He Never Thought Skinwalkers Were Real...

[Music] of all the Paranormal entities within the vast array of Native American culture and Legend there are few that Inspire dread like the skinwalker even the mention of this entity is something shunned by the Navajo people whose communities are spread amongst the states of New Mexico Arizona Utah and Colorado for them the fear of this creature is quite real for two US army veterans undergoing a series of Medical Treatments at a clinic in the small town of Deming New Mexico in the 1970s one of them being a Navajo man their curiosity and a few beers

overshadowed any of their concerns after accepting an invitation to attend an unusual ritual being carried out in the middle of the desert one night the two men spent the rest of their lives haunted by the experience and more so by what took place in the following days there's no way to verify the story but the man who shared it did so saying that these events actually happened a story about two Army vets and a dead skin walker the Mist which hangs before you offers you a choice to pass through or to escape Beyond it are

stories which defy explanation and fly in the face of what we know to be real it is a void of both reality and impossibility of both fact and Superstition you alone are left to discern what to believe as you pass through what we call the fog of War according to Navajo belief Skin Walkers are highly dangerous they are creatures that typically act out of greed anger Envy spite or Revenge they are said to be harmful witches that even Rob Graves for personal wealth and to collect ingredients for dark magic many Navajo people consider a taboo

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a US Army veteran who signed the letter with the initials Ts for the sake of Simplicity we'll refer to this unknown Veteran by the name of Thomas for well over 30 years a story had been weighing on Thomas's mind however he was hesitant to share this tale with others Thomas's story despite his military background and service in the Vietnam War was far from what you'd expect to hear from someone with his combat experience in fact the story has nothing to do with Vietnam but the injuries he suffered during the war were the Catalyst for hiskin

Walker experience when Thomas saw Gary and Wendy's open call for their followers to share their own Skinwalker encounters he felt he could finally share his bizarre story with someone who would sincerely listen oh hold up what's up something moving we're there by the river all right weapons up let's check it out [Laughter] the series of events leading up to Thomas's encounter in the 1970s would begin during his overseas deployment to Vietnam according to Thomas who felt he was still under obligation not to disclose any specific details his army unit was around that time deployed on

a covert assignment considering the timeline it is possible that Thomas was serving alongside other Special Operations forces in the jungles of LA or Cambodia during the crossb conflict in Vietnam but again the specific details of his service were omitted what we do know is that while operating in an undisclosed country his team was hit by some kind of chemical weapons attack by enemy forces Thomas would fortunately survive but not without severe injury his lungs were permanently scarred after being extracted he was rushed to the nearest hospital where he spent the next month undergoing treatment but

with the available care being insufficient the Army cut Thomas's deployment short sending him and several other wounded men back to the US in order to receive more specialized Medical Care Thomas would return to his home state of Indiana enjoying some much needed rest and recuperation in between the numerous Hospital treatments that were slowly beginning to mend his lungs then about 5 years later Thomas was invited to partake in an experimental medical trial based out of Deming New Mexico along with 16 other men suffering from similar conditions having nothing to lose Thomas gladly accepted the offer

once he arrived at the treatment center Thomas started to get acquainted with the 16 other patients who would also be partaking in the many experimental procedures and exercise programs over the following weeks much to his surprise within the group of men a familiar face caught Thomas's attention it was his friend and old army buddy Dave long glass the two men smiled and slapping one another on the back immediately gave each other a big bear hug during their time in service Thomas said he and Dave were inseparable serving together in the same unit for eight years

including two overseas deployments it was during the second one that the duo were both hit by the chemical attack with both of them suffering lung damage they hadn't seen each other since the Army had shipped them both back home for treatment Thomas to Indiana and Dave to Navajo country in New Mexico fighting in a war together Bridges a lot of gaps with Thomas being white and Dave being a Navajo their differences in culture certainly had no impact on their friendship the two men were more akin to Brothers their service together in the Army uniting them

on a far deeper level than anything else could now finding themselves in another unfamiliar environment it was comforting to know they would once again have each other's backs as they began this new experimental treatment what was it we said loser has to buy the next round I'm just saying that I'm just saying I'm almost I'm almost starting to feel [Music] bad yeah crap well well well you cleaned everybody out at the card table but looks like I might finally have the upper hand maybe I can finally win my money back yeah thanks again I think

all those paychecks you guys lost to put the down payment on my house too bad I seem to spend more time at the Damned VA Hospital oh man weight times are insane I'm not even sure why they flew us back here but uh Hey Tommy I'm glad you're here this whole treatment thing misery L company right uh me you against the VA some reason I feel like we'd have better luck against the NVA all right I'm a man of my word what are we drinking another beer for me thanks hey Rick is that you man

are you sitting by [Music] yourself in between their periods of treatment and light exercise programs Thomas and Dave were left with plenty of time on their hands with their evenings free and 5 years of lost time to catch up on they bounced around deming's local bars and pool halls swapping stories from their time in the Army and everything else that had happened since they'd been separated it was during one of these nighttime outings that they bumped into Rick an old high school friend of Dave's and a fellow Navajo who worked at a local car dealership

all three of them became fast friends and Rick became a regular fixture on the two men's nightly excursions the men bonding over beers and a few games of pool however during one night of particularly heavy partying Rick's typical upbeat demeanor was replaced by something more Sullen and pensive it was as if he had something weighing heavily on his mind though he wasn't sure how to go about expressing it after much prodding by Thomas and Dave Rick nervously looked around the bar before quietly telling the two men to follow him outside the Two Soldiers more than

a little inebriated by now eagerly followed completely oblivious to the very bizarre turn that the evening was about to take once outside and clearly wanting to be out of earshot of everyone else inside the bar Rick looked at his two friends and presented them with an intriguing albeit very unusual opportunity somewhere out in the barren New Mexico desert that night a meeting was going to take place a gathering of men Rick only referred to as shape shifter sober enough to acknowledge that this was a rather strange thing to be talking about Thomas said he remained

Silent not entirely sure what to make of the whole interaction and Rick's bizarre proposal he sensed that Dave however was actually excited at the prospect of attending one of these ritualistic meetings he started talking in a low voice about how his relatives would speak of shapeshifting witches involved in various forms of black magic while clearly aware that the subject was Taboo in Navajo culture Dave feeling much looser after a few drinks couldn't help but to submit to his own curiosity regarding this darker side of his people's history with the collective enthusiasm of both Dave and

Rick egging him on Thomas soon agreed to join the men in attending this mysterious Gathering albeat still a bit apprehensive after all while Rick and Dave were distinctly indigenous in their physical appearance the same couldn't be set Thomas at this Rick laughed assuring him that all the other men in attendance would likely be much drunker than they were that combined with the cover of darkness and Thomas's quote unquote dark enough features Rick said it would be enough to pass Thomas off as one of their own so all three of them agreed to go shaking hands

Rick then got serious for a moment and made the two men solemnly swear to never reveal the details of what they were about to witness after Thomas and Dave agreed they piled into Rick's truck and drove off into the barren expanse of the New Mexico [Music] desert as Rick drove the men further out into the desert the son dropped below the Horizon the blackening Sky then filling with stars for Thomas the initial excitement he felt at the bar had somewhat dissipated he now felt anxious what exactly had the two men gotten themselves into what kind

of weird setup was this were they really heading to meet with a secretive League of shape-shifting Navajo witches that was almost certainly too outlandish to be true but if not then who or what were they on their way to meet a bunch of strange men out in the desert so deep in the bottle that they've convinced themselves of having magical abilities it didn't help that Rick himself had become eerily silent over the last few miles his eyes now Sullen and remaining locked on the road ahead which was bathed in the truck's headlights Thomas grabbed a

bottle of whiskey Rick kept in the truck to stymy his growing sense of unease he took a few swigs and it seemed to help after what must have been at least a 30-m drive into the middle of nowhere the paved Road they were on gave way onto a dirt Trail it didn't look very worn like it was hardly ever driven on there was a dullish red glow in the distance a bonfire Thomas knew they must be getting close still a short distance away from the bonfire Rick was flagged down by one of the secretive group's

members holding a flashlight Rick then pulled his truck alongside several other vehicles Les in a sort of parking area After exiting their vehicle Rick Dave and Thomas began walking towards the nearby bonfire before being approached by the same Navajo man with the flashlight Thomas couldn't help but notice that the man was armed cradling a shotgun as he shined his light across their faces recognizing Rick he nodded and told the men to proceed towards the fire after a short walk the trio arrived to find a sizable group of Navajo men surrounding a roaring bonfire all of

them drinking talking and laughing amongst themselves it wasn't entirely unlike anything the Two Soldiers had experienced during their own get togethers which put them a little more at ease in the unfamiliar environment that was until two other Navajo men both of them carrying guns approached Dave and Thomas and started asking them a series of questions who were they how did they know Rick what were they doing there Thomas and Dave answered honestly which seemed to satisfy the men who then permitted them to take their spot around the fire after issuing one final warning if either

of them was to disclose anything they were about to see to anyone that wasn't gathered around the Flames they would be met with a painful death Thomas and Dave stared at them in silence waiting for the punch line but despite the party-like atmosphere going on around them the faces of these two Navajo men were deadly serious however many red flags they had already seen Thomas said this really just made both of them even more Curious they agreed to the terms and went to join the others but nothing could have prepared them for what they then

witnessed the heavy drinking I'd been doing had surely clouded my senses but the ceremony seemed to be well reged ated as certain chants and words were spoken by the host and quickly repeated by those at attendance so this must have been a regular occurrence obviously following a pre-planned regimen Rick was called on by the moderator and he stepped into the center of the circle a sort of shell made of what appeared to be animal skin sewn together into a capik garment was placed around his shoulders and then he danced around the circle chanting words I

couldn't understand Rick had explained that their trib's traditional Guardians of the spiritual world were witches called Yosi which I have since researched to see that they are as much evil witches as they are protectors I found it hard to understand how the people who must attend these ceremonies can accept or understand all of the significance and mysticism contained within all the chants and dancing right in the middle of a major part of chanting by all the participants Rick through some sort of powder into the large fire which exploded into a huge cloud of smoke and

suddenly there was a large 7-ft creature standing there that looked like a giant feather covered praying mantis with a wolfish face and Rick had disappeared both Dave and I looked at each other Jaws wide open and in total bewilderment neither of us could speak speak we sat for several minutes watching this creature wildly dancing to the sound of the drums being beaten Rhythm by the attendees and the scrawny Beast came up close to each person around the circle neither Dave nor I could see any remote resemblance between this scraggly being and our lost friend Rick

suddenly we were both again assaulted with a huge explosion of smoke that completely smothered every one of us and when it dissipated there was Rick still dancing as though he had never left I never did understand the significance of Rick changing into this other creature or where he was when it was there Rick hardly spoke on our drive back to town it was like he was completely exhausted and when I tried to ask him about how he changed into a creature that looked nothing like him he just mumbled later Dave and I exchanged looks that

we both understood to mean we'd let it go for [Music] [Music] now the following day their heads still spinning from the combination of all the drinking and bearing witness to literal Supernatural events Dave and Thomas found themselves well there's no other word for it dumbfounded it certainly didn't help that try as they might Rick was proving difficult to get a hold of that day they couldn't find him sitting down at a local restaurant the two men recounted the previous night's events wondering if perhaps what they saw was merely the result of having too much to

drink some kind of shared hallucination or maybe they had put something in our drinks kind of thing but as much as they tried to rationalize what they saw they just couldn't make sense of it Thomas in particular said he found himself in the dark being completely unfamiliar with these shape-shifting witches that the Navajo appeared to be well acquainted with at this Dave fell quiet making sure nobody was within earshot before responding to Thomas in a low hushed voice what they had encountered last night night he said was an entity known as a skinwalker according to

Dave the skinwalker came to prominence within Navajo culture not long after the Spanish had made landfall in the Americas pushing North into Mexico during the early 1500s in order to supplement their many labor efforts bands of Spanish soldiers were dispatched into the deserts of what is now the Southern United States their goal was to raid various indigenous settlements kidnapping their men women and children to serve as slaves within the expanding Spanish controlled sectors of the Americas Dave explained that in order to defend the native peoples of the desert namely the Navajo the gods granted select

witches and Spiritual Beings an incredible Supernatural gift the ability to change from their human form into nearly any animal at home in their environment such as Birds deer coyotes or wolves with their uncanny shape-shifting abilities these witches would be able to infiltrate Spanish encampments and observe troop movements completely undetected after gathering information the Skin Walkers would then return to their Villages giving their people plenty of advanced warning of coming attacks or slave raids a skin Walker's role in defending the Navajo people wasn't limited to reconnaissance however while in their animal form the witches could attack

and kill as they saw fit tearing into their enemies with their claws and razor sharp teeth like any other bloodthirsty Predator over the course of many years the threat posed by the Spanish slavers began to Wayan the Navajo people at least for the time being once again living in relative security however the witches chosen to carry these shape-shifting abilities remained and without an enemy to fight they began to turn on the people who they were supposed to defend the Skin Walkers were Now using their powers for selfish and nefarious reasons deceiving and even murdering their

fellow Navajo in pursuit of personal gain to even speak of the skinwalker with those not of Navajo blood was highly discouraged for fear of spreading the witch's murderous influence beyond the reach of the desert and so the once heroic figures in Navajo lore were now among its most feared and despised a band of killers mad with power and tainted by corruption and now it was apparent to Thomas and Dave that their friend Rick was one of them [Music] hello Tom Tom St hey what's going on brother oh man I don't I don't know what to

do man well man man okay hey Slow Down slow down you okay no this this is bad what's going on man it's it's Rick we found him it's Rick man what about him he's he's dead man what Rick is dead that's oh uh all right all right just oh no I'm coming over I'm coming over whatever they might have gained from it the two men had little time to properly investigate their brush with the Skin Walkers their upcoming treatment schedule for their damaged lungs would see them occupied for the better part of the next two

weeks leaving them with little time for anything else but this wouldn't be the end of their bizarre story about a week before their experimental treatment was scheduled to end Thomas got a call from Dave who sounded frantic it was about Rick after several days of attempting to get a hold of Rick Thomas and Dave finally found out where he was his badly mangled body had been found in a shallow roadside ditch about 4 miles outside of town based on the state of his damaged corpse it seemed that Rick had been struck by an oncoming vehicle

a hit and run accident however as Dave da continued to lay out the details surrounding Rick's death Thomas began to notice that there was something off about his death the stretch of road where Rick was found was frequently traveled by motorists and law enforcement patrols if anyone had been struck by an oncoming vehicle then it certainly would have been reported by passing motorists even if the guilty party fled the scene however nothing about a man being struck by a car had been reported in the days leading up to the discovery of Rick's body what was

reported and verified by two other motorists was a deer being struck and killed by a passing car responding to the scene of the incident a patrolman was able to locate the body of the deer dragging it off the road and then rolling it into the Ravine that ran alongside it it was 2 days after this report was made that Rick's body would be found in approximately the same location that the policemen reportedly disposed of the deer's remains strange as it was Thomas couldn't help but wonder if that deer was actually Rick his body somehow changing

back after he died in animal form despite Thomas's insistence Dave had had enough and flatly refused to dig any deeper into the incident if Dave wasn't previously convinced about the supernatural powers of these beings he certainly was now and under the Navajo code he didn't want to draw their attention by discussing the matter Thomas thought thought about it and likewise agreed to drop it and leave the subject Alone by the time Thomas wrote his letter in the 30 years since their encounter with the skinwalker Dave had passed away despite knowing it was taboo and that

he had sworn not to mention it Thomas said that after all that time he just felt that he had to share the experience with somebody regardless of what we think about the existence of such creatures until this very day the Navajo people do continue to live their lives in fear of these evil beings in Thomas's story he wouldn't be the first person let alone the only Soldier to report seeing something strange and unexplained in the deserts of New Mexico [Music] [Applause] [Music] hey guys welcome to the after action for this episode uh so I am

genuinely curious what you guys would think about this story uh as mentioned this came from a book alongside several other accounts um some of which were very interesting and maybe not all from veterans but in the sense that Navajo men and their en ERS with family members who got involved with kind of a shady group uh in and amongst their own people people disappearing uh that kind of thing so very interested to hear your thoughts on these kinds of stories and otherwise when talking about New Mexico it just seems to be kind of a place

we keep coming back to whether it be disappearing Air Force service members uh that wind up dead in the desert having been mutilated UFO sightings are prevalent in the area uh other creature sightings that we're going to have to talk about in future and yeah just a lot of General strangeness going on in the desert there so this story just kind of adds to the Intrigue of what is happening in New Mexico so thank you for watching thank you for listening for subscribing leaving a comment thank you again to all of my supporters both YouTube

channel members and patreon members and to anybody who supports the channel buying a t-shirt stuff like that it really does help in the long run so thank you thank you so much for all the support may God be with you no matter what you are dealing with and I will see you in the next episode