A northeastern Arizona resident, who grew up very near the Navajo reservation in Winslow, recalls his experiences with, what he believed were, skinwalkers.
I received the following accounts:
"Growing up, I lived in northeastern Arizona. Literally about 5 miles south of the Navajo reservation in Winslow. Naturally, being that close to the reservation (or “The Rez”) skinwalkers were a HUGE topic of conversation amongst the locals and we all took it very seriously. Stories of personal experiences abounded. I was no different.
My family had gone camping in a little spot about 50 miles or so south of town called Hart Canyon, near Wiggins Crossing (if anyone is interested). We had been there all day and I was extremely familiar with the area as we had camped there 20 or so times before. So my parents let me just wander about alone in the woods. This was back in the early 90’s.
Anyway, I had some G.I. Joes that I had been playing with in the nearby creek. About 80 yards from our campsite. There were no other campers there with us. My mom had called me back to camp for dinner, so I left and ate. Played around camp for a while and realized that I’d forgotten my toys back at the creek. So I took a flashlight and headed back that way. I knew right where I had left them so in no time I found them and grabbed them up. As I squatted down to grab them on the edge of the water, a sudden urgency that I’d never felt before ran down my spine. I remember feeling frozen because of the fear. Like the little boy on ET when the alien comes out of the field for the first time and he’s trying to scream for his family.
I looked up and pointed my flashlight to the other side of the creek and about 10 yards down the way. I saw something. At first, I thought it was a deer. But it was standing up. So I thought it may be a bear. But it was too skinny and did not have enough poofy hair. It skunked behind a tree and peered out slightly at me.
I seriously was too scared to move. I had just read a bit about Bigfoot for the first time since it wasn’t really popular in my area. I thought for a long time that that’s what I saw.
I finally had seen enough to gather my wits and scramble as fast as I could back to camp. I told my parents and they kind of dismissed it as my imagination. So I just stayed close the rest of the trip.
About 2 years later, I was at my house. I had two dogs. They were outside dogs and lived their whole lives in my backyard. One night they went psycho. Barking at first at something in the alley behind my house, then they both started whimpering. I had my window open slightly and one of my dogs straight up jumped up to the window, frantically CHEWED THROUGH THE SCREEN of the window, forced its way into the house, and would not leave the house for 3 days.
Another time when I was about 13. We used to play night games in the town. Mostly - there being nothing much else to do - we would walk around our neighborhood and act suspicious so the cops would come chase us around. And we run down the alleyways and hop into random folks' backyards to hide.
Now, it was extremely common to see an intoxicated Navajo or Hopi in the alley. So it was no big deal to see one in the alley behind my house that night as we (we being 2 of my friends and myself) ran from a police car hot on our tail. We saw him plain as day standing in our way. We ran around him and jumped into the nearest yard to hide. We waited for the cop to pass us and hopped back out. Literally about 3 minutes went by. We ran back the way we came and as we got to the point where the drunk man had been, he was gone! In his place was a coyote sitting there watching us. We ran right past it. Feet from it. And anyone who knows coyotes knows they will bail out WAY before you get close to them. This bugger held his ground and calmly sat and watched us run past him. We all freaked out and stayed inside for a month.
My last experience was when I was about 15 or 16. My brother has a girlfriend who lives in a small community south of Winslow called Starlight Pines. About 25 miles-ish. Well, we went to see her one day. And as we drove out, about 15 miles out we saw a native guy standing on the side of the road. This was quite odd because the Rez was north of town and it was rare to see anyone on foot south of town because it’s just desert and forest for literally 80 miles. Anyway, we see this guy, he looked normal enough. Flannel shirt. Jeans.
We got to our destination and hung out with my brother's girlfriend and her family well into the night when we decided to head back home. Hopped in his truck, a Chevy S10, and drove back the way we came. In the same spot, we saw the native dude, he was still there! I remember thinking, that dude is crazy standing out there all day and into the night, what’s he doing?
Right as we passed him we heard a loud BANG on the back of the truck. At first, I thought we hit an animal but I hadn’t felt anything that we’d run over. I turned around and looked out the back window. My brother started to slow down, thinking there may be something wrong with the truck. In the brake lights, I see the native guy chasing after us! We are easily going 55 to 60 at this point as we were about to stop. The guy is in the road, FEET behind us! I scream at my brother to not stop! 'Gun it, man! Gun it!!' He does and being a Chevy S10 it had a speed governor on it at 80. 2 miles! This guy keeps up with us. We are seriously freaking out! I asked my brother what if we don’t make it back to town or what about when we have to slow down once we get close?
After those two miles that stretched forever, I looked back and he was gone!!
We got home, booked it into the house, and told our parents. The next morning, I get up to head somewhere and look at my brother's truck thinking about the night before. I wondered what the loud bang was just before we started getting chased. Inspecting the truck, I found a handprint smeared in the dust from about 2/3 over to the right then smeared to the right taillight. I never went there again.
Sorry, it was so long. But those are my experiences with what I’m convinced were skinwalkers." AMA
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