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".