Skin-walker (disambiguation)

A Skin-walker is a shaman with a supernatural talent to turn into a certain creature. Such shamans can be found in numerous cultures 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.

Possibly the best documented skin-walker beliefs are those of the Navajo yenaldooshi, also sometimes referred to as a Navajo witch by outsiders. The yenaldooshi are human beings who have gained supernatural power by breaking a cultural taboo. Specifically, a person is said to gain the power of a yenaldooshi by murdering a close relative. The skin-walker will sometimes travel through the community by night, spreading misery and desecrating holy things. He or she is usually described as naked, except for a coyote skin. The yenaldooshi is also said to have the power to assume the form of a coyote or other animal.

The main power of the yenaldooshi comes from its use of corpse powder which is made from human cadavers. Touching the powder will curse a person with sickness or death. This is an inversion of the use of pollen among the Navajos, which is sprinkled to produce blessings. Another form of this is a bone pellet which the yenaldooshi will shoot into a victim's body.

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.

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 Bear Sarcca, the origins of the word berserker. 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, until the witch trials began in the Middle Ages and Renaissance.

Novels

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.

Movies

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

Television

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.

Music

"Skinwalkers" is the title and subject of a song by the 12 Step Rebels.