Carne Seca
Well-Known Member
Tell us your "true" stories of ghostly or paranormal encounters. It doesn't have to be something that happened to you. A local urban legend or haunted house story passed down is fine. I'll start it out with a skinwalker story. Not the hollywood bullshit or some romance novelist's caricature. The real deal. A little backstory to help you understand what the Hell I'm talkin' about should help.
In the Navajo Creation story there was a time when the Holy People used messengers to communicate with the five fingered, earth surface people (humans). These messengers were given gifts and attributes that helped them communicate their will throughout the area within the four sacred mountains. With the understanding that they would someday return what was given. They were given the ability to take on the attributes of any animal whose skin they wore but keep human intelligence. They had the ability to move at great speeds. They can become a shadow. They can immobilize you. When the Holy People asked for their gifts back, most of them complied. A few decided they didn't want to give anything back and disappeared into history. Which gives us today's skinwalkers.
Once they corrupted the Blessing Way the gifts were twisted into causing chaos rather than harmony/balance. Now they can stall cars and jam guns on top of the old tricks. They have corpse powder that can kill you if they blow it in your face and can shoot bones from a tube under your skin which causes illness and death. They are the Navajo version of satanists but on steroids.
When my parents were first married they managed a trading post at Salina Springs. My two oldest siblings spent most of their early childhood there. My parents spent a lot of time with a particular family that had lived in the area for generations. They used to sit and talk about history and tradition. On rare occasions they would talk about skinwalkers. Navajos really don't like to talk about them. In fact it was believed in some areas that to know anything about them made you suspect. My dad became good friends with a member of that family. They both rode the local rodeo circuit and spent a lot of time together on the road. My dad used to joke with him about skinwalkers. His buddy had gone to boarding school and didn't know much about his own culture. He was like a stranger in his own land. He eventually joined the service and spent a couple of years away from the homestead. When he came home for a visit he found his family in turmoil. Someone or something was breaking into the sheep pens at night and taking one or two sheep a night. They tried everything. Locks. Barbed Wire. They even built the fence up to around 9 feet in one corral and moved all the sheep into it. The sheep kept disappearing.
One of the uncles (extended families live on the same land) decided to hide in a nearby shed with a shotgun when all else failed. Early in the morning the uncle heard what sounded like a horse coming down the road at full gallop. As it got closer he could hear dogs howling and crying from all over the area. The corral the sheep were kept in was between the road and shed. He couldn't see what was coming up the road. Finally, the sound stopped abruptly at the other end of the corral closest to the road. He said he saw two bright glowing objects shining through the slats in the corral. He finally realized after watching for a while that they were eyes. That's when he realized what he was dealing with. He raised his gun to shoot and the gun would not discharge. He checked the safety and the bullet chamber to make sure that wasn't the problem. He just couldn't get it to work. The skinwalker heard the noise and started around the side of the corral. The uncle lit the coleman lantern to keep it at bay and it retreated to the other side of the corral again. Then he said it made a noise that caused the hair on the back of his neck to stand up. It was mimicking a baby crying. He said it sounded almost exactly like a baby. It was the "almost" the made his hair stand up. He said the cry had an edge to it. Like something hard and cruel. Without compassion. Like a predator luring in prey for the kill. He didn't know what to do and realized he probably didn't have much time. His family heard the commotion with the dogs and came to investigate. The porch light came on and the creature faded into the darkness. He said it just melted into the shadows and was gone.
When my dad's friend was told this story he just laughed and said joked that his uncle had been drinking too much that night. His uncle took offense and challenged him to sleep in the pen that night. My dad's friend accepted. He wasn't afraid of the dark. He spent two years in the military, rode the rodeo circuit and could fight like a prize fighter. He grabbed a tarp, his sleeping bag and pillows and bedded down in the pen. Around 2am the family awoke to blood curdling screams coming from the sheep pen. They said the screams were terrible. It sounded like someone was being tortured. They ran outside with guns and lights only to find my dad's friend sitting in the yard with his sleeping bag around him. There were huge rips in the bag. Rips that looked like claw marks. My dad's friend was still screaming. He was pale and his eyes were practically bulging out of their sockets. He was in his twenties and the hair at his temples had gone white. His family could not get him to snap out of it. They called the police and he was taken to the closest hospital. The doctors said he almost died from shock.
To the day he died he never regained his complete sanity. He kept slipping in and out. All he would say about his encounter was, "Ma'ii tsoh! Ma'ii tsoh!" Which is the name for Wolf in Navajo and another word for skinwalker. My dad used to visit him but he said his friend just wasn't there anymore. About ten years ago they found him dead one morning in his yard. He was lying on his back and staring up at the sky. There was an autopsy. Not a mark on him or any reason for his sudden death. According to the report he died sometime that night. For some reason he was outside after dark. Something he never did after his encounter. To this day it's a mystery.
In the Navajo Creation story there was a time when the Holy People used messengers to communicate with the five fingered, earth surface people (humans). These messengers were given gifts and attributes that helped them communicate their will throughout the area within the four sacred mountains. With the understanding that they would someday return what was given. They were given the ability to take on the attributes of any animal whose skin they wore but keep human intelligence. They had the ability to move at great speeds. They can become a shadow. They can immobilize you. When the Holy People asked for their gifts back, most of them complied. A few decided they didn't want to give anything back and disappeared into history. Which gives us today's skinwalkers.
Once they corrupted the Blessing Way the gifts were twisted into causing chaos rather than harmony/balance. Now they can stall cars and jam guns on top of the old tricks. They have corpse powder that can kill you if they blow it in your face and can shoot bones from a tube under your skin which causes illness and death. They are the Navajo version of satanists but on steroids.
When my parents were first married they managed a trading post at Salina Springs. My two oldest siblings spent most of their early childhood there. My parents spent a lot of time with a particular family that had lived in the area for generations. They used to sit and talk about history and tradition. On rare occasions they would talk about skinwalkers. Navajos really don't like to talk about them. In fact it was believed in some areas that to know anything about them made you suspect. My dad became good friends with a member of that family. They both rode the local rodeo circuit and spent a lot of time together on the road. My dad used to joke with him about skinwalkers. His buddy had gone to boarding school and didn't know much about his own culture. He was like a stranger in his own land. He eventually joined the service and spent a couple of years away from the homestead. When he came home for a visit he found his family in turmoil. Someone or something was breaking into the sheep pens at night and taking one or two sheep a night. They tried everything. Locks. Barbed Wire. They even built the fence up to around 9 feet in one corral and moved all the sheep into it. The sheep kept disappearing.
One of the uncles (extended families live on the same land) decided to hide in a nearby shed with a shotgun when all else failed. Early in the morning the uncle heard what sounded like a horse coming down the road at full gallop. As it got closer he could hear dogs howling and crying from all over the area. The corral the sheep were kept in was between the road and shed. He couldn't see what was coming up the road. Finally, the sound stopped abruptly at the other end of the corral closest to the road. He said he saw two bright glowing objects shining through the slats in the corral. He finally realized after watching for a while that they were eyes. That's when he realized what he was dealing with. He raised his gun to shoot and the gun would not discharge. He checked the safety and the bullet chamber to make sure that wasn't the problem. He just couldn't get it to work. The skinwalker heard the noise and started around the side of the corral. The uncle lit the coleman lantern to keep it at bay and it retreated to the other side of the corral again. Then he said it made a noise that caused the hair on the back of his neck to stand up. It was mimicking a baby crying. He said it sounded almost exactly like a baby. It was the "almost" the made his hair stand up. He said the cry had an edge to it. Like something hard and cruel. Without compassion. Like a predator luring in prey for the kill. He didn't know what to do and realized he probably didn't have much time. His family heard the commotion with the dogs and came to investigate. The porch light came on and the creature faded into the darkness. He said it just melted into the shadows and was gone.
When my dad's friend was told this story he just laughed and said joked that his uncle had been drinking too much that night. His uncle took offense and challenged him to sleep in the pen that night. My dad's friend accepted. He wasn't afraid of the dark. He spent two years in the military, rode the rodeo circuit and could fight like a prize fighter. He grabbed a tarp, his sleeping bag and pillows and bedded down in the pen. Around 2am the family awoke to blood curdling screams coming from the sheep pen. They said the screams were terrible. It sounded like someone was being tortured. They ran outside with guns and lights only to find my dad's friend sitting in the yard with his sleeping bag around him. There were huge rips in the bag. Rips that looked like claw marks. My dad's friend was still screaming. He was pale and his eyes were practically bulging out of their sockets. He was in his twenties and the hair at his temples had gone white. His family could not get him to snap out of it. They called the police and he was taken to the closest hospital. The doctors said he almost died from shock.
To the day he died he never regained his complete sanity. He kept slipping in and out. All he would say about his encounter was, "Ma'ii tsoh! Ma'ii tsoh!" Which is the name for Wolf in Navajo and another word for skinwalker. My dad used to visit him but he said his friend just wasn't there anymore. About ten years ago they found him dead one morning in his yard. He was lying on his back and staring up at the sky. There was an autopsy. Not a mark on him or any reason for his sudden death. According to the report he died sometime that night. For some reason he was outside after dark. Something he never did after his encounter. To this day it's a mystery.
,and when its daylight I'll post my ghost story lmao...........but seriously its making my hair stand up just thinking about it.
