According to
Navajo folklore, a
skin walker is a
magician or
shaman who has the
power to take the
shape of a
wolf by covering him or herself in a
wolfskin.
Legends say that most skin walkers
shapeshift into wolves in order to
travel great distances in a
short time. According to
anthropologist Willam Morgan, who wrote about Navajo
werewolf beliefs in 1936, it was believed that a skin walker could run from
Gallup, New Mexico to
Albuquerque in an hour and a half -- at the time, it took an
automobile about four hours to cover the same
distance.
The
Navajo word for a skin walker is
yee naaldlooshii, or "those who
trot about with it."