Arizona Ghost: Red Feather

Arizona is a land of beautiful canyons. In one northern canyon surrounded by the Navajo Nation resides a female ghost that has haunted the area for 150 years. 

The Navajo’s believe that the deceased come back as either animal or human spirits. One such spirit lingers because she was from two worlds, neither of which accepted her when she was alive. 

Her tragic story starts with her mother and father.

John Martin was not a likable man. He was a white trader, who one late afternoon accepted a young Navajo girl, as payment for gunpowder and whiskey. 

Martin married the young Indian and built a house for them to live in. It was a unique structure for it mixed the traditional eight-sided Navajo Hogan with a more traditional European style. This house remains standing today, but it is in ruins.

In 1870, John Martin’s young bride gave birth to a healthy baby girl. It was a long labor, and unfortunately, the mother died soon after her daughter was born. 

John named the baby Anna, and then quickly forgot about her. Anna grew into a beautiful young woman. She had her mothers’ dark eyes and hair. She also had red highlights in her hair that were her fathers.

Growing up at a white man's trading post--Anna tried to ignore her cruel father. She preferred being called “Red Feather” and she always wore traditional Navajo clothes. 

Her father’s white friends shunned her, so she spent most of her days in isolation. One early summer day, she decided to run away.

She made her way to her mothers’ Navajo village. Disappointed, she found that she was also considered an outcast in the Indian world. 

From the day she arrived, she was forced to work and eat alone. The only place she felt at peace was in a canyon the Navajo’s called “Spirit Canyon.” 

This canyon was adorned with magic drawings.* Therefore, it was considered a sacred place by the Navajos.

Red Feather took comfort in looking upon the many drawings that her ancestors had left upon the windswept walls and rocks. 

One wall depicted the story of a young warrior who endeavored to join the spirit world. The pictures showed how he took his life to achieve this by leaping off a cliff to join the spirits. 

Red Feather was drawn to this scene, every time she entered the canyon. Some state her fascination with this scene inspired Red Feather to join the young warrior. 

Having no desire to remain in a world that had no place for her, Red Feather in the spring of 1887 tragically leaped to her death off a canyon cliff. 

Shortly after this, the Navajos began to see a strange vision of a young maiden in and around Spirit Canyon. This apparition looked just like Red Feather.

Over the years, Red Feather has been seen numerous times. This story could have followed the path of most legends if it were not for the fact that there are many corroborated sightings of Red Feather by witnesses. 

The dates and witness names, including recent sightings, have been recorded. Here are just three of these reports.

“When I was a little girl I often went out to Spirit Canyon—which is a sacred place for the Indian people. One morning while in the canyon just after sunrise, I saw a woman standing on the edge. 

She was wearing traditional clothes; she looked like you could see right through her. I couldn’t see her face because it looked like it was all black. Then she was gone—just like that---and I couldn’t believe it. I was terrified, and after that, I never went out there again.”

                                      Sarah Najiua, Navajo Native American

“We like to hike a lot, my husband and I. We take a tent and a little food and camp out for a couple of days. We were out in the Painted Desert. We found this great canyon with Petroglyphs on the walls. 

We decided to camp the night there. We had a pretty good fire going, I felt kind of funny all of a sudden. I looked up, and there was this thing, this woman or girl, she was kind of glowing. Her face I couldn’t see. It was glowing all white. I’ve never seen anything like it, then she just faded away, vanished. It scared the living daylights out of both of us."

                                               Debra Pennington

“We were on vacation with our grandchildren, we like to take the back roads a lot. We really feel you see much more that way—especially with the kids. We’d been to the National Monument north of Window Rock—on (Highway) 191 headed back down to the Petrified Forest. 

I saw a strange girl walking on the side of the road—dressed in Indian clothes. I’m not sure what it was, but something made me stop. I looked at her, and she just vanished. I am not the kind of person that believes in this weird stuff. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. She just disappeared."

                                                 Howard Coleman

* These “magic drawings” are Petroglyphs. Petroglyphs are rock carvings done by prehistoric people. They are found all over the world.