Navajo Task Force investigates the paranormal

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With this story, keep in mind that we really do tell it like it is -- even when it is hard to believe. There is a law enforcement agency in Arizona that actually welcomes claims of the paranormal -- ghosts, witchcraft, UFOs and even Bigfoot. CBS 5 News obtained dozens of photos and case files from strange scenes and sightings in northeastern Arizona.

Most police won't take reports like this. But about 10 years ago, officials on the Navajo Reservation decided to stop the snickering, to treat these witnesses with respect and thoroughly investigate. Only one agency -- the Navajo Nation Rangers -- stepped up to the plate. For the first time ever, they are sharing their documents exclusively with CBS 5 News. Retired Lt. John Dover explains that Navajo Nation Rangers are a federal law enforcement resource. They manage national parks, archaeological sites, fish and wildlife services and more as officers of the law. Dover spent 31 years in police work -- the last 10 included claims of the paranormal. "Haunted locations and things going bump in the night," he said. "Objects appearing out of the air and dropping onto the floors, objects flying across rooms, ceramic vessels exploding and then we got involved in UFO investigations."

In one of the most solid cases, a mother and daughter describe a mass of lights floating over uninhabited reservation land in January. As they watched, the lights blinked out after a few seconds, followed by a sonic boom, a black domed craft and the entire town of Chinle losing power. Their drawings are strikingly vivid -- blue, orange and white colors stand out against a dark landscape.

There are also reports of Bigfoot. The hairy creature is most often associated with the Pacific Northwest. However, both the Apache and Navajo tribes say they've got Sasquatch too. One case Dover investigated had 30 witnesses. "We came out with physical evidence," he said. "Hair samples, footprints, stride distances, logs that had been pulled out of the bog area and removed -- normal people wouldn't have been able to do that."

Here in Arizona, so-called paranormal activity is abundant, but serious investigation is not. Just ask Jim Mann, state director of the research organization MUFON. Mann told CBS 5 News, "Tribal lands are filled with Native American legends and folklore and we know those people take the UFO phenomenon very seriously." Mann said partnering with the Rangers is a huge step forward for the field of paranormal research. "It's always been the history that unfortunately the news media has sort of rolled their eyes at us and snickered at us," he said. "We have to grow up and realize this phenomena is really happening and we have to get over the giggle factor."

Dover says 10 years of investigations have revealed a wealth of information. Witnesses are comfortable speaking with officers who promise to be thorough and protect their anonymity. "Maybe we don't believe it," he said. "Maybe we don't hold every belief that you do, but we're going to investigate it rather meticulously and professionally. We'll report it and let the chips fall where they will." More often than not, Dover said those chips fall on the side of truth. "Their testimony would be accepted in a court of law. The confidence level is high," he said. "We've seen them ourselves on occasion. We've seen cigar-shaped craft flying low, we've seen orbs. I had one follow me for about 30 minutes one time."

Dover retired from the Rangers last year but still consults unofficially on the side. The Rangers continue to take paranormal reports. "The cases are coming from people that are just normal people who were very afraid -- something unusual was happening to them," he said. "They didn't know what was going on, they didn't know if it was military, something supernatural, if it was witchcraft. They wanted answers and they wanted to know that somebody cared enough about them to find those answers for them."

You can meet Dover on March 11. That Sunday at 1 p.m. at the Harkins Shea 14 Theatre, Dover and other guests will attend a screening of the documentary The Phoenix Lights. They will take questions from the audience along with filmmaker and witness Dr. Lynne Kitei. For more information on the film and their appearance, click here. Sound off below- tell us about your paranormal experience or why you think it's just not real!

These are truly disturbing adepts and need I remind you researching this subject is extremely difficult because of native's fear around the subject. It is a highly taboo subject among the Dine and similar witchery offshoots versions among the Pueblo peoples are seldom spoken of to outsiders—let alone written down. To be allowed into these medicine societies allegedly includes a cannibilistic ritual act with a slain family member of the novice adept. These are not "love and light" practitioners of natural earth-based knowledge. Besides rare references I have found in obscure self published books by Navajo authors, there are no in-depth sources for information concerning skinwalkers to be found, and what few there are, are disturbing. Here is a decent definition from theunexplainedmysteries.com that sums up my understanding before I began researching the subject in 2006:

Although [a skinwalker] is most frequently seen as a coyote, wolf, owl, fox, or crow, the yeenaaldlooshii is said to have the power to assume the form of any animal they choose, depending on what kind of abilities they need. Witches use the form for expedient travel, especially to the Navajo equivalent of the Black Mass, a perverted song (and the central rite of the Witchery Way) used to curse instead of to heal. They also may transform to escape from pursuers. Some Navajo also believe that skinwalker have the ability to steal the “skin” or body of a person. The Navajo believe that if you lock eyes with a skinwalker they can absorb themselves into your body. It is also said that skinwalker avoid the light and that their eyes glow like an animal’s when in human form and when in animal form their eyes do not glow as an animal’s would.

In the northern Rio Grande Pueblos, there is an added element concerning skinwalker’s alleged ability to transform themselves into a ball of light or fireballs. One interesting version describes a ritual being performed while standing inside a large earthenware platter and the alleged ability to transform into a fireball that flies off.

Tony Hillerman, a longtime NM journalist/author and friend to the Navajo had an uncanny ability to learn of obscure elements of Dine belief and culture and write about them in his hugely successful fiction novels. Here is his response to a question about the subject in an interview shortly before he passed in 2008:

Skinwalkers are tied up with the Navajo concept of good and evil. The Navajos believe that life is a kind of wind blowing through you. Some people have a dark wind, and they tend to be evil. How do you tell? People who have more money than they need and aren’t helping their kinfolk—that’s one symptom of it. Along with if they’re initiated into a witchcraft cult, they get a lot of powers. Depending on the circumstances, they can turn into a dog; they can fly; they can disappear. There are many versions of a skinwalker, but that’s basically what it is. A lot of Navajos will tell me emphatically, especially when they don’t know me very well, that they don’t believe in all that stuff. And then when you get to be a friend, they’ll start telling you about the first time they ever saw one. Traditionally, skinwalkers are able to change themselves into dogs, and traditionally they wear the skin of a dog over their shoulders or the skull of a dog as a cap. So I guess that’s the reason for the term. I’ve never had anyone explain it to me. Navajos just don’t like to talk about it much, even when you’ve known them a long time. It’s kind of obscene, you see. It’s something you don’t talk about in polite company. There’s a feeling that a skinwalker might be listening and might want to get even with you. You’re kind of uneasy about it ... I’m aware that Skinwalkers is one of the more popular books among Navajo young people. Maybe it’s a little bit like pornography to them. But I’ve had no objections to the book. It’s hard to judge, because Navajos are incredibly polite. They just do not like to offend people.

I can speak about this more, if you’d like…. Skinwalkers are NOT benevolent pagan nature worshippers---rather, they are black magicians for hire. Read chapter three in my Book Stalking the Tricksters for all the more disturbing details…

Well Chris, I for one would love to hear more. The very fact that these Native American people find it so hard to discuss the subject lends it a weight possibly not found with say, the folklore of my own land.