User:Bella088/Skin-walker

Skin walkers

Yee naaldlooshii, which means "by means of it, it goes on all fours," is a Navajo phrase.[1] The yee naaldlooshii, or more specifically, a type of 'ánti'hnii, is one of several sorts of skin-walkers in Navajo culture, despite possibly being the most popular variety encountered in horror fiction by non-Navajo people.[1]Skinwalkers and other Navajo witches are the antithesis of Navajo cultural ideals. Witches are viewed as evil, performing twisted rituals and using magic in a perversion of the good works medicine people traditionally perform. Community healers and cultural workers are known as medicine men and women, or by other positive, nurturing terms in the local, indigenous language. Traditional healers study both good and evil magic in order to put their good deeds into practice. The majority are capable of handling the burden, but some can become evil and decide to become witches.[2]The mythology of the skin-walkers is poorly known outside of Navajo society for a variety of reasons, including reluctance to discuss the topic with outsiders[3] and the lack of lived experience that Native critics believe is necessary to understand the tradition.[4] Traditional Navajo people are hesitant to discuss skin-walker history with persons they do not trust or to divulge it to non-Navajos. Cherokee Nation activist Adrienne Keene is the creator of the website Native. We as Native people are now exposed to a barrage of questions about these beliefs and traditions, but these are not things that need or should be discussed by outsiders, writes Appropriations in response to non-Navajos including the legends in their writing (and specifically the impact when J. K. Rowling did so). At all. I apologize if that comes across as "unfair," but that is how our civilizations endure.[4]

Legend

Witchcraft is frequently associated with tricksters like coyotes, although other animals, typically those connected to death or ill omens, may also be mentioned. Additionally, they could possess living creatures or people and move around inside their bodies.[5][6][7] Skin-walkers can be either men or women.[2]Children's tales of skin-walkers may be full-fledged life-or-death encounters that culminate in one skin-walker or Navajo murdering the other, or they may be partial encounter tales that come to a deadlock.[2] Encounter tales could be written as Navajo triumph tales, in which skinwalkers approach a hogan and are frightened away.[7][8]The most common non-Native interpretations of skin-walker tales are stories about brief roadside encounters in which the protagonist is momentarily exposed but ultimately manages to flee the skin-walker in a manner not frequently found in Navajo tales.[9][10] Sometimes Navajo kids may adapt European folktales and replace generic killers like the Hook with skin-walkers.[9]

In culture today

Numerous contemporary video games and movies have been influenced by the skin-walker tale.

The topic of skin-walkers gained popularity on several social media sites, most notably TikTok, in the middle to late 2020.[11] This fashion portrayed skin-walkers as beings that pose as living things and make feeble attempts to replicate their behavior. The practice occasionally entailed pointing out strange behavior in individuals and animals and speculating that the person or animal might actually be a skin-walker.[11]