Wendigo
The Wendigo
The Cannibalistic Snow Walker
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| Wendigo Artistic Image© Віщун, used under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. |
Origins:
The Wendigo is a creature of myth originating from North American First Nations legend. It originates with Algonquin-speaking tribes including Abenaki, Siksika, Mi’kmaq, Algonquin, Cree, Ojibwe, Innu and others. It bears many names with many spellings. Wendigo, wheetigo, windikouk, wi’ntsigo, wi’tigo, wittikka, atchen, chenoo and kewok to name a few (2,3).
Description:
The wendigo has two forms. The first is that of a spirit which can enter a person’s dreams or possess them outright if the victim is particularly weakened or isolated. The second is the physical monster which is most often portrayed in contemporary media. It has been described in many ways, but it often has ashy sunken skin akin to that of a starved man. It is a tall creature averaging about 15 feet, but in some depictions it is said to grow with every meal. Its lips are tattered or missing completely. Victims of the beast’s insatiable hunger. Its eyes are sunken and owl-like though some are described as having a glow akin to dying coals. The creature’s teeth are sharpened to points to better suit its diet and it is sometimes said to have animal-like ears or antler’s sprouting from its skull. In many cases, contemporary media interprets this by giving the creature a deer skull for a head. One of its most consistent traits is the constant smell of decay that radiates from its skin. One can always track a wendigo by its scent. The creature often has dense, matted fur and is said to have a heart of solid ice (2,3,5).
The Birth of a Wendigo:
Wendigos are man-made monsters created from greed, selfishness, and isolation. As such, an instance of a wendigo can be created in many ways. The first relates to the spirit form of a wendigo wherein a person can be possessed by its spirit during a time of avarice or crisis. This form of possession is often blamed for stories of cannibalism akin to the Donner Party. Symptoms of such possessions are clearly outlined by Algonquian etiology including (5):
Stupor
Catatonia
Depression
Paranoia
Anorexia
Nausea and vomiting
Emaciation
Glazed eyes
Swelling of the face, torso, or limbs
Violent tendencies
High volume (and often unusual) vocalizations
Hallucinations of well known individuals as prey animals
Coldness in the chest or a perceived “icy heart”
Cannibalistic urges
In a similar vein, Wendigo spirits can also come to their victims in dreams and upon biting their victim within the nightmare, they pass on their curse to create a new instance of the creature (1). Victims may also be offered cannibalistic food items in their dreams and if they choose to take it, they become afflicted with the curse (5).
A person driven to cannibalism is also said to be doomed to become a wendigo. These individuals will be struck with an insatiable hunger which will slowly consume them until they are no longer recognizable as themselves. The sin they committed will come to define their very being. A curse they cannot escape from (1,3).
Finally, the most insidious origin for a wendigo comes from within. It can grow within oneself like a cancer born from selfishness or malicious abandonment of one’s people. It consumes the subject slowly, from the inside out until nothing is left but the monster. It is an illness just as much as it is a curse (2).
Abilities & Behavior:
Wendigos are hunters by nature. They are strong, fast, and have heightened senses to aid in the hunt. They are said to move silently even through the deepest snow falls and some say they can even move freely over water without sinking (2). They are known for singling out lonely travelers and picking them off one by one. Some say they are even capable of copying the voices and mannerisms of their victims to get close to other targets (3). Finally, and perhaps most frighteningly, it is said that speaking the word wendigo will summon one to you (2).
Historical Encounters:
1636, the area now known as Quebec
The first written mention of a wendigo currently recorded was that of Paul Le Jeune, a French Jesuit missionary who lived among the First Nation peoples. He wrote in a report back to Paris this passage (3):
This devilish woman…added that [the windigo] had eaten some Attikamegoukin — these are the tribes that live north of the River that is called Three Rivers — and that he would eat a great many more of them if he were not called elsewhere. But that Atchen (sort of a werewolf) would come in his place to devour them… even up to the French Fort; that he would slaughter the French themselves.
Based on this, it’s clear that knowledge of wendigo long predated European colonizers, but unfortunately our earliest records were written by one. The letter mentions the creature’s similarity to the werewolves of the European world, an interesting parallel that perhaps sheds light on the interconnected nature of the monsters that live in humanity’s shadows. The letter also suggests Le Jeune, and perhaps his superiors in France, took the threat of the wendigo seriously.
1878, Alberta, Canada
A Cree trapper known as Swift Runner (Kakisikuchin) murdered and consumed the bodies of his wife and five children. In his confession he cited a wendigo possession as the catalyst for the incident. He was apprehended by the North West Mounted Police (NWMP), tried, and hanged in December of 1879 (1,5).
The following image depicts Swift Runner (left) in chains standing beside an unnamed NWMP officer:
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“Cree cannibal executed at Fort Saskatchewan.” 1879-1880. Photographer: G.M. Dawson. (Item ID Number:3193879) Image found in Library and Archives Canada (9). |
Swift Runner’s confession states that he was not at a point of desperation or starvation. In fact he stated that he would have been able to hunt several ducks for sustenance, but chose not to (5).
January 1896, Trout Lake, Ontario
A newspaper for the city of Edmonton, Alberta titled The Bulletin, reported on a murder in Trout Lake. A local man had reportedly suffered from a wendigo possession and paid the ultimate price (5,6):
A ‘Wehtigo’ Murdered
Canadian Indians at Trout Lake Kill an Insane Companion
~News of the Tragedy~
[An] Indian or half breed…was killed as a Wehtigo at Trout Lake, in February [sic] last…His Indian name was Na-pa-nin… About the end [sic] of January [1896] he started, apparently in good health, with his wife and children on a visit to his father, who lived at Trout Lake about eighty miles from Wapisca. His wife reports that on the second night out he acted strangely, saying that some strange animals were about to attack him…They reached his father’s place at Trout Lake
safely, and was [sic] there for twenty days, his fits of insanity becoming more frequent and more violent. His body is said to have swelled considerably and his lips were very much puffed out…On the day of his death he was tied hands and feet, face down, in one of the houses…The men are reported to have said that they tied him before he entered one of his frantic fits for their own protection…at this time during his frenzy he had nearly broken loose and they feared he would get loose altogether and kill some of them. They struck him four blows with an axe, about the head. The reason that an axe was used was that there is a belief amongst the Indians that a bullet will not pierce a wehtigo or man-eater. The body was burned [sic] and large trees felled over the grave to prevent the possibility a [sic] re-appearance of the wehtigo. Some days after the death of the man, the people of the settlement were terror stricken, believing that he might re-appear and destroy them.
The tragic case reported on here is an early written account of a trend among the stories surrounding wendigos; they often end in murder. Following the murder, Napanin’s brother reportedly began having wendigo dreams and was institutionalized. Eventually he was found to be cured and returned to his home settlement (5).
February 8th, 1897:
A case is argued in the Ontario Court of Appeal wherein the defendant is charged with the murder of a man he claimed to have been possessed by a wendigo. Regina v. Machekequonabe became a pivotal case in the early relations between the Canadian court and the Indigenous peoples of the area. As the case was argued, the defendant answered in the affirmative to several incriminating questions including (8):
Are you satisfied the prisoner did kill the Indian?
Did the prisoner believe the object he shot at to be a Wendigo or spirit?
Did he believe the spirit to be embodied in human flesh?
Was it the prisoner’s belief that the Wendigo could be killed by a bullet shot from a rifle?
Was the prisoner sane apart from the delusion or belief in the existence of a Wendigo?
The defendant was found guilty of manslaughter with a recommendation to mercy, solidifying that the court found him to have truly believed that the entity he killed was a wendigo (8).
1897-1908:
Following Regina v. Machekequonabe no less than six other cases of wendigo killings were taken to court. These cases were dubbed “The Windigo Trials.” It is believed that there may have been more instances of wendigo killings at the time, but the individuals involved obscured details of the case in order to protect their religious practices from the Canadian court of law (5,7).
Surviving a Wendigo:
You will never outrun a wendigo. They are stronger and faster than a human could ever be. Some say that it can be felled by traditional weapons, but to truly vanquish its spirit you must remove its heart and melt it over a roaring fire. Skilled First Nations shamans are also capable of warding off or even destroying wendigo spirits if given proper time and power (2). There are said to be rituals that can be done to prevent starvation conditions in order to prevent the rise of wendigos in an area, but said rituals will not be described here out of respect for the communities who practice them (5). Never speak a wendigo’s name. Most important of all though, is ensuring that you never fall prey to avarice or the darker desires of the human spirit because the only thing worse than being eaten by a wendigo is becoming one.
Contemporary Wendigo Media:
Contemporary pop culture is often fascinated by the concept of the Wendigo and it’s easy to see why. The creature’s concept plays to the primal fears of humanity and delves deep into the basal taboo of cannibalism. There is no shortage of media focused on the creature including works by indigenous authors and other artists captivated by the mythological monster.
Crota-Owl Goingback:
To begin, we highlight Owl Goingback, an indigenous author whose works explore the monsters of the Americas. In this chilling tale a group of skilled hunters track a monster through Missouri that the locals call Crota. Can the creature be stopped before it grows too powerful to stop?
Get it from an indie bookstore here: https://parnassusbooks.net/book/9788831959391
Supernatural-Season 1, Episode 2:
Ah, Supernatural. A classic in the world of the macabre and many people’s introduction to the world of monsters. While many of the later seasons see a distinct decline in quality, that first season was a goldmine of mini horror movies following the journey of Sam and Dean in a cross country hunt for their missing father.
Episode 2 of season one finds the boys assisting a woman searching for her missing brother in the forests of Blackwater Ridge and get more than they bargained for when they come face to face with a flesh eating beast of the woods.
Until Dawn-Supermassive Games:
A revelation of a game, Until Dawn lets the player make all the juicy choices that lead our teenage protagonists through a classic horror movie setting featuring monsters, murder, and mayhem. I will refrain from saying more than that because this game truly deserves a blind playthrough. Enjoy, if you dare.
Sources:
https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/tijih/article/view/38558
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Algonquian_language_map_with_states_and_provinces.svg
Reviving Witiko (Windigo): An Ethnohistory of “Cannibal Monsters” in the Athabasca District of Northern Alberta, 1878–1910, Nathan D. Carlson, University of Alberta.
“Wapiska Lakes,” Edmonton Bulletin, 16 April 1896. Emphasis added; cf. “A ‘Wehtigo’ Murdered,” Manitoba Free Press, n.d., 1896.
Harring, Sidney L. (1998). The Enforcement of the Extreme Penalty': Canadian Law and the Ojibwa-Cree Spirit World. In White Man’s Law: Native People in Nineteenth-Century Canadian Jurisprudence (pp. 217-238). Toronto: University of Toronto Press. https://doi.org/10.3138/9781442683365-013
https://broadviewpress.com/r-v-machekequonabe-from-canadian-cases-in-the-philosophy-of-law/
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wendigo_artistic_image.jpg
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