Navajo Nation X-Files

I recently came across this article from Huffington Post that went up a couple weeks back. Apparently Navajo Nation rangers John Dover and Stan Milford encountered more than their share of paranormal cases on the Navajo Indian reservation that straddles the border between Arizona and Utah over the course of their careers. While Dover notes that these investigations made up less than one percent of their total workload, that's still a lot compared to what most law enforcement agencies are willing to deal with. So the question arises - are there really more paranormal events happening on the reservation, or were Dover and Milford just less dismissive of paranormal reports than investigators elsewhere in the country?

Dover and his partner Stan Milford say they have rolled on reports of the usual paranormal suspects, such as ghosts, Bigfoot and UFOs, and they have also investigated sightings of creatures of Navajo lore, such as Skinwalkers who are believed to be witches that have learned to shape shift into animals.

Even though some may scoff at these reports, Dover says, "When you go into it as an investigator, you can't have your mind made up about anything. What you're looking for is evidence, and as the evidence collects you let the evidence speak for itself." He says they look for witness testimony to line up with the physical evidence, but they are careful not to immediately assume the witness is right or wrong. He also says that often a lot of these paranormal cases turn out to be very strong and if they were criminal cases the evidence would be enough to put someone in jail.

When I asked Dover if the Navajo people generally believe in things such as UFOs, he says he doesn't like the term "belief", because it is akin to saying you believe something without evidence. "In these cases people have seen enough [UFOs], [UFOs] that have landed, [UFOs] that have flown over, so often that it is just a fact of life." Dover and Milford have had enough UFO cases that they have often sought the help of the Arizona chapter of the Mutual UFO Network, the largest civilian UFO investigation organization in the U.S.

Robert Anton Wilson once famously wrote that he of course believed in unidentified flying objects because he encountered many unidentified non-flying objects (UNFOs) in the course of his daily routine. That's probably true for most of us. Having visited northern Arizona and driven through the reservation, I can tell you that it's a spooky part of the country, especially at night. The spiritual energy of the desert is totally unlike that where I live in Minnesota, mostly Fire (Hot and Dry) instead of mostly Water (Cool and Moist). I don't know that I would classify it as "more" or "less," since the two qualities are difficult to compare, but it is profoundly different.