If there is one creature from the realms of the paranormal that makes me extremely wary and conscious of is the Wendigo, in-fact much of Native American folklore and legend, which is where the Wendigo comes from, I am quite wary of as to me it seems these people were very spiritually in-tune with their environment and that it seems sensible to consider that they may know things we simply are unable to comprehend. There have been many stories of grave consequences and experiences of people who have been ignorant and disrespectful of Native American legend including messing around with it, which can potentially prove foolhardy and dangerous.
The Wendigo is one of those that freaks many out and many have also claimed to have encountered out deep in the wilderness of the northern US and Canada. It is a creature or evil spirit that comes from the First Nations Algonquian Peoples folklore, a creature or spirit that craves to eat the flesh of man, a creature or spirit that is driven mad by insatiable greed.
It is said that a human can even turn into a Wendigo by being possessed by a spirit of the Wendigo which will turn the human into a mad cannibal. Other legends say that humans who resort to cannibalism in an attempt to survive can turn into a Wendigo or simply being in contact with a Wendigo for too long can lead to a human turning into one of the wretched supernatural beings.
There is even such a partially-recognized but controversial condition known as Wendigo Psychosis, which are people who have an intense fear for becoming a cannibal or even people who have an intense craving for human flesh and psychiatrists have described the condition as culture bound, meaning it mostly or heavily or even entirely effects specific people within a given culture or society. It is a mix of psychological and somatic symptoms which appear to be caused by intense anxiety within a culture or society, so for Native Americans it is the Wendigo and the taboos associated with it. The Wendigo Psychosis or Sickness is widely believed in the Native American culture and people who are greedy or environmentally destructive have also been labeled as having the Wendigo Psychosis as well. Within this culture it is feared people with this psychosis or sickness may actually turn into a Wendigo eventually.
Although the Wendigo can also be understood in a conceptual or metaphorical manner as well in that individuals or groups of people who are destructive and throw daily life, cohesion and living off-balance often due to greed or the want to dominate one group over another, can be described as Wendigo’s due to their “social cannibalism” for example the Native Americans saw those involved with colonization of its lands as greed-driven Wendigos devouring the land and throwing life off-balance.
It has been reported that as Native Americans came into contact with Europeans and mingled in with them more and more, the strange psychotic condition has become less and less common compared to the level it was documented and alleged beforehand, including even from some historical accounts, one such account comes from The Jesuit Relations, which were Jesuit missions to what was New France in North America, these were chronicled in The Jesuit Relations to show missionary progress in converting Native American tribes and peoples.
The account translated from French, coming from 1661 is as follows… “What caused us greater concern was the intelligence that met us upon entering the Lake, namely, that the men deputed by our Conductor for the purpose of summoning the Nations to the North Sea, and assigning them a rendezvous, where they were to await our coming, had met their death the previous Winter in a very strange manner. Those poor men (according to the report given us) were seized with an ailment unknown to us, but not very unusual among the people we were seeking. They are afflicted with neither lunacy, hypochondria, nor frenzy; but have a combination of all these species of disease, which affects their imaginations and causes them a more than canine hunger. This makes them so ravenous for human flesh that they pounce upon women, children, and even upon men, like veritable werewolves, and devour them voraciously, without being able to appease or glut their appetite—ever seeking fresh prey, and the more greedily the more they eat. This ailment attacked our deputies; and, as death is the sole remedy among those simple people for checking such acts of murder, they were slain in order to stay the course of their madness.”
There are a set of important taboos for many Native American tribes, especially in the north, as a way of preventing the Wendigo from becoming a problem such as by prohibiting greed and encouraging cooperation as well as the strong taboo against turning to cannibalism in dire situations. There were also some rituals to protect against them, often performed during times of strife such as during a famine, as a way to protect against the Wendigo and prevent them from infiltrating and turning people, one such ritual was a satirical dance called the wiindigookaanzhimowin which involved wearing masks and dancing backwards around a drum.
There are many varying descriptions of what a Wendigo looks like. Generally they are associated with the cold, with winter and also with famine, generally harsh time-periods and events, especially in older times and they are often described as roaming around the North-eastern and Great Lakes region of the US and also into Canada specifically in isolated woods and forests and other areas of wilderness far away from the hustle and bustle of civilization.
One of the Wendigo’s common descriptions is that it looks similar to that of a ghoul. A description by Basil H. Johnston, a teacher of the Anishinaabe heritage and of the Ojibwa language described it as gaunt to the point of emaciation, desiccated skin that was pulled tightly over its bones with bones that also pushed out of its skin. It has the ash-gray complexion of death and eyes pushed deep back into its sockets. A gaunt skeleton that looked like it had recently been disinterred from the grave. Lips that were tattered and bloody. Also described as unclean and suffering from suppuration of the flesh. The Wendigo also gave off foul smells of decomposition, decay, death and corruption.
Another common description of the Wendigo describes them as giants far bigger than humans that are made of or coated in ice and the reason they were so big is due to whenever it ate a human it would grow in proportion of the size of its meal, meaning the creature or spirit would be constantly forever hungry and driven mad. The human the creature used to be is said to be trapped frozen inside the giant Wendigo and the only escape is death.
In either case the Wendigo is driven to such vicious gluttony and greed as no matter how many meals of humans they eat, they are never ever satisfied and so will constantly search for new victims in a fruitless maddening attempt to relieve its hunger and greed.
So as can be seen the Wendigo is quite a scary creature/spirit of Native American folklore. But it is just legend and folklore guys, right? It’s not real… right? Maybe… but interestingly the Wendigo is one of the Native Americans paranormal creatures, aside from Thunderbirds, to have an interesting number of witnesses and encounters with, particularly out in the wilderness. This often involves seeing some kind of strange misshapen entity or humanoid-type creature or being struck by the terrible stench of death and decay, getting a sudden feeling of dread or that you are being watched, as well as your surroundings becoming dead silent.
Many such accounts can be found in the Askreddit community’s various threads of paranormal encounters in the wilderness, among other frightening and scary encounters. The creature can appear to have a cult-like following there at times, due to sheer interest or offered up as a common potential explanation to such encounters.
The Wendigo has also been featured in pop-culture, one of my favourite features is that of the Until Dawn, of which I have featured a picture of at the top of this blog. In the game you try your best to save all of the games characters from being killed by the Wendigo’s and other dangers on Mt. Washington by making the correct choices throughout the game. In this game the Wendigo has the ghoulish-look and the spirit of the Wendigo will possess those who resort to cannibalism.
Thank you for reading! Next will be X and since it is hard to find anything, cryptid or entity, that begins with X that isn’t super obscure I decided to do an X-Files themed paranormal post, including talking about conspiracy theories and aliens!
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