Original subtitles

November, 1970.

Near Glacier National Park, Montana.

A young boy has a life-changing encounter on his way to school.

One winter morning, as a young Blackfoot Indian

named Tom is walking to school, he's stopped along the way by

one of the elders of his tribe, a member the children call

"Old Man Wolf." Old Man Wolf calls

Tom over. He says he wants to teach him

about the strange beings who visit the sacred hill.

On the trail, Old Man Wolf points to odd footprints about

half the size of Tom's. The tribal elder tells him,

"Those are the star people's footprints."

Tom and Old Man Wolf track the unusual prints up

into the mountains. Hiking through

the woods, they follow the small footprints for about two miles

until they make it to this large clearing on the side of the

mountain. They're standing behind a large

rock where they can see that the small footprints lead to

an empty circle in the snow. Old Man Wolf explains that

the circle was caused by a star craft when it landed

and took off. He also tells the boy that

these beings, the star people, have been coming here for years.

Thousands of years. The boy scans

the area, hoping to catch sight of these mysterious visitors.

While the old man is telling Tom all about the star people,

Tom looks at the footprints.

He looks at the spot on the ground.

Then suddenly he spots something out of the corner of his eye.

[engine whirring] He looks up and sees a large

disc soaring through the sky. And then as quickly as it

appeared, the disc vanishes from view.

Was Tom brought here by Old Man Wolf to

introduce him to something members of their tribe have been

experiencing for centuries?

Native American folklore is filled with stories of

otherworldly encounters with interstellar visitors,

commonly referred to as "star people."

MUFON case files, such as Tom's experience with Old Man Wolf,

reveal that these stories are more than just ancient legends.

But why are Native American lands a hot spot for

extraterrestrial activity? MUFON opens their files to

provide the answer right now. The Mutual UFO Network, known

as MUFON, is an independent organization not bound to any

government. They investigate reports of

UFO sightings from around the world.

Over the past five decades, they have collected more than

70.000 files, stored at a secure location known as

Hangar 1. Now MUFON is granting access

to their vast archive. These are the files of Hangar 1.

Native Americans have had a long-standing history

with UFOs, even depicting them in ancient cave paintings as

flying shields or star people on many of their sacred sites.

These cave drawings are pretty amazing.

The oldest depictions of star people in the United States can

be found in Sego Canyon in Utah, and they actually date as far

back as 5.000 B.C. My name is Alan

Tafoya, and I'm a full-blooded Jicarilla Apache.

My father, when he was alive, he took me to those caves.

And we got to see the drawings. The way the drawings are made,

it's like on the bottom you'll see, like, the earth or

the people, and it's very clear that in the sky, that there's

a craft in the sky. And, you know, back then

the Jicarillas didn't call them UFOs or flying saucers, you

know? They - But they would talk about

people in the sky or star people.

But can we really find a connection between cave

paintings of star people and actual contact with

extraterrestrials?

January 30, 2009. Navajo Nation, Arizona.

A family's dinner is interrupted when something out of

the ordinary appears in the sky over their ranch.

An elderly Navajo couple and their granddaughter

are eating dinner one evening when they spot a strange bright

light in the distance.

The young girl runs to the window to see what it

could be. She's alarmed when the light is

not only getting closer, but also descending near

their ranch house. The grandfather

followed the young girl to the window.

But his reaction isn't fear or confusion.

Instead, he looked calm, almost happy.

According to the family, a disc-shaped craft

hovers for a moment, and then actually lands right there on

their ranch. For the young girl,

once the craft lands, the event becomes even stranger.

The craft's lights shut off, and then a few moments

later a group of four to six child-sized entities begin

to leave the craft. The tiny figures

exit and each has some sort of flashlight-type device.

These flashlights seem to be connected to

the creatures' hands, and each one has its own unique color.

So rays of all different colors from their hands are cutting

through the woods. Another oddity

about these lights was instead of flaring out like a normal

flashlight, the light projected in a straight line, more like

a thick laser pointer. The family watched

these entities search around the outside of their house,

even exploring the outhouse at one point.

The little girl is scared.

But her grandfather just places his hand on her shoulder, as if

nothing strange is going on right outside their door.

The elderly Navajo man goes to the door and without

hesitation leaves the house, heading straight towards

the strange entities. The grandfather then seems to be

communicating with the beings. Not only does the

Navajo man seem unthreatened. It seems almost natural to him.

Maybe it's just me, but I don't think I would feel comfortable

just walking up to an alien and having a chat.

After a few moments, the aliens step away

and begin to re-enter their craft.

And by the time the grandfather comes back to the house,

the UFO is gone. It appears that

this was not the first time the grandfather met and

communicated with these visitors.

The fact that the grandparents do not seem

to be even bothered by this extraordinary event, and I see

in this a greater understanding of what these beings are.

They see these things as innocent things that are not

harmful things. What that means is their

involvement with these star people is intimate.

Star people are beings from other galaxies and

dimensions that observe and guide us.

Many Native Americans believe them to be our ancestors.

There is some trust between Native Americans and star people.

Could this belief

that Native Americans might possibly be descended from

star people be one of the reasons why so many UFOs are

seen over Native American land? And perhaps UFOs frequent these

lands because of the safety they provide from hostile forces.

Coming up, what happens when the military tries to

investigate UFOs on tribal lands?

The day after the last UFO sighting, a helicopter

slowly comes into view. When they finally get a good

look at it, they see that it's a dark military-looking

helicopter, and it's flying right over Satan's Butte,

where the UFOs had been descending.

Now unless there is an emergency, the military

does not have the right to land on Indian reservations.

UFOs seek sanctuary on reservation land,

when we return.

MUFON case files reveal a long history of UFO

encounters on reservation lands. Native American folklore

suggests there is an ancestral connection with interstellar

beings they call star people. But could visitors from

the stars be attracted to tribal land for other reasons?

June, 2010. Navajo Nation, Arizona,

near Satan's Butte.

On an isolated ranch on the Navajo reservation in

Arizona, Jeff, a white ranger who's married to a Navajo woman,

says he was unloading tools from his truck when he notices his

horses acting oddly. All of them begin snorting.

[horse neighs] The area

surrounding the ranch is silent. Not knowing if there was

a wild animal nearby, he grabs his gun and walks

along his property. Nothing... until he looks up.

Hovering over the horse corral is a silver,

cigar-shaped object. The object's about eight feet in

height and as much as a hundred feet long.

Now remember, this guy isn't Native American.

So he gets scared. And instinctively he points

his gun at the object and shoots.

[gunshot] He hits something.

It sounds metallic. And then the craft zips off

quickly, but he sees it descend into a nearby canyon.

Jeff is naturally fearful and anxious to report

the incident to his wife. He runs in and tells

his wife what just happened, and she, being Navajo, explains to

Jeff all about the star people. Over the course of the next

week, he and his wife see three more UFOs hovering over

the same canyon. Now that Jeff

understands that Satan's Butte is a sacred site long associated

with UFOs, he is less fearful when these sightings continue.

But Jeff does become concerned when one day an unmarked

helicopter arrives in the area. The day after the

last UFO sighting, they're sitting out on their patio when

a helicopter slowly comes into view.

It continues to approach the ranch, and when they finally

get a good look at it, they see that it's a dark

military-looking helicopter, and it's flying right over

Satan's Butte, where the UFOs had been descending.

What is this military helicopter doing in

restricted Navajo airspace?

There are rumors inside the UFO community about

an elite military helicopter unit that exists to investigate

and transport UFOs.

Perhaps the military somehow learned of these UFO sightings

and sent one of their helicopters to investigate.

But since the military has no jurisdiction when it comes

to reservations, they wouldn't have been able to land.

They would have been confined to simply circling the area.

To even get onto most reservations, you have to

visit their local tribal center first, even if you're just

driving through. The tribal council, not

the state or federal government, generally has jurisdiction over

these reservations. The couple,

concerned by what appears to be a military presence on

restricted tribal land, immediately contacts local

Navajo law enforcement. It's interesting that

after the initial encounter these multiple UFO sightings

don't raise any alarm. But when a military helicopter

arrives on the scene, that's when this couple reaches out

to authorities. It just goes to show that for

some Native Americans, starrer land, but the U.S. military is not.

Could UFOs be

drawn to reservation land because of the sanctuary they

offer from the U.S. government?

It's entirely possible that some UFOs, some

visitors, may prefer to visit Native American reservations

because they might be aware that the military is not allowed on

the reservations.

So nobody can actually bother them, and they can come and go

as they wish. It could almost make

the land serve as a sort of sanctuary.

The locals are friendly and hostile groups, like the U.S.

government, don't have access. While limited

access to the land can severely hinder government interference,

the seclusion provides ideal conditions for studying these

visitors who come from the stars.

Coming up, an unparalleled investigation takes place

on reservation land. In one case, all

three lookout points spotted for about ten minutes, the light

changing from yellow to green. And later,

is it possible that tribal lands contain portals to other

dimensions? At the Four Corners,

there are natural energy sources that have long

been believed to be pathways for communication and transport of

the star people. The files expose

shocking new connections between UFOs and Native Americans when

{Hangar 1 returns.

Hangar 1 has opened its files in an effort to

explore the reasons why many Native American lands are

UFO hot spots. Restrictions against government

meddling combined with the remoteness of reservation

land may be strong factors. The steady stream of UFOs over

one reservation led to the first groundbreaking UFO study in

the United States.

Washington state, summer, 1964.

One interesting case is the Yakama reservation in

Washington state, which to this day has almost nightly UFO

occurrences.

Posted in fire towers, three Yakama women stand

guard, watching over the reservation.

Dorothea Strurm, Louise Kutz, and Gladys McDaniel

each had over 30 years of fire lookout experience, a job that

required meticulous and cautious observation over 1.2 million

miles of land.

These women were part of a fire watch system that

utilized tall lookout towers.

They kept watch for fire and other dangers, but that's not all.

On the Yakama

reservation, they often see more than just fires from these

towers. One evening, Dorothea

and the other two women are stationed at different towers.

[owl hoots] Suddenly, Dorothea spots

a reddish orb shoot through the sky and hover back and forth

over the tree line. She signals to the other

lookouts, which quickly spot the same glowing object.

As the women watch the orb, two more appear.

Their movements suggest something might be in the woods

and they're searching for it. The women,

accustomed to the presence of these orbs on reservation land,

attempt to analyze their movements.

This experience was nothing new to these ladies, who

were regular witnesses to these UFOs.

The women were trained in mapping, so as more and more

orbs appeared, the lookouts tried to triangulate the exact

location of these orbs from their viewpoints.

These orbs would continually arrive and stay for

about three to six minutes before disappearing, as if their

lights were just shut off. Then as one of the lights faded

away, Dorothea quietly whispered, "Come back."

And as if hearing her from 200 feet away, the orb returned

to its full brightness. The frequency of

visits and this ability to seemingly communicate with

UFOs prompts the first detailed study of its kind.

The occurrences were so frequent that Bill Vogel,

the Yakama fire chief, contacted J. Allen Hynek in 1972 to

research their land.

Probably the most beloved figure in UFO history

was J. Allen Hynek.

Dr. Hynek was very well known for his UFO field research

studies. In addition, he was also

the 20-year scientific consultant to Project Blue Book.

After being asked by the Yakama fire chief to

research the glowing orbs, Hynek ana fellow researcher

created the first ever UFO stakeout field study.

the Yakama reservation with cameras, equipment, and

magnometers. The Yakama UFO Field

Project was also known as the Toppenish Study, and it was the

first of its kind. It was a designated area on

the reservation. The area was defined by six

lookout positions, three on the ground and three higher up

at lookout towers. While investigating

the area, Hynek's team had multiple sightings.

In one case, all three lookout points spotted a pear-shaped

object hovering for about ten minutes, the light changing

from yellow to green. It sat motionless until it shot

straight up to a high altitude, and then with a sharp angular

motion zipped East at an extremely high speed.

The extraordinary UFO sightings Hynek witnessed

and documented on the Yakama Nation's reservation led him

to coin a new classification for these strange craft,

called "nocturnal lights" or NLs.

The field report states that there are three

attributes of NLs. One, they are generally bright

lights. Two, they can be different

colors, although generally reddish-orange.

And three, they are not attributed to any aircraft or

natural object. In fact, these guidelines are

still used by MUFON to this day. The Yakama

reservation UFOs are very interesting.

The fact that they've been seen for generations makes you wonder

if there's something special about this location

and its people.

But I doubt the UFOs are just hanging around chatting.

It makes more sense that there might be something specific

about the area, like a special energy signature or something.

While the Toppenish Study confirmed consistent UFO

activity over the Yakama reservation, it was unable

to determine why this activity occurs.

Most agree that more research is needed to determine why UFOs are

attracted to this specific area. Coming up, as additional

Hangar 1 files are examined, a new theory emerges involving

UFOs and strange geographic anomalies found on tribal land.

Many Native Americans believe that these ley lines

are used by star people as a mode of communication,

and the area might even be a portal that can transport them home.

Hidden on tribal lands,

Hangar 1 files uncover gateways to other worlds.

And later, firsthand testimony of an awe-inspiring UFO

encounter... when we return.

The stories of star people have been passed down

through Native American tribes for generations.

Statistics show that tribal lands are in fact hot spots for

UFOs. What is attracting these

extraterrestrial visitors? Perhaps Native Americans and

UFOs have been drawn to these lands for the same reasons,

because of the unique energy signature the land emits.

And is it this energy that has made these areas sacred?

A look at the region known as "The Four Corners" holds some

remarkable clues to this theory.

May 18, 2013. Four Corners, New Mexico.

Bill is enjoying a nice desert evening in his outdoor

hot tub. He lives about 15 miles

southeast of the Four Corners. And as he's sitting there,

he notices something strange. A bright object is moving in

the sky. Soon he sees that

there are actually two moving lights in the sky, coming from

opposite directions.

And he describes them as orbs with no clear edges, bluish in

color, almost neon. He can't keep his eyes off of

these objects. As they approach each

other, another light appears from the East.

And they all eventually stop right over the Four Corners

monument, hovering 200 feet apart from one another.

Bill is just one of many whose curiosity is piqued

by the unusual sighting. Bill keeps his eyes on

the three orbs floating high in the sky.

Then he notices another group of three orbs traveling the same path.

And all of a sudden, he watches

these orbs until all six orbs come together and form a circle.

Then another object, smaller but with even brighter

intensity, comes into view and sits a few feet away as though

it's observing the other six. Bill is awestruck and

steps out of his hot tub to try to hear the objects.

There is no sound. Silence.

And then the lights do something even stranger, something that

convinces him that he isn't seeing helicopters or military

jets. The six orbs converge into one

bright larger orb with the smaller monitor just off

to the right. And a moment later,

all the orbs just disappear, as though the lights were shut

But Bill is left speechless and perplexed by this sighting.

What Bill claims to have witnessed is just one

example of UFO encounters in the Four Corners area.

What is it about the Four Corners that makes it such

a hot spot for UFOs?

The Four Corners area is located on sacred Indian

lands, and for hundreds of years there has been a long tribal

history of strange sightings occurring around this area.

What is it about this land that makes it sacred?

Perhaps it's the same quality that is attracting UFOs.

Some speculate the frequent sightings have to do with

the fact that the Four Corners sit directly over converging

geological ley lines. So ley lines are

interesting things. They kind of have a long history.

At first, they were always

associated with special directions in places along

the Earth where you would have magic and magical powers.

Now they're more often connected with places where the magnetic

field has special properties. The Four Corners is one of many sacred sites

around the world that appear to have unique energy signatures.

There are many sacred sites that are both

spiritually important as well as home to a multitude of UFO

experiences. Other places in

the world that possess similar characteristics to the Four Corners,

like the great pyramids in Egypt and Stonehenge in

England, all have experienced multiple UFO sightings.

Why would UFOs be drawn to land with unusual

magnetic properties? There's been a lot of

speculation that UFOs need to tap into multiple sources of

energy found on Earth to fuel their crafts, from manmade

energy to natural electromagnetic fields.

Based on these geological characteristics

and the number of UFO sightings in the area, we can only assume

that these UFOs may be using this area as some sort of

energy stop, like a gas station. Are UFOs using

the Four Corners and other sacred sites as refueling

stations? Or could this location serve

an even more mysterious purpose? Some scientists

believe that when ley lines cross, they can generate

an intense magnetic power center, which produces its own

energy field, known as a vortex. So a vortex in its

most general term is any spinning structure.

The most common vortex people are familiar with is

the tornado. One of the interesting things

about magnetic fields is they do form these circular structures

that are essentially vortices.

In fact, the Four Corners monument is actually

the symbol that represents a vortex.

Vortexes seem to be an attraction point for UFOs.

Assuming these vortexes exist, why would UFOs

be drawn to them? At the Four

Corners, there are natural energy sources that have long

been believed to be pathways for communication and transport

of the star people. So the vortexes may

indicate a specific point where they can move from one dimension

to another dimension. They move between one universe

and the next universe. The vortexes allow a hole in

space to do something like this. Is what Bill

witnessed when the lights blinked out a UFO entering

a vortex and disappearing into another dimension?

Could UFOs be using these vortexes to traverse between

points in space and time? Perhaps this is one explanation

as to why so many UFO sightings are on tribal lands.

Coming up, Alan Tafoya reveals his own life-changing UFO

experience. I mean, I was like,

"Wow." And when we looked through

the binoculars, I can say that I saw humanoid silhouettes.

An astounding up-close encounter when

Hangar 1 returns.

Dulce, New Mexico. August 1980.

On his reservation, Apache Alan Tafoya witnesses a UFO

for the first time.

I was, like, 16 years old.

And I had gone back home to my reservation for the summer

to get some work.

I was with one of my cousins. We were at some friend's house

on the northern part of town, Dulce, and we were coming home.

And we had a great evening, so we're excited about that.

Of course obviously not thinking about UFOs or anything of that

nature. We're just going home.

Tafoya becomes transfixed by a strange light

in the sky. I was watching this

orange light just kind of bouncing in the sky.

And I was like, "Wow." And I was like, "Hey, man, check

out that light." And he's like, "I'm watching it."

And then he was like, "I see it,

but he seemed to be looking in the opposite direction.

I was looking East, and he was looking West.

And I was like, "No, that orange ball dancing in the sky."

And he's like, "No." He goes, "Look toward Grandma

Henrietta's place." Tafoya turns and

is confronted by an incredible sight.

saw this big UFO, cigar-shaped. It was huge.

It had to be, like, a football field huge.

And we both saw it, and I was like, "Oh, my God."

You know, and we just kind of like - it just shook us.

I mean, we stopped and we just - we just couldn't believe what we

were seeing. And I was like, "Oh, man."

I said, "We gotta go tell my dad."

Tafoya and his cousin run to tell his father,

who happens to be the reservation's chief of police.

We started running toward the house and I said,

"I wanna go tell him because, you know, he's gotta see this."

You know, so people can believe what we saw.

And I'm over there banging on my father's door.

And I'm, like, screaming at him, "Dad, dad you gotta see this!

A UFO!" And he opens the door and he

looks at us and all my cousin and I could do was just kind of

point toward the West of town. Tafoya's father

sees the UFO and is equally astounded.

My dad looks out the door and he, like, was like,

"Oh, my God." And he's like - he's the chiefo

handheld radio and he calls to the Dolce dispatch and says,

you know, "We have an unidentified flying object

right above - toward Henrietta Tafoya's house."

After calling in the sighting report to law

enforcement dispatch, Tafoya's father grabs binoculars

to get a better look at the object.

He got the binoculars and we were just stunned.

I mean, I was like, "Wow." I was just stunned.

And you could see, you know, the cigar-shaped UFO with

the lights spinning, but there was kind of a glass on the top.

I can say that I saw, like humanoid silhouettes.

Just as in Tafoya's case, for many Native Americans

seeing a UFO for the first time can be overwhelming.

Just because a UFO sighting takes place on tribal

land doesn't mean that it's an everyday event.

These encounters can be just as shocking or awe-inspiring for

Native Americans as they would be for anyone else.

In some instances, there's, like, an awe.

They are scary. These people come from another

place. They come from the sky.

They come from another realm. And they're powerful people.

As unsettling as these sightings can be, tribal

authorities handle them quite differently from how the U.S.

government deals with UFOs. Since many Native

Americans accept UFO sightings as real, since it's part of

their culture, when a sighting does occur, nobody's trying to

cover it up. When Alan tells his story,

he mentions that his father called it out over the radio.

He wasn't afraid that he'd sound crazy or that no one would

believe him.

There's a group called the Navajo Rangers,

and they go to places where outsiders are not allowed to.

The Navajo Rangers get such cooperation because they accept

this, and this is something that the rest of us should try and

emulate when we're dealing with not only UFOs but other

paranormal phenomenon. The sovereignty

of Native American land allows tribal officers the freedom to

conduct UFO investigations without fear of repercussion.

Perhaps their kinship to star people makes them protective of

these visits. Does this close connection also

give Native Americans the ability to communicate and call

upon these star people?

There have always been stories that some people

seem to have the power to summon UFOs.

There have been stories where my people have

prayed, and when their prayers were answered, their answer came

from the sky.

When we return, are some Native Americans able

to tap into mysterious healing powers from the star people?

MUFON investigators explain the high frequency of

UFO sightings over Native American lands.

Several theories have emerged. It appears that some UFOs could

be attracted to natural resources found in and around

reservations. While others believe that

a possible ancestral connection to star people may provide

Native Americans with an extraordinary ability to

summon UFO visits.

One unique and interesting claim is that many

UFO visits over Indian reservations occur because

Native Americans are summoning them to appear.

[bird caws]

Northern California.

Fall, 1991. Terry, a Native American on her

mother's side, draws strength from her family's heritage in

order to battle cancer.

Terry was struggling with an illness and went to her

favorite sweat lodge on a Northern California

reservation to meditate and pray.

Terry said that during her purification ceremony in

the sweat lodge she prayed to her star visitors for guidance.

She'd had many UFO encounters throughout her life, most of

which she viewed positively. And so she was looking for

another sign from them.

Despite Terry's prayers, she received no sign

from the star people while on the reservation.

Then during her drive home, Terry soon spots something in

the sky. She sees a brilliant

green light in the sky. She stopped to watch, and this

UFO started descending until it landed in a nearby cow pasture.

For Terry, this was the sign she was hoping for.

Green is recognized as the universal sign for healing,

so she interpreted this UFO encounter as a positive message.

When Terry returns to her doctor, miraculously her

tumor is gone.

This encounter provides Terry with a great

sense of hope. And it makes you wonder:

Was Terry able to summon the star people and appeal to their

healing powers? Terry's experience

suggests a deeper connection between Native Americans and

star people. Not only can they communicate

with UFOs, as seen with Dorothea and the women from Yakama, but

they can summon them as well.

Terry's experience is incredible and seems to

reinforce this special connection between Native

American tribes and the star people that we've all heard

about. There have been

stories where my people have prayed about maybe the people

got sick or something, and when their prayers were answered,

their answer came from the sky.

Oftentimes we might have messengers or signs in the sky

that might guide our people. The strongest

connections with star people appear to be through Native

American medicine men. In many tribes,

like Zuni and Lakota, there are stories of these sky beings

meeting medicine men in canyons and teaching them about how to

better understand nature and their land, giving them tools of

survival to bring back to their clan.

Some of these stories are pretty remarkable.

It seems like there's a symbiotic relationship between

these star people and Native Americans.

I'm not exactly sure what the extraterrestrial beings are

getting out of the relationship. But if these creatures have been

teaching medicine men how to better understand nature,

does that mean they know our world better than we do?

Could this relationship between Native

Americans and star people truly be ancestral?

And if so, perhaps the star people serve as protectors and

guides, providing a greater understanding of our world.

Many Native Americans report that star people bring

them messages that reinforce the importance of Mother Earth

and the need to nurture and protect our planet.

Native Americans have a greater appreciation of

nature than I want to say western man does generally.

They have a greater grasp of the natural world as a living thing,

a thing to be respected and admired and appreciated and

cared for. The things that were

taught to me from my grandparents and my parents were

to be in harmony with nature, to be in harmony with all people

if at all possible, and to pay attention to the things that

happened, you know, in the sky and all around us.

I've heard stories with regard to these alien encounters where

they've had this message that we people of the Earth need to take

care of our Mother Earth. It's just something that we were

raised with. It's something that I believe

happens today.

Does this philosophy come to Native

Americans from the star people? And could their sacred lands

also provide sanctuary and portals to other dimensions?

Whatever the reason, one thing seems clear: There is a unique

connection between America's indigenous people and visitors

from beyond our stars. Perhaps if the rest of the world

was as equally unthreatened by these otherworldly visitors,

we would learn secrets of the Universe only hinted at

in the files of Hangar 1.