>>1382531>be onnaRez >down in Navajo country>visiting my friend who’s an old Dine’ medicine woman I met through work>property is out in the middle of Bowl Canyon (buttfuck nowhere)>buddies and I pitched a tent in the backyard >windy night, can hear the coyotes out and about>3AM>wake up to the sounds of her dogs barking>one of them whimpers>wind picks up and gets a little stronger>suddenly hear the sound of a .22 go off >it’s coming from the house>friend and I scramble up to the porch>medicine woman is standing there, floodlights on, firing off rounds into her front yard>ask her what the fuck is going on>she’s got sacred cedar ash smeared on her forehead, stock, barrel, and bullets>points into the yard at a large moving shadow>”skinwalker”>it’s too big to be a coyote, and there are no bears in this area>what the fuck>she starts chanting a Dine’ incantation and keeps firing>shadow is about the size of a bear but whatever the fuck it is moves way to quickly for something that size>hits the side of her Chevy and lets out a low moan before disappearing >sounded more like a human than any animal I’ve ever heard>she starts laughing, and tells us all to go back to sleep>dogs start growling and chasing after whatever the fuck that thing wasI don’t know what exists in this world or beyond it, but that night I realized there are many things I don’t understand. I’m. It a great storyteller, but that’s the long and short of it. Don’t fuck with the Navajo /out/.