WTR 202: Native American Mysticism in Walker, Texas Ranger

Native American mysticism often plays a crucial role in Walker, Texas Ranger. Several episodes of the show are devoted almost entirely to magical happenings associated with Native American beliefs or some sort of shamanism. The most hilarious example of this is in season eight, episode four, “Way of the Warrior”. Walker inexplicably starts to hallucinate the image of an old Native American shaman everywhere he goes. Later in the episode, the shaman reappears and shoots a bolt of lightning at Walker, which transports him one hundred years into the past so that he may clear the name of a Cherokee mistakenly accused of murder.
Manifestations of ghostly Native Americans occur often in WTR. They generally either guide Walker towards the truth or encourage him in some way, as in “Final Justice” (season five, episode seven) in which Walker’s father appears to him when the episode’s villain has him tied to a fencepost; his father at first takes the form of an eagle, and then transforms into human form, striding towards his son and encouraging him not to give up hope. (It should also be noted that in this episode, the image of his father was interspersed with one of Native Americans in traditional garb dancing around a fire. This occurs often in WTR in general.) As for guides, the best example of this is in “Ghost Rider” (season five, episode three) in which a Native American who was murdered when he opposed the building of an oil site (or something) appears to Walker and leads him to clues. In this particular occasion, and on some others, the ghosts are able to be seen not only by Walker but by others, as well. (A common way for an episode of this nature to end is when the villain sees the ghost and shoots at him, giving Walker the opening he needs to fly in with a kick. This happens in this episode, as well as at the end of the WTR movie “Flashback”, when Kimble fires at the ghost of Hayes Cooper.)
Finally, note that in almost all of these episodes, Walker’s partner Trivette disparages what he often refers to as “that Cherokee mumbo jumbo” or “that Cherokee business”. Invariably, he is always made to look silly, and often makes a crack about the whole situation at the end (as in “Ghost Rider” when, as he’s handcuffing the villain, he remarks, “You look like you’ve seen a ghost!”)