annotated bibliography (2)

Rochelle Walton February 24, 2014 English 1102 Professor Walden

Annotated Bibliography

Woolcott, Ina. "Wolf, Power Animal, Symbol of Wildness, Social and Family Values." Wolf,

Power Animal, Symbol of Wildness, Social and Family Values. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2014.

Ina Woolcott begins by sharing how Native American and Celtic customs see the wolf as how

they should find the deepest level of one’s self. The image of the wolf howling at the moon

represents this inner knowing. She also tells how these tribes believe the wolf is their ancestor.

Ina then goes into how wolves have been misunderstood and how they are now viewed today.

The wolf has been miss represented in stories and media, now being viewed at horrible

dangerous creatures. The way that they are portrayed is opposite of their intelligent and friendly

nature. Ina explains how the wolf symbolizes night. Night is seen as a lonesome time but this is

the time when you can dream and really find yourself, which goes along with Native Americans

seeing the wolf as a way to find your inner being. The wolf teaches you to learn about your inner

strength and how to face your fears. Native Americans believe that wolves need sincerity. After

going into detail of what the wolf is to the Native American custom she goes into the qualities of

a wolf. How they hunt in packs, mate for life, and how they express themselves with body

language. Wolves are very intellectual and have excellent hearing. Lastly Ina explains what a

wolf’s medicine is. Their medicine is death and rebirth. They face death with dignity and

courage. This article helps me to show the wolf’s significance in Native American culture, but

also show how the media has changed how the wolf is view by other cultures.

Moonlight. "Native American Werewolves | Werewolves." Native American Werewolves |

Werewolves. N.p., 6 Sept. 2009 Web. 25 Feb. 2014.

Moonlight starts out by expressing what the wolf is and has been to Native American Tribes. The

wolf is believed to be a spirit of protection. The wolf is seen as a totem. A totem is an animal or

person who is believed to have spiritual meaning and or power. Moonlight then moves his way

into speaking about how many Native American tribes believe in a man transforming from man

to animal. Although many tribes believe in this transforming, then Navajo are best known for

shape-shifting. Skin-walker is another term for the shape-shifters, people who transform from

human to animal and animal to human. The word that the Navajo use is yeenadlooshi which

means, “He walks on all fours”. Traditionally Navajos believe that skin-walkers look different

than non-skinwalkers. Moonlight goes into detail of the physical appearance of skin-walkers.

They have eyes that glow even in the daylight, their tongues are black, representing that their

souls are poison, and their skin is hard impermeable by axe or arrows. It is also believed that

skin-walkers are able to read minds and imitate cried of family and friends to lure people into the

woods. The Hopi tribe believes that shape-shifting can be brought on by a ceremony where the

person wears the skin of the animal that they want to become. This article allows me to give a

better understanding of shape-shifting in the Navajo tribe. The shape-shifting in the Navajo tribe

can also help me explain how the concept of werewolves came to be.


Neilson, Paula I. "Werewolf Beliefs among Native Tribes of North America." Suite. N.p., 2000.

Web. 25 Feb. 2014.

Neilson speaks on how Native Americans have great respect for wolves. They try to imitate their

hunting skills and use wolf packs to tell their children about sticking together, mating, and both

parents caring for the children. Some tribes believe that the wolf is a spirit with powers that can

be used to help a tribe as it deserves. Werewolves are uncommon in Native American tribes and

their beliefs are different that the European belief of a man beast shape-shifting into a human-

killing beast howling at a full moon. For Native Americans, totems are an identification, a tribe

will contain qualities that correspond with the totem. The wolf is seen as a totem of protection

for many tribes. The wolf is used by the Shamans to travel the dead and living world. They

believe that it helps them heal the sick and gain spiritual information. Wolf dances and

ceremonies are used to call upon the wolf spirit to blessing them when they go hunting.

Werewolves are highly unlikely but not completely nonexistent in Native American legends. In

the Navajo and Hopi tribes, skin-walkers are common myths about men and women who become

animals. These tribe members are not werewolves but witches with pelts of whatever animal they

wish to become. Navajos believe that skin-walkers have the ability to read minds and mimic

voices to lure people in. The only way to get rid of a skin-walker is to know the person behind

the skin-walker and pronounce their whole name and three days later the skin-walker will die

from the wrong they’ve done. This article gives an inside view of how the wolf is seen and

respected by Native Americans unlike the now present European view of them in which they are

mean scary creatures.

Ernst, Alice. "Native Americans Legends - How the Wolf Ritual Began." Native Americans

Legends - How the Wolf Ritual Began. N.p., 22 Oct. 2000. Web. 25 Feb. 2014.

Ernst explains how the Wolf ritual began. So it goes, a young lady was walking with three

friends and a wolf crossed her path. She said that the wolf was handsome and that she wishes to

marry a man as handsome and strong. That night when the woman went to sleep the wolf came

in and told her that he was going to take her with him. When she woke up she saw a handsome

man standing before her. The two of them went to his house in the mountains. They had two sons

that were half wolf and half man. Back home the girl’s father looked for her and ended up just

believing that she was dead. When the oldest son became a man he asked his mother why he

looked so different than the wolves and she explained to him that he is from another place and

that there is a place away from the wolves where her own father is. The son asked to see where

she was from so she spoke to her husband who eventually let her go. Before they left he taught

her of the wolf ritual. Once she learned it she went home and told her father that she was married

to a wolf and that when they howl at the moon the town must not do anything but learn from

them. Then she taught her father the wolf ritual. This source helps to give more insight to the

legend involved with wolves within Native American tribes, so that my reader can understand

the role that wolves play in their culture.


"The Real Quileute Tribe Legends." YouTube. YouTube, 30 Mar. 2010. Web. 25 Feb. 2014.

The Quileute believe that they originally came from the wolf. This is the story that they pass

down from generation to generation. The say that they’ve been around for 10,000 years back in a

different time when animals could talk. They believe that the changer went around the world

setting things in balance preparing them for change. The changer, they say, went to the Quileute

land where animals went when they had their “skins” off and were people, but when he went

there, there were no people but there were two wolves so he changed them into people. The

wolves are said to be the first animals to be turned into people by the changer for the change of

time. The changer then sent them to La Push. This video helps me add to my point that some

Native American tribes really believe that they came from wolves and they hold wolves up in

high esteem. Whereas in today’s society they see wolves as being a dangerous creature and

something to use in stories, movies, and show series.

"Quileute Legends." Quileute Legend Myths and Folklore. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2014.

The Quileute live on a small area of land in Washington State. There are only about 750

members left who live on a reservation called La Push. Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight has brought

a lot of acknowledgment to the Quileute tribe, however the Quileute don’t possess the shape-

shifting power that she gives them in Twilight. Quileute legends have characters that are found in

other cultures as well. Q’wati is one of their most important characters. They believe that he

created the first Quileute. They believe that he traveled around showing humans how they should

act. Once he reached a land that had no people so he rubbed his hands together and created

people out of his dead skin and water. Then he reached another part of land without people but

there were two wolves there so he turned them into people. He called them the Quileute people

and told them, “For this reason you Quileute shall be brave, for you came from wolves”. This

video adds to my point that media has portrayed wolves in a different way than what the Native

Americans have believed and therefore changing their role in culture as a whole.

Kelleher, Colm, and George Knapp. "Skinwalkers - What Are They?" Skinwalkers - What Are

They? N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Feb. 2014.

This source searches for the origin of the skin-walker. It tracks back into the history and roots of

the skin-walker. In many Native American legends and religion the skin-walker is a witch that

can alter its shape to whatever it wishes and gain animal characteristics. Almost all cultures hold

their old shape-shifter story but the most common and well known is of the werewolf. A term

used in this source is lycanthropy. Lycanthropy is s psychiatric term for a person who believes

that they are a wolf. Other places such as Africa, India, and Egypt have their own shape-shifter


stories. Indians have were-tigers, Egyptians have were-hyenas, and African have were-jackals

and were-leopards. In the Southwest, Native tribes have their own skin-walker tells however they

all have the same root of a witch able to transform into animals. In the Navajo tribe, skin-walkers

are believed to use mind control to get humans to hurt or even kill themselves. Although

werewolves may be a myth to most or just a theme for a scary movie, for the Navajo and many

other tribes, these shape-shifters are real. This source adds to my point of how important and real

the wolf, and shape-shifters are to Native tribes and how they have now become a means of

entertainment.

Stypczynski, Brent. "Evolution of the Werewolf Archetype from Ovid to J.K. Rowling."

Electronic Thesis or Dissertation. Kent State University, 2008. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and

Dissertations Center. 27 Feb 2014.

This abstract elaborates on how the fascination with shape-shifting has evolved over the years. It

speaks on how this idea has reach many cultures across history. This whole idea of man

changing to animal and animal transforming to man has been featured in pieces from

Shakespeare to Terry Pratchett to J.K. Rowling, the latter two of whom have reached many

readers and even non-readers with their writings on the exploration of the werewolf. The

archetype of the shape-shifter has evolved into a werewolf over time. Many corresponding links

connect the manifestation of the werewolf to the modifications that story teller, play writers and

movie directors make. This excerpt can help me to go into depth on how the wolf started out as a

totem of strength in the Native American culture, to a shape-shifter, to today’s present werewolf.

Regal, Brian. "Features: Articles." Where Have All The Werewolves Gone? N.p., Mar. 2010.

Web. 27 Feb. 2014.

This article begins by discussing the idea of the werewolf has been at the forefront of people’s

minds as something to fear if encountered. Legends from all kinds of cultures from the past to

the present have involved the werewolf, however the fear and belief in werewolves has died

down. Regal accounts this dying down to Darwin’s evolution theory. The origin of the werewolf

goes back all the way to 2,000 BC. Although the werewolf was accepted as to be real by many,

by the end of 1500 some European writers questioned it all. As the attention grew on witches,

werewolves weren’t as talked about. Werewolves were often connected to witches, no

fascination grew for them. The article goes on to say how during the enlightenment, the

discussion over whether demons could transform people into werewolves arose. Darwin’s work,


On the Origin of Species, added to the lost in belief in werewolves. Darwin’s theory was so

strenuous on mythical monsters such as the werewolf that anyone who believed in them was

thought of as crazy. This source helps add to my thesis on how the way the wolf has been viewed

by Native Americans in the past to how they are viewed by society’s culture today has really

changed.

A-Cit. "Quileute Legends." Quileute Legend Myths and Folklore. N.p., 21 Mar. 2010. Web. 27

Feb. 2014.

A-Cit starts out by giving a little information about the Quileute tribe of today. There are only

750 members left who reside in Washington on the reserve of La Push tells the legend. The

Quileute tribe has been getting a lot more attention after Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight. Although

the Quileute tribe in Twilight shape-shift into wolves, that’s not what the Quiluete tribe believes.

They do believe that they originated from wolves, however they don’t shape-shift into them. A-

Cit then goes into the legend of the Quileute tribe. As the legend goes, Q’wati was walking along

and saw no people on the Quileute land but he saw two wolves so he turned the two wolves into

people. Since the Quileute believe that they came from the wolf and the wolf is strong and brave,

they must be strong and brave. This source helps me to stress the fact that he concept of the wolf,

shape-shifting, and werewolves in cultures has really evolved over time. The wolf started out as

an ancestor in one culture, became a skin-walker in another, to a werewolf to avoid, and has now

become a shape-shifting creature in stories and movies such as ,Twilight, that need not be feared.

annotated bibliography (2)

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