Don't Talk About the Skinwalkers

This is a story that my Uncle told me when I was a teenager. It has been a story that always terrified me. My children love to hear this story when we go camping. I don't tell many people this story, and I have decided to share it here.

My uncle, Mark, went on a mission when he was 19. We are from Utah, and he was sent to Arizona (I'm not sure what town) on Indian reservation with a young man from Washington named Carl. Originally, they were supposed to be placed on the Indian reservation, but the people on the reservation don't like outsiders and got very upset over the missionaries staying there. To compromise, the mission leader agreed to house Mark and Carl just outside the reservation limits in a small trailer.

Their first few days, they would get up early, walk to the reservation housing area and meet with the locals. The third night, Mark and Carl were asleep in their trailer. All of the sudden they were awaken to their trailer shaking back and forth violently. Mark, very terrified, crawled under a table for protection. Carl got up and tried to look out the windows, but he couldn't see anything. The trailer continued to shake like there was a group of people pushing it back and forth. After 10 minutes of violent shaking, it stopped. They both slept under the table that night.

The next day, Mark and Carl went on their usual trip to the local area on the reservation. They visited a family they had been talking too the past few days. Mark was chatting with the man and told him what had happened the night before. The man got very quiet. Mark asked him what it was. The man simply said, "I can't discuss this." Mark got a weird feeling from him and decided to leave it alone.

That night, Mark and Carl were asleep. Mark was awaken to the sound of scratching on the door. He listened for a few minutes, and then he heard a second set of scratching on the opposite side of the trailer. Then the trailer started to shake back and forth violently again. Carl got up and looked out the windows again and he thought he saw an animal run past the side of the trailer. They both got under the tables and stayed there the rest of the night.

The next morning, they did their usual routine. They met a new family and was talking with them. Mark decided to give it another try and asked the couple about what happened to them the last few nights. The couple got very quite, then said "you guys better leave now." Frustrated, they left the home. Mark and Carl talked the whole way home to their trailer that evening about why the locals wouldn't talk to them about what was happening.

That night, they were asleep. Again they were awoken to scratching noises. Then the trailer began to shake back and forth. My uncle, being fed up with this and began to think the locals were trying to scare them off, decided to open the door and confront whatever was shaking the trailer. He flung open the door and yelled, "hey!!" As he looked out, he saw three animals running away from the trailer back into the woods. 2 wolves and a bear that had very unusual features that did not seem normal. As he watched them get towards the wooded entrance, all 3 animals, from running on 4 feet, stood up on 2 feet and started walking slowly into woods.

Mark and Carl were shaken from the previous night and didn't sleep after that. Mark was determined to get someone to talk about it. As they went from house to house, everyone shut them out. It seemed to them that they knew what these things were but refused to talk about it. Around lunchtime, they entered a convenient store to pick up some food. There was a nice guy at the counter that they made small talk with. As they were chatting, Mark decided to take a chance and ask this man about what has been happening. He told him about the past 3 nights, the shaking, scratching, and strange creatures that walked on 2 feet. He also told the man about the way the locals were acting when he asked about it. This man told my uncle, "well it is forbidden for them to talk about the skinwalkers because it is a curse and the demons of the skinwalkers will take their souls." "What are skinwalkers?" Mark asked. The man said, "all I can tell you is that their are demons that inhabit animal skins." Shaken up, they left the store and called the mission president. They told him what was happening and how terrified they were to stay another night. The mission president immediately picked them up, got them new lodging until he could get them housing elsewhere.

After they left the trailer, everything went well for a year. After that year, Mark and Carl got a call that Carl was being moved to a new location and Mark was getting a new companion. Within a week, Carl left and Mark and the mission president went to pick up his new companion. They had to drive an hour and a half to the airport to pick up his new companion, Jimmy. When they got in the car, they told Jimmy that they were driving through an area at night that rendered them unable to stop, "so take care if any business now" the mission president told Jimmy. Jimmy seemed nervous and said, "I am fine." So they hit the road. The area they had to travel through was by the reservation.

About 30 minutes into the drive, they hit a very wooded area of the boundaries of the reservation. Jimmy says, "I really need to go to the bathroom." "you're going to have to hold it." the mission president said. "I can't!" Said Jimmy. The mission president pulled over. He said to Jimmy, "you can go pee, but you have to stay next to the door. If I tell you to get in the car, I don't care if you're done, you get in the car!" A little freaked out Jimmy said "alright." He stood by the car door and begun taking care of business. All of the sudden, Jimmy was yanked back into the car and the mission president hit the gas hard. Jimmy and Mark started to freak out. "what is going on, what is going on!!!". The mission president said nothing. Mark looked at the odometer. He was going over 60 miles an hour. Mark saw something out of the window to his right. He looked over and saw a strange looking wolf on 2 legs running next to car. He yelled, "go faster!" The wolf ran on 2 legs next to the car for what seemed like 30 minutes at 80 miles an hour and then finally vanished. When they got to their home, Jimmy said, "what did I just see?" in a shakey voice. All the mission president said was, "next time I tell you to take care of your business, you take care of your business."