I'm not a killer. And I never meant to hurt no one.
But I'm tired of my cattle being butchered a hundred miles from the slaughterhouse.
That's the fourth one this month.
Who or what do you think was responsible?
That cow was like a shredded piece of paper.
No animal could have done that.
Then are you saying that a person, or persons, was responsible for this?
I want to remind you that Mr Parker is free on bond, pending trial.
He's speaking with you solely in regards to this incident...
...and not about any other pending litigation.
So we can't talk about his court case against the Trego Indian Reservation?
That's exactly what I mean.
- Wait a damn second! - Jim, don't say a word.
Forget that lawyer crap. I wanna get this out in the open!
You think I killed an Indian...
- ..just because we're arguing about land! - We wanna settle that peacefully, in court.
Well, Joseph Goodensnake is dead with a wound from your shotgun.
All I'm saying, it was no kind of animal that I know of.
It damn well didn't seem human neither!
Take a look at my boy's scars.
It was dark.
We heard a growl. We went out to protect the cattle.
I could've swore I saw...
...red eyes and fangs.
I thought my boy Lyle was...
Look, nobody, nobody...
...was more shocked and upset than I was to find out it was that young Indian boy.
But if he killed our cattle...
...I'm very, very sorry that we had to find out about it that way.
But as far as I'm concerned, that's the end of it!
- Can we see the corral? - I'll take you out there.
- Agent Mulder? - Yeah?
Agent Scully?
I suppose if I were hearin' our side of the story...
...it might not hold up too well.
Parts of it I don't understand myself, things my father could never explain to a stranger.
What kinds of things?
For the last few months, whenever we'd go out at night and check on the cattle...
...we never saw anything out of the ordinary -
not a mountain lion, not a coyote.
Not even any Tregos, Agent Scully.
But I could feel it...
...something not human...
...out there...
...watching me.
The air was more still...
...and the night animals more quiet.
It was like nature herself was terrified.
It gave me the creeps.
The creeps?
Yeah.
The creeps. Don't you ever get the creeps?
The victim was shot there.
About three metres from where Parker fired.
There's no way he could have mistaken a person for an animal.
It's open and shut, Mulder.
You know, I'm surprised you volunteered for this assignment.
Any Bureau agent could have investigated this homicide.
Why are you interested?
Well, there seems to be nothing unexplainable about this case.
Nope.
Not a thing.
Mulder, this is so odd. It's almost like a snakeskin that's been shed.
I suspect the Parkers killed Goodensnake,
but they don't seem the type to skin their victim.
Besides which, police and coroner's report make no mention of it.
We're going to have to take a look at the body ourselves.
The body's with the reservation authorities.
We're supposed to get in touch with, uh...
...Sheriff Charlie Tskany.
Excuse me, we're not from around here. We're looking for Sheriff Tskany.
Anyone know Charlie Tskany?
Go home, FBI.
How'd you know?
I could smell you a mile away.
They told me that even though my deodorant is for a woman,
it's strong enough for a man.
I was at Wounded Knee in 1973.
And what I learned fighting the FBI is...
...you don't believe in us... and we don't believe in you.
I want to believe.
Why are you here? What are you looking for?
You already know what we're looking for.
- You tell me what I know. - We're looking for any individuals...
...who have information on the homicide of...
We're looking for anything that can create human tracks in one step...
...and animal tracks in the next.
Parker...
He found what you're looking for.
He killed what you're looking for, FBI.
What Parker and his kid killed was my brother!
And you're all too afraid of some stupid Indian legend to do anything! I hate it!
Gwen!
I hate suits who are here when they want something, but if we need help...
...they're nowhere to be found.
Sheriff Tskany?
I'm Agent Scully and this is Agent Mulder.
Goodensnake's body is in my office.
Bill, Tom...
...let 'em through.
Come on, boys, let 'em through.
- Who are they? - Guardians of the dead.
They escort the deceased spirits to the new world.
I only let them as far as the front door.
I keep the ancient beliefs out there and the police work in here.
The woman in the pool hall said that people were afraid of some Indian legend.
What do they believe about the Parker case?
I'm not a park ranger here to answer all your questions about Indians.
Whenever I need federal help, I never get it!
Since this case falls under the jurisdiction of the FBI, you're entitled to examine the body.
So let's get it over with.
- Was the woman in the pool hall his sister? - Gwen.
She and Joe were primarily responsible for fuelling the boundary dispute with Parker.
They felt that he'd been grazing his cattle too far onto the reservation.
Parker probably told you he wanted to settle in court...
...but Joe and Gwen filed the suit.
Take a look at that scar tissue.
Yeah.
Looks like an animal attack as well.
Could Joe have been attacked?
- Maybe the Parkers did see an animal. - No.
Those wounds have been healing for quite some time.
The shotgun wound indicates point-blank range.
The pellets entered the body in a single mass.
The assailant couldn't have been more than three feet away.
We need to take a look at Joe Goodensnake's dental records.
These are the canine cuspids. They're normal.
Maybe his records were switched or misplaced.
The second incisor is chipped, just like the ones in his mouth.
These match Joe Goodensnake's.
There are cases of calcium phosphate salts developing abnormally with age, but...
That could account for what Jim Parker claims to have seen. He was out that night...
...expecting to see a mountain lion. He gets rattled and the flashlight catches Joe here.
So Parker saw what he wanted to see - an animal.
Lyle was attacked. He has scars just like Joe. Is there a facility where we can...
- ..perform an autopsy? - Why?
If his teeth are abnormal,
an autopsy might reveal abnormalities in his internal anatomy.
I can't allow that.
- I'm fully qualified. - No, I can't let you do an autopsy.
- The funeral is tonight. - It's a cremation. Then we'll have nothing.
The Tregos believe that the recent dead are unsettled by their new condition as spirits.
Any desecration of the body angers the spirit and keeps it haunting this world.
But as a law enforcement officer, you can't destroy evidence.
Don't tell me what I can't do.
Native Americans believe there are laws greater than that of the US Government.
If they want Joe at rest,
rather than used as a piece of evidence, that's how it's gonna be.
If you want to make an issue out of it, you're a higher authority, go right ahead.
Charlie?
Do you believe that the spirit of Joe Goodensnake is in that room?
All I know is...
...tomorrow, the day after...
...you're gonna leave.
But I have to stay here.
I've gotta answer to these people.
You can continue your investigation, but without Joe Goodensnake's body.
Mulder, since we've been here...
...you've acted as if you've expected to find all the evidence that we've come across.
What aren't you telling me?
Why are we here?
A true piece of history, Scully.
The very first X-File. Initiated by J Edgar Hoover himself in 1946.
In World War Il, a series of murders occurred in the Northwest,
seven here in Browning.
Each victim was basically ripped to shreds and eaten as if by a wild animal.
However, many of the victims were found at home, as if they allowed their killer to enter.
In 1946, police cornered what they believed to be such an animal in a cabin...
...in Glacier National Park.
They shot it.
But when they went in to retrieve the carcass,
they found only the body of Richard Watkins.
- Sounds like the Parker scenario. - The murders stopped that year.
Because the cases were unsolved and considered so bizarre...
...Hoover locked them away, hoping that they would be forgotten.
This file indicates that they started again in 1954.
And '59, '64, '78...
...and now again in '94.
- But... - Here it comes.
...these animal-man related murders predate the oldest X-File by 150 years.
Members of the Lewis and Clark expedition wrote of Indian men...
...who could change into a wolf.
Mulder, what this... what this folder describes is called lycanthropy.
It's a type of insanity in which...
...an individual believes that he can turn into a wolf.
I mean, no one...
...can physically change into an animal!
What about the evidence? Tracks in the mud, the shredded skin...
- ..a man with the teeth of an animal. - Even if you're right...
...and Joe Goodensnake did have the ability to transform physically into an animal...
...he's dead! Jim Parker shot him...
...and in a couple of moments his body will be burned.
End of mystery.
Let's hope so.
You don't belong here.
- Gwen... - You're only around to wrap up your case.
I just wanted to say that I'm sorry about your brother.
I feel sad for anyone who loses a part of their family.
A part?
He was my whole family.
I'm it now.
As a demonstration of sorrow...
...I'm supposed to give away all my brother's possessions.
Gwen, I don't know what to say.
- Um... - It's no big deal.
He had more possessions than he had friends.
I read the report of your investigation into the Goodensnake homicide.
It was very good.
It was thorough, professional.
But what I want to know is off the record.
What do you think really happened?
Your explanation, Agent Mulder, is lying on that burial platform.
Why don't you just accept that and go home?
Charlie, do you believe in shape-shifting?
This is a funeral.
- Get out of here! - Please, I want to show my respects.
I don't want your respects! I want your heart to grow cold.
I want you to feel what I'm feeling!
I think you'd better leave, Mr Parker.
I wish your brother could be here. I wish that more than anything else.
The body's been mutilated. I'd say he's been attacked by a large predator.
Or somebody wanted it to look that way.
Do you think this is retaliation for Joe Goodensnake?
I don't know.
Have you talked to Gwen Goodensnake? She seemed pretty upset last night.
She's gone. Nobody's seen her since the funeral. I've put an APB out on her.
And what about Lyle Parker?
We can't find him either.
He could be dead as well.
I'll take a look around.
That's not from any animal I've ever seen.
Sheriff, I think it's time we had a talk.
An exchange of ideas?
Mulder!
Mulder, I'm taking Lyle to the hospital.
He's suffering from exposure.
When he's been checked out, I'm going to question him.
What are you hiding?
- I thought it was over. - Over?
Is that why you wouldn't allow an autopsy on Joe Goodensnake's body?
You thought it would all end when he was cremated?
What were you afraid we'd find?
I can't tell you...
...but I'll take you to somebody who can.
I'm ashamed to say it after what happened at the funeral.
I picked up some bourbon and I don't remember a thing after that.
When I'm down, I go out to where we keep stray animals that wander in on the ranch.
I just watch 'em, you know. It keeps things in perspective.
Anyway...
...my mom, when she was alive, was the one that started keeping those animals.
I guess I go out there and think about her too.
God, I must have been really wasted to run around there naked.
I must have thought I was one of those animals.
When you did go home, did you talk to your father?
No, he'd have been mad I even went to the funeral.
I...
I have an image of him...
...sitting on the front porch, but...
...I don't remember talking to him. Why?
Your father's dead.
I'm sorry.
It appears as if he's been...
...attacked by an animal, but...
...I suspect it may be homicide.
Lyle... I lost my father recently and I know how overwhelming...
Was it my fault?
By going to the funeral, did it anger them into killing my father?
I don't know.
I can deal with death, you know. Livin' on the ranch, being close to nature and all...
...you see how it all works. Things are born, things die. Everything else falls in-between.
But if I caused it...
If I brought it on...
I couldn't... I...
I saw it once with my own eyes.
It was a long time ago.
It seemed like a dream.
I was a boy.
Was that 1946?
The Watkins case?
I sense you are different, FBI.
You're more open to Native American belief than some Native Americans.
You even have an Indian name.
Fox.
You should be "Running Fox" or "Sneaky Fox".
Just as long as it's not "Spooky Fox".
Now tell me, Ish, what did you see?
Watkins had been attacked by an animal...
...when he was alone in the woods.
His scars healed. It was forgotten.
Then... the murders began.
The Tregos...
...we realised that Watkins had been attacked by what the Algonquians call...
...the manitou.
An evil spirit capable of changing a man into a beast.
To be attacked by a manitou causes the victim to become one.
The healed scars on Joe Goodensnake's body.
The manitou overtakes a man by night...
...not by full moon...
...but when its blood lust builds to uncontrollable level...
...the man changes to a sickening creature.
It kills, releasing a savage energy.
The man returns to his true self...
...unaware of what has happened.
The cycle begins anew the next day.
This continues until death.
One night...
...when I was 16 years old...
...I was coming back from fishing at the Cut Bank Creek.
I knew a short cut behind Watkins' house.
There was a... a groan...
...not animal...
...but not human.
I looked into his window.
He was covered in sweat and blood.
He was in a great...
...great pain.
His arm, the skin ripped...
...it tore off and fell to the floor.
Claws sprang from his fingernails.
He turned, screaming...
...and he saw me.
His eyes...
His eyes were still human.
They begged me to kill him.
If I had been hunting and had my gun, I'd have done it without a second thought.
But being a boy...
...and scared to death...
...I ran away.
Shortly after, the police killed him.
But the manitou rose again.
Eight years later.
But with Watkins dead, how could there have been an attack by a manitou?
Watkins had a son.
It can be passed along bloodlines.
Gwen!
If Joe Goodensnake was this creature...
...perhaps it didn't originate in him by the first attack...
...but was handed down through the bloodlines.
Gwen could have it also. Gwen could have killed Parker.
Gwen!
Hey!
Agh! No! No! No!
You're under arrest, Gwen, for stealing Ish's car!
What are you running away from?
I saw it!
I... I saw it kill Parker.
Let her up.
I went there... after the funeral.
I was gonna mess up the kid...
...so I waited...
...but Parker was on the porch.
And then this thing...
...this animal... Oh, my God!
I've never been so scared.
I ran and I hid in the woods all day!
I wanted to get out! I wanted to get outta here!
Bring her inside.
Thank you.
Hello, this is Dr Joseph.
This is Agent Mulder, FBI. I was told I could reach Agent Scully at this number.
Oh, yes. We released Lyle Parker and she's taking him back to the ranch.
- I can reach her there? - Uh-huh. They just left.
Agent Mulder, there's something you should know.
I received the blood test performed on Lyle. Something's rather unsettling.
What's that?
Traces of his father's blood type. It can only be there through ingestion.
- The power's out. - It happens to us all the time...
...being out here in the sticks. I'll fire up the generator.
Are you OK?
I feel sick. Please, help me into the bathroom.
Damn! It keeps disconnecting. The mountains must be blocking the signal.
- How much farther? - About seven miles.
Lyle? Let me come in.
Lyle, I want to take you back to the hospital, OK?
No!
I'll be all right.
Lyle?
Lyle, answer me.
Lyle, are you all right?
Argh!
Scully!
- Agh! - It's OK, it's me.
It's me. I don't know what happened. Something jumped me downstairs.
- I lost my gun. - I heard it come up here.
- Come on. - OK.
Argh!
Are you all right?
Oh, my God!
He was in the bathroom, sick.
The next thing I knew we were attacked by the mountain lion.
- It wasn't the mountain lion. - It's still in the cage out back.
Where's Gwen? She said she'd come see us before we left.
She left last night. Gave away all her possessions to her friends.
She just pulled up and left? Why would she do that?
Her brother's gone, no family, the trouble with Parker is all over.
Maybe she saw something that she wasn't ready to understand.
Maybe.
Well, thank you.
FBI!
See you in about... eight years.
I hope not.
Helen Stewart
I made this!