Yee Naaldlooshii
In Diné (Navajo) tradition, a person who has crossed serious cultural and spiritual taboos and acquired the ability to take animal form by wearing its skin.
Definition
The phrase translates roughly as “with it, he goes on all fours”. Within traditional Diné belief it refers to a category of being who was once a person, but who has performed the worst things a person can do — the killing of a close family member is the most often cited — and has, in doing so, become something that no longer belongs to the community.
The horror of the Yee Naaldlooshii is not that it is non-human. It is that it was once a person, still has all the knowledge of a person, and has chosen, fully, to use that knowledge against the living.
The cultural prohibition on speaking openly about the Yee Naaldlooshii is itself the central defensive practice, refined over centuries. Treating the tradition as a tourist attraction — Skinwalker Ranch, merchandise, click content — is the best-documented way to invite its attention. Our entry on The Skinwalker is written carefully and conservatively for non-Diné readers; consult the entry’s references rather than relying on this summary alone.