Urban Legend
The skinwalker has become an urban legend, a horror story that is told to young children to insight fear. While rooted in a much deeper history of Navajo belief and culture, the skinwalker stands against traditional Navajo values. The skinwalker remains a mysterious being whose identity is disguised with powers associated with black magic.
"When a Navajo child tells a skinwalker story to peers, then he or she is taking responsibility for a wide range of social and cultural knowledge, knowledge about the nature of social relationships, about the symbolic function of skinwalker within the social world, about the appropriate selection of "listeners," and about the culturally defined functions of such stories" - Margret K. Brady Narrative Competence: A Navajo Example of Peer Group Evaluation page 163
Brady's Peer Group Evaluation looks at the skinwalker narrative through the lens of a group of young children sharing their skinwalker stories. the legend of the skinwalker is a popular story among both adults and children in the Navajo community. Performance and story telling are important qualities among the Navajo. However the skinwalker is not limited to such stories, as these storytellers often pull from personal experience in order to relay these tales.
Storytelling
The Navajo are not the only culture that have a "skinwalker" figure. The Puebloan, the Apache, the Hopi, the Ute, and more each speak of harmful witches that shape-shift into animals using their power. These stories however, are spoken of within tribal settings and rarely available for outside listeners. In Brady's study of children telling skinwalker stories she writes, "Although these Navajo children were willing to tell jokes, riddles, and ghost stories in groups of children they did not consider kin (sometimes including Anglo children in the class), they were unwilling to tell skinwalker stories in the same groups" (161). The importance of storytelling among the Navajo remains among the tribe and is a form of preserving Navajo culture from within.
The Yeibichai healing ceremony tells the story of the creator supernatural beings, the yeibichai, while simultaneously channelling their supernatural healing powers
Art forms such as weaving or sand art tell the stories of the Navajo as they hold ceremonial sacredness and cultural value. The image of the weaving tells the story of the yeibichai gods and beings.
