolf mixed with a human. It eventually took off in the other direction.

That night I was laying down and it was so quiet and I heard drums playing outside my window. Then I got up, looked outside and I saw a pack of wolves in the field running around. I don't know what to make of it - really weird, but I'll never forget it.

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There are some people with bad intentions because they are motivated by jealousy. That's why I say to be humble. They're actions have effected a few people I personally know. It's hard to believe that what has happen to them is their fault.

Our relatives and family have always been close and loving. We have had good fortune. What a lot of people should have and what we wish everyone should have... Loving relatives with nice big trucks, nice homes, lots of sheep and horses. THEN BAM, out of nowhere we've kind of lost our family.

We are starting to experience mischievous behavior out of nowhere (drugs, alcohol, sickness, death). As a result our family has been torn apart. Our minds have been poisoned. I know, for sure, that we have been good. But as we continue to go through these situations, that we believe someone wished upon us, we will not wish the same to anyone else (I'm alluding to witchcraft). Whatever you do to someone, it will happen ten times worse to yourself.

But then sometimes I'm not sure. Is this some crap that's been fed to us? I don't mean to offend anyone, but by medicine men? Because you never know with people, whether they are telling the truth or not. They could've just told us this because they have to tell us something....

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Some ask if there are a few things you can do to protect yourself from a skinwalker. If it gets inside your house, there are two things that happened prior. You have invited it in, they are not allowed to enter your house without your permission. You may have met them before, while not in the skinwalker form. Cedar ash around the house, a prayer and a visit to the medicine man will need to take place to find out its intentions. Dogs are a good thing to keep around and if something is near they bark or cry. Nothing will protect from the frozen fear they cause and how hard seeing something like that shakes your brain, even if you're a hardened combat veteran. This is something that I have heard in all cases with these encounters - I'm speaking of face to face encounters. These encounters usually happen either because of jealousy from another family/person and even hate. Usually of negative intentions. If you kill a skinwalker you kill the person. Something you should also know, long ago skinwalkers were of good intentions but were used more as a defense. They weren't bad to start with. I have been told this by some medicine men as a young child. Watch for family members and how they act. Say you move and no one knows where you live and someone you know knocks on your door - might be a sign that they're something else. All I know is that to become one, its like selling your soul to the devil. Ha'go'ne

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One night I woke up feeling thirsty and laid in bed looking up at the ceiling thinking if I should get up to get a drink. All I could hear is silence and the clock ticking. The buzzing sound in my ear, which was a sign it was just too quiet. I reached for my cell phone to check the time. I flipped it open and it was 3:26 a.m. Without making a sound I quietly sat up and walked to exit the bedroom. As I got to the doorway I looked straight ahead at the front door entrance, with plenty of light from the fish aquarium, I saw a man standing there with his face interchanging from an animal and a human. I didn't know what to think, I wasn't scared of it but I froze, couldn’t move at all, and couldn’t speak. As I was struggling for some kind of movement we stared at each other face to face. My eyes wandered looking at his every feature. The white and black paint on his face. Black paint ran in a thick stripe across his eyes. The feather tied to the top of his head. How he looked young, like he is in his early 20's. You can see his muscles, his chest painted in white and he had a pair of black sports shorts. His wrist both had furry buck skin with something on them as were his ankles too. As I stood frozen, still looked at him with such wonder and struggle to say something or to move but still I couldn’t. Yes I was startled at first, but all that grew more into curiosity of this soul who was also startled by my appearance. He seemed to try to erase my seeing him from my mind, I could sense that from his piercing eyes. But as I just prayed to God as I do in my everyday life. As I stood there I prayed in my mind to God to shield me of this being I have crossed paths with. I don't know why he was in my home or if he was just taking a short cut to get somewhere. But as he was still staring at me I begun to regain my physical strength and slowly begun to have control of my body and was able to move. I begun pushing numbers on my phone as he stood still looking at me. Then he smiled at me right then I knew he was only as human as I was. He vanished threw the door which was still locked. Then I heard a loud sound, as if there was a horse running. I regained all power of my movements and ran to the window to look where he went. He had someone waiting for him across the street. He jumped in and the vehicle drove off. I again said a prayer. Then I called a close friend and the police. I told them that someone was in my house but not comfortable about describing his appearance. The police told me that I shouldn't be ashamed to say it was a skinwalker, because they to themselves on the job encounter strange things as that.

Bloodless Carnage: Livestock Attacks Continue in the Four Corners

WARNING - GRAPHIC MATERIAL!

JC Johnson of Crypto Four Corners has posted a new video that references a recent raid and killing of 7 sheep, including a large ram, on a farm in the Navajo lands in New Mexico. The culprit is unknown though evidence suggests a bi-pedal or upright creature. The most astonishing aspect of this particular raid is that there was very little blood found at the scene. Many of the sheep had puncture wounds but scant blood traces were left after the carnage. It didn't seem like there was any feeding on the carcasses...though the 300-400 lb. ram was dragged a fair distance.

There have been earlier reports of hominid attacks on livestock - Bigfoot Raids Farm as well as other raids / maulings by unknown entities - Sheep Mutilation Mystery - Dine' Navajo Reservation, Near Hogback, NM.

Mai-cob

There have been reports of canine-like hominids in the area...not unlike those described as shape shifters. In fact, there has been trace evidence collected at earlier events which is currently being tested for DNA.

Could this be an attack of a lycanthrope or possibly a skinwalker / Mai-cob? The activity suggests that, whatever it is roaming and hunting in the area, it will continue to do so...at least in the near future. Stay tuned for updates...


Click for video - Bloodless Carnage at Sheep Pen

This is the location where the sheep with the neck puncture wound was found...no blood splatter or pooling

Above - Example of the many fresh scratches found around the pen

Above - A series of fresh tracks were also found including a few hoof-like prints

Some examples of the carnage inflicted

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Coincidentally, I received a correspondence on Friday from an individual with the moniker 'Coy Criptid'. He is a resident of the Dine Navajo reservation and this is a reply to an inquiry I made in a previous post. I have not changed anything in the email....completely original:

Well, where to start......? We are not skin walkers, we are "eaters of all" (closest translation I can do to our real name, sorry) We are old, so old that some of us remember this world when it had many moons and the land flowed like water. We are not evil, nor good. We just are. In the way of modern thinking, we are like animals; not fallen from grace, and speak and hear God directly. I don't know if we have souls, because we don't die, just .... this is really hard to explain ..... we don't go dormant, just change the way we live. Right now I am Human. I look, feel, think, and act just like one of you. I will apparently die just like one of you, only to spread out from where my " mortal remains " fall or are eaten, adsorbed... or interred, mingling with the strings of life (another hard one to put into words) that come into contact with me. Until I decide to become one of them (I have sort of decided on one of the squids, we'll see how that works out). In the time between dedicated forms, we walk in our true forms, remembering all the things that we have been. Its hard to describe being many things at once, but we do go back to places we've been because the "memories of love"(?) draw us back. We watch over you as we are directed to do, letting you live your lives according to Law both good and bad as is the will of the Creator. You are right to fear us in our true forms because we do not think as humans do, but a collage of thoughts from many forms at once.

The Creator bid us to stay our feeding on you many many eons ago, but left us with the right to protect ourselves if threatened in any of our forms (careful with that fly swatter or bar of soap). We have the ability to grasp your, or any other creatures mind if we choose, and hold them while we eat. In this form it is a very unpleasant thought and leaves me nauseous just thinking about it. All of us by now (except the ones that left this world early on for "walk about" or from the great shame) have spent many lifetimes in human form and almost all of them love people deeply. Every creature on this world fears us because you are all from survivors that have sensed us in true form. We have to calm you to walk among you even in dedicated forms.

We have traits that can be used to identify us in any of our forms. The closest thing that I can call them is "tells" mine is that I don't eat feet (yuck how nasty, .....this includes fins, hooves, tips of tentacles, pads, wing feathers or anything used as contact points for locomotion blahhhhuch). One of my co cross mates (don't ask, we have 17 separate sexes, talk about a bitch on Friday nights) will not eat anything "purple" as she sees it. Another friend of mine dislikes certain forms of nerve tissue, says it makes him itch. Short of these little peccadilloes we can consume almost anything and derive energy for life from it, from sunshine to radionuclide and every thing in between, yummy (I know, I know, "feet" have all that and more too but eeuuuuwwww!!) ! I personally have always wanted to taste anti-matter but have never gotten around to going above the cloud tops to taste any. Well, I am rambling on a bit too much, and I have to go to sleep because I have to go to work in the morning, I thought you should know some more about what we are.

With best regards,
Coy Criptid

NOTE: well...what do you make of that? Is it simply legend or are these beings really among us? Lon

Skinwalker Chronicles III

This past December, I posted Skinwalker Chronicles that referenced stories of the infamous malevolent witch capable of transforming itself into a wolf, coyote, bear, bird, or any other animal. Since that time, I have received several anecdotes and inquiries about Skinwalkers. A few weeks ago, I compiled a few anecdotes and posted Skinwalker Chronicles II. The following are several more responses that were forwarded and referred to me:

"...my grandpa was asked by "the old woman" to go with her to Snake Butte. She had a gunny sack full of dog pups with her. They're walking along a while until they get to the butte. There's a rock there that when you go around it you come to the butte. She tells him to wait there for her no matter how long she takes and not to go look at what she's doing. He sits for over an hour and starts to get bored so he goes around the corner. As he does he sees 2 huge snakes eating those poor pups with the woman standing there laughing with an evil tone when suddenly she herself turns into a snake and starts eating the pups! He was so freaked out he hauled ass out of there and headed straight to his house 5 miles away. Later on he sees "the old woman' and she gets mad at him for watching her and not waiting for her at the rock. Since that time, everyone in our family stayed clear of her until the day she left. That's another story"

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"I've seen a skinwalker ONCE! I have never seen one since. My older brother, older sister and I were going home for the weekend. We were coming in from Phoenix. We had to leave pretty late. It usually takes us 5 hours to get home which is in Low Mountain near Pinon, AZ. We drove toward Keams Canyon highway and took a certain dirt road that would take us straight to Low Mountain. Before we reached the dirt road we noticed a very old lady walking on the side of the highway with a cane at 2 o'clock in the morning! She had her scarf around her head, a long black jacket and wearing a green dress. We did not think anything of it but thought it was weird that she was walking late at night on a highway. The reservation is really dark at night and there are hardly anyone driving on the roads. We eventually turned on the dirt road.

A mile away from the highway we noticed the same old lady walking on the side of the dirt road with her cane. I freaked out! I started crying because we knew that it was the same lady 15 miles back. My brother stepped on the gas and started driving faster. He gave us some medicine to protect us from harm. We eventually got to a highway that takes us to Chinle, Low Mountain, or Pinon. We passed the first bridge and we noticed that the old lady was sitting on the highway with her head down waving the cane in the air. Before we could pass her the car just shut down and wouldn't start. The old lady stood up facing the opposite way from us so we wouldn't see her face and walked across the other side of the road. She turned her head to face us and her face was painted all black. She kept walking and eventually disappeared in the distance. My brother turned the ignition and the car started!! It scared the hell outta me!!! I was crying so bad that I never wanted to drive through the road again.

When we got home we told my parents about it. My dad said that there was an old couple that lived between the two highways that did bad medicine on people. He also said that her husband had passed on not long ago and that she walks that road every now and then. They had two kids; one of them passed away at a very young age with an unknown cause of death and the other one drinks and huffs. We ended up driving back the longer way which was taking the highway to the junction road and going toward Ganado. It was very real and very scary."

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"...my first encounter was when I was about 13 years old. My family always has a peyote meeting on New Years Eve and into New Years Day. On this particular New Years Eve my family was blessing the new year, all my cousins and I were sleeping in my Mom's hogan while most of our parents and guests were in the tepee praying. They said that a man saw something outside the tepee and he told the fire chief, and he told my uncle. My uncle woke up my older brothers and they got out the guns and our spotlight to look for whatever was creeping around our houses.

We live in a small valley in the highest part of our part of the reservation, near Pinon. All of a sudden I heard a loud gunshot, my brother's 30-30. It scared the hell out of me since I was fast asleep, but my sister was the only one in the house with us and she already had burned some cedar and had said a protection prayer for us. My brothers and one of my cousins were outide shooting at some sort of creature that was running around in an arroyo about half a mile from our house. My niece and I had gotten out of our beds and were watching from the window. They were sure that they had shot it a few times but it would just get and run off again.

When my mother and father smeared white ash on the bullets they started shooting again the creature left our valley. It is a very taboo to do any sort of hunting or shooting during blessing ceremonies but something had to done that time. That is as close as I have ever come to a skinwalker, as far as I know."

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"...the only reason I know about skinwalkers is because of my boyfriend and my Mom told me abut them...no lie, it's is scary and you shouldnt mess around with it at all. But you shouldn't say its fake case odds are you wouldnt even know. I have a lot of shapeshifters, skinwalkers, staginies or whatever you would perfer to call them living or staying by my house. They follow my boyfriend around and sometimes I see them watching me...standing outside my window. About 3 months ago there was a skinwalker outside my house watching my Mom as she came home from work...he was outside for a long time. No one has the right to say what is fiction or fact because you wouldn't even know. A skinwalker told me when my dad was going to die. It was broad daylight and I was in the car with my family. I saw a white owl and it looked right back at me. A week later my dad passed away...so don't say anything unless you know for a fact!"

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"There are too many weird encounters that went on the year my husband and I started dating. It was as though 'someone or something' did everything they could to keep us apart....for instance.

It was a summer evening and the sun had started to go down and we took a short stroll just outside my house. As soon as we started walking, I saw a shadow quickly appear and walk behind a huge cedar tree. Once I noticed this I told my boyfriend and he threw a big rock at it. As soon the rock hit the tree, a huge bird or owl flew out of the cedar tree. I have never in my life seen anything this big! The wings on this thing had to have stretched out at least 7-8 feet across. It was dusk, but still enough sun out to see in front of me and I know for a fact I saw something. I believe whatever hid behind that tree turned into a bird and flew off. It was so weird. After that, we had a very unsettling summer of this strange "shadow visitor" making it's appearance every now and then."

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"...you want me to describe the witch who is a 'skinwalker'? My father told me a story about how they initiate themselves to become one of these bad medicine men/women. They have to kill their own child or sibling; and also they have sex with their siblings. They become this weird looking animal that can run faster than a car. They do wear very old animal skins and they do not allow to expose themselves. We'd be so damn lucky to catch them red-handed but they have powers to paralyze you so that you cannot see them. If you do happen to see who the person is they eventually die in four days so that is why they are very secretive. It does have a lot to do with jealousy. They want what you have even if it is nothing to you...it's huge for them. You cannot kill them with a white man's gun powder, or anything of that nature. It all has to be traditional weapons we use to use a long time ago such as an arrowhead, traditional prayers, or a certain type of ceremony.

Most medicine man/woman would never admit who it is but they'll hint it to you which can be frustrating. My father also said that they can be the sweetest person in the world to you and you'd never know that they're witching you. They use dead people's bones to make you go crazy and you don't even realize how much you lose self-respect. They are very scary and wicked people.

Skinwalker Chronicles II

This past December, I posted Skinwalker Chronicles that referenced stories of the infamous malevolent witch capable of transforming itself into a wolf, coyote, bear, bird, or any other animal. Since that time, I have received several anecdotes and inquiries about Skinwalkers. The following is a condensed collection of those responses that were forwarded and referred to me:

"....the one I saw was an hour or so before sundown. Just about the ugliest thing I ever seen in my life. Dark colors - like quilt patchwork. The eyes were hollow, tail just flapping around. Ran like a monkey but shaped like a dog. My elders told me that the evil ones avoid people with guns. In earlier days the bad people would walk on our roof to try and scare us."

----

"...all of the sudden we heard the dog barking at what seemed to be a flute playing in the distance. My grandma didnt seemed brothered but I started to freak and my little brother was scared too. About an hour later, as me and my brother had just dosed off, we heard a knock on the door. I was happy since I thought it was my parents, so I got up quickly and started to run to the door. As I was running my grandma yelled for me to get away from the door. I froze...she had never yelled at me like that. She yelled at the door in Navajo, "who's there?" ....there was no answer. She yelled at it again. This time the knock on the door got louder and more rapid. My grandma sat back down on her chair and yelled, "go away we dont want you here...leave us alone." The knocks grew to pounding this time. My little brother and I sat down by my grandma. The dogs began to bark loudly and then there was thumping on the roof as if someone was walking on top of the house. The person was still at the door. All of the sudden at the window nearest to the door a black figure appeared but it did not have the outline of a human. It began pounding the door and tried to force the door knob. This continued for over a half hour while my brother and I cried in fear. My grandma, who still seemed not bothered by this, began to sing in Navajo. Then suddenly, dead silence. We sat there frozen in fear, listening to see if it was just waiting. In the side windows we saw car headlights. It was my parents and older brother...the beast had fled."

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"My friend and I were talking when all of a sudden we heard the screen door open and slam shut. We thought it was my dad. While that happen, my mom claims she heard footsteps go through her room toward the restroom. She also thought it was my dad, but soon realized that she was unable to move as if she were paralyzed.

Still in my room with my friend, we soon heard the screen door open and slam again...this time louder. It had woken my dad up and he came to my bedroom to check on us and see if we were still there. I assured him we were not into mischief.

My mom told us the next morning about what she heard, and how she could not move. She also told us that the second time the door slammed she then heard horse hooves run by her bedroom window."

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"...suddenly all the dogs started barking and we all went outside to see what was going on. They were barking to something in the trees. We heard the trees rustle but there was no wind. Soon we heard this weird sound and then it got quiet again. We stayed outside for at least another 30 min but then back inside and went to sleep. In the morning we noticed our chicken and hens pen gates were open and all our chickens and hens were out. We all walked around looking for them and couldn't find any. We went to the where we heard the noise last night and found these weird unknown footprints. It led us to the outhouse...but that was all we found. We told my Grandma what happened and she blessed us and told us that was a skinwalker. From that day on we still hear weird stuff but we pray and go outside and yell in Navajo "go away and bother someone else."

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"...I was all alone in the hogan and got up 2to use the restroom. I heard something outside so I went outside to go check what it was. I noticed a dark figure so i grabbed my gun and shot at it. Nothing happened. Then suddenly it ran at me as I turned and ran back to the hogan. I said a prayed in dine (Navajo)....then something was banging on the door. Within seconds the door broke down and I ran to the back of the hogan praying still. The next thing I remember was that it was morning and I was in bed...the gun still in my hands."

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"My family never mentioned Skinwalkers or witches to me so I knew nothing about them. My grandpa died a few years ago so my parents sent me to live with my Grandma to help her around her ranch. I brought my cat along. Well just after two weeks of living there my cat went missing. I figured that he would come back but he never did. I called him and looked for him but nothing. So I went to go put some hay behind the barn for the horses when I saw my orange cat's remains. I thought maybe something attacked him like a coyote so I picked it up and I saw that there were no bones just skin and the outside of his fur there was red and yellow even white paint on the outside of him. I couldn't figure out what it was.

I buried him behind a hill with a little stone with his name carved on it...I was so heart broken. My grandma said she could get me a new cat but I didn't want a new cat. Pretty soon enough I kept hearing meows outside the hogan and scratches at the door. My grandma doesn't have any other cats so I would open the door and find nothing. Then one day, I went to go check on my cat's grave and dig it up to make sure he was still there. He was gone...but his bones were there. I just couldn't believe it! Why were his bones there? I thought I buried his skin? Ever since I have lived there I have experienced some of the strangest things in my life. I don't want to go back. I can't even share what kind of crazy things happened to me because from there I drew the line. I was confused and scared about these people but at the same time I knew I was one of these people. I have a greater respect for the Navajo people which is why I don't think getting involved with Skinwalkers is a good idea, Just don't mess with them and they wont mess with you."

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"Sixty years ago, when I was young, I knew these two men that were cousins. They tried to become Skinwalkers by drinking the blood of the firstborn son. They both were firstborn sons so they drank each others blood. One cousin's name was Troy, who became an eagle and the other was Cody who became a wolf. Troy was good and helped people while Cody killed people. They had an argument one night and decided to gather six other people and have one on one battles to decide who was right and who was wrong. Finally the last battle was Troy vs. Cody one-on-one. Troy tried with all his might to fight Cody off, but it just wouldn't work. Cody was too strong. Troy possessed tonfa while Coy believed in just pure strength. Cody transformed into his wolf form and hurt Troy very badly. Troy then revealed his secret power. His skinwalker power let him create eagle feathers anywhere. He surrounded his tonfa in eagle feathers and his tonfa became very powerful. Troy defeated Cody and Cody's evil tyrany was over. Now still today, Cody and Troy walk amongst us disguised as humans...but they are Skinwalkers."

NOTE: Cautious Navajo will not speak openly about Skinwalkers, especially with strangers, because to do so might invite the attention of an evil witch. After all, a stranger who asks questions about Skinwalkers just might be one himself, looking for his next victim...Lon

Sheep Mutilation Mystery - Dine' Navajo Reservation, Near Hogback, NM

According to my friend J.C. Johnson of Crypto Four Corners, in March 2010, 24 sheep were mutilated at a farm near Hogback, New Mexico, on the Dine' Navajo Reservation. The livestock owner explains that there were large talon marks but very little blood and no evisceration. Was this an attack by a large flying predator? Why were the carcasses left intact? Could this have been a Chupacabras? Was this another example of animal mutilation and experimentation by non-terrestrials, aliens or government entities?

J.C. mentioned that a large cryptid bird or pterosaur may have been responsible for this act. That theory is not as far-fetched as it may initially sound.

For many generations, people in New Mexico and parts of Texas say they've seen birds so big they seem prehistoric.

One man claims the rugged landscape near Las Cruces hides a mystery that's haunted him for several years.

Dave Zander has lived near the Doña Ana Mountains for more than 30 years spending almost all his spare time hiking, exploring and fossil hunting in the range between the Robledo and Organ mountains.

He saw something that he's unable to explain and many people find hard to believe.

He recalls the day eleven years ago when he spotted something extraordinary: two creatures perched on a mountain less than a mile away.

"These creatures were so huge they looked like the size of small planes," Dave Zander said. "All of the sudden one of them jumped off dropped off the top of the mountain, came down the front of the mountain and all the sudden these huge wings just spread out.

"I would say the wings were at least a 20-foot wingspan."

Definitely something out of the ordinary.

"Not a normal bird, definitely of a giant variety," Zander continued. "It makes you feel like it could come over and carry you off if it wanted to."

Zander witness a real-life scene out of the movie Jurassic Park?

One ancient bird in the vicinity is an Andean condor living at the Rio Grande Zoo in Albuquerque. But it's wingspan of 12 feet pales to what Zander described: birds with an unprecedented twenty-foot wingspan, with pink bald heads and all-black bodies, and feathers on their enormous wings.

There is nothing on modern record like it.

"In comparison a 20 foot wingspan would truly be a monster and something undocumented by science," cryptozoologist Ken Gerhard said. "I believe what Dave Zander may have seen are surviving teratorns."

Gerhard has made a career studying prehistoric birds.

"What's interesting the reports of these giant raptor-like birds to continue into modern times," he said. "We seem to have a large concentration of them here in the Southwest particularly in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas as well as New Mexico and parts of Arizona."

Gerhard documented many of these strange reports from all over the globe in the book "Big birds! Modern sightings of flying monsters."

The book includes sightings in different clusters over the past 30 years.

In 1972 in Maxwell in northeastern New Mexico, Ronald Monteleone of Trinidad, Colo., reported what he thought was a pterodactyl flying out of an arroyo.

In Lordsburg in the 1800s locals talked constantly about the sightings of pterosaurs.

And a picture circulated the country in 1890 out of Tombstone, Ariz., but it's never been considered totally legitimate.



"Other eyewitnesses are describing specifically giant feathered dark birds with an enormous wing span," Gerhard said.

Gerhard said his research falls into two different descriptions from witnesses. Some said the birds look like the prehistoric pterodactyl while others, like the creatures described by Zander, resemble the ancient thunderbird from Native American mythology.

You can find thunderbird images atop many totem poles and also carved into the lava rocks of the Petroglyph National Monument in Albuquerque. Similar images are found in petroglyphs all over North America.

According to legend, the thunderbird is said to have a wingspan the length of two canoes with the ability to deafen people with the sound of its flapping wings.

"It is definitely a real animal, according to the native peoples that lived here," Gerhard said. "It's not necessarily a legendary animal."
(Andean Condor)

However a word of caution comes from folks like Ben Radford, managing editor of the Skeptical Inquirer magazine, which applies scientific reason and evidence to extraordinary claims.

"There is a desire to link modern sightings with these Native American stories but the problem is they're not necessarily the same thing," Radford said.

Radford said believes the eyewitnesses saw something:

"Ultimately a lot of these sightings, whether it's these monsters, these creatures, Chupacabras, what have you, these come down to eyewitness testimony," Radford said. "They're stories, there's nothing wrong with stories, but they're just not good evidence."

Radford has debunked numerous stories about the Loch Ness monster, crop circles and Bigfoot.

He said he relies on evidence.

"You don't have bones, teeth," he continued. "You don't have any hard evidence, so you look to these stories, you look to these myths.

"We know from many scientific experiments people are notoriously unreliable about estimating things."

And in this case, Radford said he thinks Zander and the other witnesses in Texas overestimated the birds' size.

What makes the reports intriguing is that most experts agree scientists have yet to discover every species on the planet and really have no idea what is out there:

"I believe there's a good chance that a number of large prehistoric animals remain undiscovered by modern science." Gerhard said.

Radford readily concedes there are species yet to be discovered, but...

"Do I think there are giant animals and birds and creatures out there?" he said. "No."

For his part, Zander continues to keep his eyes on the skies but hasn't had a repeat visit from the creatures. The one experience has stayed with him.

"I feel honored to have seen the one sighting," he said. "I had if they're still up there still living up there and thriving, I say awesome, more power to them."


I received the following email from a man who lives west of San Antonio, Texas near Medina Lake. He states he witnessed a large flying creature on August 11, 2009:

Dear Sir. I witnessed a large flying creature this evening that I cannot identify. I found your site during a search. I'm apprehensive of mentioning it to any friends or family until I can get a grip on what this was.

I live west of San Antonio, TX near Medina Lake. Today, I was on a random outing to the area near the Diversion Lake dam. At about 7:30 pm, I was on my way back up the trail when I suddenly heard a loud awful scream coming from below the dam downstream. It sounded like an owl but lasted longer and was much louder. I stopped walking and watched downstream to see if I could catch a look at what caused the sound.

I then noticed a large flock of birds flush out of the trees near the riverbank. Then suddenly this giant flying creature swooped down into the river valley and just as quickly flew back up into the rocks. I continued to watch but did not hear or see it again. I call it a creature because it looked nothing like a bird. I was about 50 yards from it and would say conservatively that it's wing span was 15 ft. or so! It was dark colored and had a very long beak and a strange long thin tail. This sounds crazy, but it actually resembled one of those flying dinosaurs though the head was not as large and it looked like it had feathers.

I got back home and looked on the internet for examples of bird species but found nothing close. I'm not originally from this area and have never heard of anything like this. That is why I'm contacting you. Do you have an idea what it was? I see you have a website, maybe someone who reads your site could help identify it. JJ

On December 6, 2010, researcher Jonathan David Whitcomb issued the following press release:

For generations, the mystery lights of Marfa, Texas, have entertained residents with their strange dancing. On some warmer nights, a ball of light seems to split into two, which will separate and fly away from each other before turning around and flying back together. They have recently been linked to flying lights in the southwest Pacific, lights that natives of Papua New Guinea testify are from large flying creatures.

In southwest Texas, local residents have speculated about dancing devils or ghosts. Scientists have preferred something along the lines of ball lightning or earthlights, but all their scientific explanations have tripped over the resemblances to line dancing. If atmospheric energies or tectonic stresses cause the displays, why do two lights horizontally separate for a long distance before coming back together?

Now a cryptozoologist from California has explained the dancing lights of Marfa. Tales of spooks may hold a spark of truth, for recent research implies intelligence directs the lights: Bioluminescent flying predators may be hunting at night and catching a few unlucky Big Brown Bats: Eptesicus fuscus.

According to Jonathan Whitcomb, a cryptozoology author in Long Beach, California, when one of the bioluminescent predators has been glowing for awhile, not far above the ground, it will be joined by another of its kind, which will then turn on its own glow. After insects have been attracted to that area, the two creatures will separate, which appears to distant human observers to be one light splitting into two. The predators will fly away from each other for some distance, then turn back and fly together. During the separation, bats may begin feeding on the concentration of insects before being caught from two sides by the larger predators.

Whitcomb was a forensic videographer, in 2004, when he traveled to Papua New Guinea, hoping to videotape the glowing nocturnal "ropen," said to be a large flying predator and scavenger. Although he did not see the creature, he interviewed many natives, who impressed him with their credibility and amazed him with what they had seen. Whitcomb became convinced that the ropen is a pterosaur, commonly called by Americans "pterodactyl" or "flying dinosaur."

After returning to the United States, he wrote many web pages about the concept of modern living pterosaurs in the southwest Pacific. He was surprised at the response: emails and phone calls from eyewitnesses of apparent pterosaurs in the United States.

He analyzed the eyewitness accounts of those flying creatures and wrote a nonfiction book: "Live Pterosaurs in America." The second edition of that cryptozoology book has just been published (ISBN-13: 9781456341350).

Although Whitcomb admits that Marfa Lights may come from an unknown bioluminescent bird or bat, he says, "It is more likely than not from a creature similar to the ropen of Papua New Guinea, and my associates and I are sure about the ropen: It is a pterosaur." - Jonathan David Whitcomb

NOTE: I have been reporting on Whitcomb's research and expeditions since I started 'Phantoms and Monsters'...in fact, he has forwarded several reports directly. This theory involving the Marfa Lights is interesting since much of the phenomena associated with the ropen of New Guinea is similar...Lon

A quick history of the Marfa Lights: The Marfa Lights in Western Texas, nine miles east of Marfa, are arguably the most well-known spooklights in the US. Within driving distance of the McDonald Observatory, the Marfa lights have been viewed for over a century. According to a State of Texas brochure, the first recorded sighting was made by a rancher named Robert Ellison in 1883. Apache Indians thought them to be stars that had dropped down to earth. Today they can been seen at night by passersby who park in a pullover spot on Hwy. 90. They are described as changing in color and intensity, and usually move about. Most skeptics believe the Marfa Lights are nothing more than distant auto headlights on another highway, but that doesn't explain the pre-automobile sightings. The town of Marfa even hosts an annual Marfa Lights Festival every September. To read more, go to - Marfa's Legendary Lights

Skinwalker Chronicles

In the American Southwest, the Navajo, Hopi, Utes, and other tribes each have their own version of the Skinwalker story, but basically they boil down to the same thing - a malevolent witch capable of transforming itself into a wolf, coyote, bear, bird, or any other animal. To the Navajo, yee naaldlooshii is "with it, he goes on all fours", a practitioner of Frenzy Way. The witch might wear the hide or skin of the animal identity it wants to assume, and when the transformation is complete, the human witch inherits the speed, strength, or cunning of the animal whose shape it has taken.

"The Navajo Skinwalkers use mind control to make their victims do things to hurt themselves and even end their lives," writes Doug Hickman, a New Mexico educator. "The Skinwalker is a very powerful witch. They can run faster than a car and can jump mesa cliffs without any effort at all."

The Navajo believe that Skinwalkers have the power to steal the “skin” or body of a person. That if you engage eyes with a Skinwalker they can immerse themselves into your body. Skinwalkers avoid bright light and their eyes glow like an animal’s when in human form. When in their animal form their eyes don’t glow as an animal’s would.

In the ancient Hopi culture there was a ritual ceremony once performed, called the Ya Ya Ceremony. In this ceremony, members would convert themselves into assorted animals utilizing the hides from the animal they selected, and the members use certain animals for their attributes. The coyote skin is for high-velocity, precise sense of smell, and the acute agility. The bear skin is for brute force, but not a good choice for speed.

When in animal form the Skinwalker will retain their wits and because of this they make a really dangerous adversary. Also unlike the werewolf, they have a whole bag of tricks that includes immobilizing powder, mind control, and even disease.

The following videos from J.C. Johnson of Crypto Four Corners offer some interesting perspective to the Skinwalker phenomenon:


Click for video - "Chief Dan Talks About Skin Walkers & The Furry Ones"


Click for video - "The Skull"

According to University of Nevada-Las Vegas anthropologist Dan Benyshek, who specializes in the study of Native Americans of the Southwest, "Skinwalkers are purely evil in intent. I'm no expert on it, but the general view is that Skinwalkers do all sorts of terrible things - they make people sick, they commit murders. They are graverobbers and necrophiliacs. They are greedy and evil people who must kill a sibling or other relative to be initiated as a Skinwalker. They supposedly can turn into were-animals and can travel in supernatural ways."

Anthropologist David Zimmerman of the Navajo Nation Historic Preservation Department explains: "Skinwalkers are folks that possess knowledge of medicine, medicine both practical (heal the sick) and spiritual (maintain harmony), and they are both wrapped together in ways that are nearly impossible to untangle."

Among the Navajo, for instance, medicine men train over a period of many years to become full-fledged practitioners in the mystical rituals of the Dine' (Navajo) people. The medicine men have shown themselves to be effective in treating a range of ailments according to the U.S. Public Health Service. But, there is also a dark side. Witches follow some of the same training and obtain similar knowledge as their more benevolent colleagues, but they supplement both with their pursuit of the dark arts, or black magic. By Navajo law, a known witch has forfeited its status as a human and can be killed at will. The assumption is that a witch, by definition, is evil.

The cautious Navajo will not speak openly about Skinwalkers, especially with strangers, because to do so might invite the attention of an evil witch. After all, a stranger who asks questions about Skinwalkers just might be one himself, looking for his next victim.

NOTE: "Hunt for the Skinwalker" (Paraview Books), by Colm Kelleher and George Knapp has a wealth of information on the subject...Lon


Click for video - "Skinwalker"

SKINWALKER ANECDOTES

I live close to the reservation just outside Mesa, Arizona. I have a couple of Native friends who I just recently went camping with around 20 miles outside the valley to a place they call Three Poles. This place is considered holy land in their eyes and is close to a river. There are numerous stories I know about this place, such as the flute player you can hear at night or the boulder-sized splashes you hear in the river. But the most notable are the stories of the skinwalkers.

We arrived at the camping site around 9 p.m. It was already dark, so we started to unpack and made a fire. Once that was done, my Native buddies put up the barriers and puffed the smoke of tobacco upon us as a personal barrier. They told me never to go anywhere alone and that around 3 a.m. is when the spirits are the most active. Around 2 a.m. the beating of a drum became very clear; this is a sign of the skinwalker, they told me. At around 3 a.m., the smell of wet dog became apparent. This is the sign of either two things: Hoofy, an extremely evil spirit; or the skinwalkers.

The fire grew small and we could see the shadows of animals. We all decided to move to another site in the morning. As first light dawned, we packed. I sat in the back of his truck to hold down the stuff. As we left, I saw a rottweiler walking on its hind legs straight to the middle of our camp. It was easily 5 feet tall and had bright orange eyes. I freaked out and screamed as it was running at us, still standing up. It disappeared into a bush after we turned the corner.

Later on at our other camp, an old man with his face covered up by hair visited us and acted very strangely. We ran out of drinks, so a friend and I decided to head out on foot (no car; a friend had to take it home). We saw a car. As it approached, it slowed down to a halt and the same man asked if we wanted a ride. We said no because by this time my friends had told me the man was a skinwalker. He grabbed my arm and pulled me by his car and looked straight at me. As my friend ran up to grab me, the man took off in his car.

Once we got back, I relaxed. It was around dawn when just behind me the man appeared about 10 feet away and asked if I could help him with something back at his camp. As he did, two trucks came around the corner to head further into the grounds. He watched them as they passed and then all of a sudden he bolted after them. I was astonished seeing this 60-year-old man chasing down a car. My native friends put up a salt barrier. I heard sounds all night, but never saw anything after that. - Levi D. (paranormal.about.com)

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As a teenager, I would visit my grandma at her home on the Navajo rez for several weeks every summer. I loved to spend time with her, eat her delicious fried bread, and hear her tell us stories. Every so often my grandma would hire a worker (the harmless town drunk) to do odd jobs around her house and property. One evening right before the sun went down, I was asked by my grandma to take him home, which was about four miles out of the valley where she lived. I was more than happy to, seeing that I was only 14 years old and was asked to drive a truck! Mind you that on the rez, nobody cares that you're only 14 years old and driving around. Hell, there's hardly anybody around to see you anyway! So my 9 year old brother jumped in the truck cab with me while this "worker" and my dog shared the tailgate of the truck and we were off. After I dropped the worker off at the shack that he and his brothers called a house, we headed back down the road to grandmas. As I mentioned before, it was evening and the sky was a deep red as the sun began to set behind us. We were leaving a nice dust trail from the dirt road and the radio was playing music from the only radio station that could be picked up from the nearest town of Holbrook, Arizona.

There was nothing unusual, nothing weird. It was at this time that my eye caught movement of something in the bushes a little up the road to the right of us. I remember slowing down thinking that it was one of the many free roaming sheep in the area that would dart out in front of the truck. As I passed where I thought I saw it, I sped up thinking nothing else of it. Then out of nowhere I just felt this dark feeling of fear and dread. I had no idea why I was feeling this way but I definitely felt that something was wrong.

As I play this memory back in my mind, there are only a few clear memories that I have of that evening. I clearly remember looking in my rearview mirror and seeing the dark silhouette of something very tall and very skinny that seemed to be covered with some kind of hair or fur running behind the truck after us! Whatever it was, it wasn't a normal human or human at all. I remember hearing my brother crying and my dog barking ferociously at whatever was chasing us. I remember speeding very fast and shaking violently as the truck bounced on the washboard dirt road. I distinctly remember that this thing was only getting closer as my brother cried "it's coming up on your side!" I remember being as scared as hell and thinking that I didn't want to die. At the moment that I thought would be our last. I remember speeding around a bend in the road and seeing a car coming towards us in the opposite direction. At that moment I felt instant relief and felt that whatever was following us was gone.

Shaken up but alive, we made it to grandma's house wondering what the hell had just happened. We ran inside not looking back, hoping that whatever was chasing us had not followed us home. As we told my grandma about our experience she didn't seem too surprised, which surprised us. She continued by repeating stories that we had already heard at one point or another about black magic, witches, and something that the Navajos call Yee Nadlooshii or Skinwalkers. Needless to say, I didn't even want to look out any of the windows at all the rest of that night. As a matter of fact, I never drove on the reservation at night until I was 21 years old.

Without going too deep into explanation, I'll just say that these Skin-walkers are evil men and spirits that use black magic for evil doing. I tell you that as farfetched as it may sound, they are real! I believe that if God and his greatness are real, the devil is equally as real and also has his ways of showing himself.

This may not sound very scary to some readers and that may be due to my lack of writing skills. But what happened that evening really did happen and scared the living crap out of me. I invite anybody to visit this part of Arizona if you have any doubt or want huge scare. I promise you that you won't be disappointed.

I hope that you enjoyed my story and I look forward to sharing other experiences soon. - Tracker337

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Between Crownpoint, New Mexico and Borrego Pass on Navajo Tribal Road 48. I am a non-Native American who has lived and worked on the Navajo Indian Reservation as a school teacher on several different occasions. The most recent gig was from November, 1997 to June, 2000. As a life-long resident of New Mexico, I have driven hundreds of thousands of miles, with tens of thousands of those miles at night. I consider myself a very experienced night time driver, where I have seen just about every type of mammal and animal, both wild and domestic, that New Mexico has. I've seen deer, elk, cattle, horses, sheep, dogs, cats, rabbits, mountain lion, badgers, skunks, porcupines, etc., while driving at night. I recognized them all.

When I first started working at Borrego Pass School in 1997, I was making a home visit to one of my students. His name was Billy (named changed). Billy was a very intelligent boy, with a higher than average I.Q. He told me on that visit that their neighbor (a mile away) was a "skinwalker". I scoffed at Billy and said something like, "There is no such thing." But Billy insisted, saying that the neighbor changed into an animal and came to their house and looked into the windows. This was all very interesting to me, but I pretty much forgot about what he said.

Around 1998, I started teaching night classes at Dine College in Crownpoint. Teaching astronomy, class would end around 10:00 p.m., and I would head back home to Borrego Pass, 18 miles to the east. One night after class, about 10:15 p.m., sometime in the spring (April or May) of 2000, I was driving my 1998 Ford Escort on Navajo Tribal Road 48. I drove about 50 mph because of the possibility of horses and livestock in the roadway. I always noted Billy's house off the road at about the halfway point to my home. It was one of my "waypoints".

It was about this time that suddenly something weird passed from right to left in front of my car's headlights. This was the strangest creature or object I've ever encountered on the road. It was a large, shapeless hole that did not reflect any light whatsoever. My car's headlight's simply disappeared and were swallowed into the darkness of this mass. I saw no definite shape, no legs, no head, no eyes -- just a shapeless black hole. I have never seen anything thing quite like it, before or since, but whatever it was, gave me the creeps.

I remember getting scared and speeding up. I pushed the car's speed up to 65 mph and got to my little duplex at Borrego Pass ASAP. I got into the apartment as quickly and locked the door behind me. I then sat in the living room, trying to figure out what I saw.

The next day, I told one of my Navajo friends what I saw. His jaw dropped. He immediately said it was a skinwalker, but I had nothing to worry about since they can't harm white men. Still, it was weird. I have told this story to several Navajos and they have all pretty much come to the same conclusion that it was a skinwalker. Weird stuff, for sure. A logical explanation says it was a black dog or black bear, but it's more fun to think of it as a skinwalker.

This happened one night, but not the same night as my skinwalker encounter: One night, when driving back from Gallup, New Mexico, I was being tailgated by a Ford Bronco (the old original type) that was driving without headlights. I wrote this off as a guy using me as his lights since his didn't work...or he was drunk...or both. I sped up as fast as I could to shake him. I don't remember what happened, but obviously he did not follow me back to Borrego. - MM (paranormal.about.com)