Jesuit missionaries documented various encounters and transformations from the 17th century. It starts as a bone chilling moan and continues to rise in both power and terror until it climaxes in blood-curdling horror. Kaitlin Smith, often presented apart from its original cultural contexts. Its a human monster, one whose dangerous greed and murderous inclinations can ruin a community in an environment where trust and working together are vital for survival. It's now become another monster that reflects our issues as humans, greed, selfishness and in some extreme or metaphoric cases cannibalism. You must have JavaScript enabled to use this form. Wendigo - TV Tropes Algonquin legend states that eating human flesh gives the consumer special powersenhanced hearing, sight, speed and strength. Such transformation has much in common with legends of the vampire and werewolf. How does one become Wendigo? :: Weird West: Definitive Edition General Swift Runner returned a year later after the trip and claimed that his family had died of starvation. Sightings of the Wendigo are not nearly as common as they were prior to the 20th century, but there are still reports of encountering Wendigos in the northeastern states of the U.S. and Canada. However, the date of retrieval is often important. The Chippewa, Algonquian peoples, and Cree tribes are often associated with the legend as these tribes lived in the areas where Wendigo sightings have been reported, with stories of the Wendigo being passed down for generations. So where did the Wendigo come from? A powerful horror story called The Wendigo was written by novelist Algernon Blackwood (1869-1951). A visceral smell oozes from its flesh, rich with rot and fresh metallic blood, as the beast stalks its prey from a looming height of 15 feet in the inky darkness of the forest. The curse of the Wendigo appears in the book Pet Sematary and also makes a slight appearance in the movie Pet Sematary that recreated the story in 2019. It was a harsh winter, but it wasnt an eat-your-family harsh winter. The Wendigo beast appears in many films, books, and video games. (June 29, 2023). As the tale goes, the wendigo was once a lost hunter. Click to reveal Some tribes believed all it took was to be excessively selfish and greedy. You will turn into a Wendigo at night when you are asleep, the Wendigo will take over but will remeber everything you did as a Wendigo as a dream and You will remember when you first wake up. Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology. But if you feel like you may have heard this term before in another context, it's because you have. This is my story, the story of how I became a Wendigo. Don't take it personally, the toxic waste has a need to slap you a few times before helping you out, if at all. The Wendigo mythology later morphed into a way to encourage moderation and cooperation within tribes. The Wendigo is from the legends of Native Americans from the Algonquian tribes. Many people in the regions where the Wendigo legends were most popular still believe that Wendigos roam the dark forests, waiting to prey on their next victim. (Note: It's widely believed a silver-covered steel blade could work if you're in a pinch.) Basil Johnston, and Obiwi teacher from Ontario, provides us with this description: The Wendigo was gaunt to the point of emaciation, its desiccated skin pulled tautly over its bones. However, it is not uncommon to see these contemporary themes blended with more traditional theories explaining what they are, where they come from, or their true motives. More Than Monsters: The Deeper Significance of Wendigo Stories Some legends claim that the Wendigo also never stops growing and will get bigger each time it eats. Ocker introduces us to some of these ancient terrors. It is unclear whether Wendigos are living, undead, or spritual creatures. Above all, this is the site of acute and intense paranormal activity. This game was called Until Dawn and reinvigorated interest in the ancient legend. Wendigo Fever - The Demon Warrior Speaks - Unexplained Mysteries They are either bald or have white hair matted with blood. The Wendigo enjoys the hunt and will sometimes play with its food. Follow us on social media to add even more wonder to your day. There is a document from the Jesuit Relations that claims French missionaries stumbled upon individuals with an unknown condition to them, Wendigo psychosis. The myth originated as a way to prevent those facing extreme hunger in times of famine from resorting to cannibalism for survival. Either way, only time will tell which state, Minnesota or Wisconsin, will be the better claimant for one of the continents scariest creatures. Read More. Since 1996, Terry Sherman and his wife have lived on the property and have countless tales of their experiences with the farms paranormal patrons. Whether in the form of a beast or a spiritual entity, the Wendigo possesses supernatural abilities that make it impossible to escape. Some tribes view the creature as cannibalistic giants ranging from 12 to even 50 feet (with some variations being antlered), and some view it, as you already stated, as a type of spirit which could possess, control, and change people. At the beginning of the episode, a young kid named Sean has to hear his family get brutally axe-murdered by The Mute and only narrowly escapes death himself. Like many urban legends of monsters and cryptids, there is a profound lack of concrete proof of its existence beyond second-hand accounts and witness testimonies. Those who had previously been driven to commit cannibalism as a desperate act of self-preservation during a harsh winter could be affected by the evil entity, as could anyone harboring feelings of greed. The true motivation for his atrocities will never be fully parsed, but for a few decades in the 20th century, some psychiatrists diagnosed and treated wendigo psychosis as a culture-bound syndrome. As I mentioned earlier, cannibalism wasnt the only way a person could become a Wendigo, though it was by far the most common. As they continued to survive this way, feeding day after day on their own kind and never able to satiate their hunger, their bodies would begin to decay and transform into something less than human. In December 1897, the Saint Paul Globe of Minnesota reported that a Native American woman living in the Berens River Reserve of Manitoba had contracted typhoid fever, the effects of which caused her to act strangely. The taboo against such Wendigo-esque actions was so great that a ceremony was created in order to reinforce it. Its not common to see a Wendigo with stag horns, though it has been reported at least a few times by witnesses. Who or what is the wendigo? The other is during a dream: it seems that the wendigo could penetrate your mind and make you violent, developing an irresistible need to eat human flesh. If any of the tribe members were victims of this event, their companions had to eliminate them.According to anthropologist Marvin Harris, the legend of the wendigo was used, again, as a means to counteract another taboo: that of killing off a tribal member, what Harris calls a system of priority killing in extreme environmental situations; again, the harsh winters of North America. That, I would affirm, is truly and literally cannibalism, and it is cannibalism accompanied by no spiritually meaningful ceremony or ritual., More than a commentary on the life of wendigo stories amongst his own people, Forbes deploys the metaphor of the wendigo to advance nothing less than a critique of civilization at large and describes the violence that he argues lies at its foundation as one driven by a kind of wendigo psychosis. Legends of AmericaThe Science Behind Bigfoot and Other Monsters, National Geographic, R. Hartigan 9 September 2013. He was said to have suffered from Wendigo Psychosis and was executed by the authorities for his crimes. And were on the right side, thats what were working on but sometimes you get that cannibal tendency. Like Atlas Obscura and get our latest and greatest stories in your Facebook feed. First let's backtrack and ask the biggest question of them all: What the heck is a Wendigo? [CDATA[ Hope everyone found this interesting. Taste of Greece: Culinary Traditions & Ancient Ruins, The Kingdoms of Andalusia: Secret Gardens and Haunted Palaces, Monster of the Month w/ Colin Dickey: Freemasons, Antiques and Their Afterlives at the Armour-Stiner Octagon House, Monster of the Month w/ Colin Dickey: Spring-Heeled Jack, Making Scents: Experimental Perfumery With Saskia Wilson-Brown, The Truth About Sharks With Melissa Cristina Mrquez, Designing Soft Circuits & E-Textiles With Linh My Truong, Get Real: Defining Reality With Ashley Christine, 6 Stories That Will Make You ScreamFor Ice Cream, The 7 Best Travel Books for Summer Road Trips. Like the spirit, the creature was able to taint the minds of humans, turning them into a Wendigo and forcing them to constantly crave the meat of humans. A shrieking howl can be heard. In modern times, pop culture has gentled the Wendigo into a winter spirit often depicted as either a humanoid deer with antlers or a ghostly creature with a deer or elk skull for a head terrifying in its own way if witnessed on a snowy night in the woods. Some of the old comics and cartoons even had Wendigos in them. In both languages, the word refers to an evil spirit that possesses a person who has previously tasted human flesh, cursing them with an insatiable blood lust. With every meal its told the Wendigo grows bigger, making it even less likely it will ever be satisfied with the amount eaten. Excerpted with permission from The United States of Cryptids: A Tour of American Myths and Monsters, by J. W. Ocker. Out of these tribes comes some of the oldest folklore around: the myth of the Wendigo. His family had apparently died of starvation.But the town's inhabitants did not believe him and called in the authorities to clarify the case. Credits. The legend has been a horror trope for some time. And who's that next to the deputy eating his intestines? Meanwhile, some users have shared maps documenting where they located and encountered the cryptids. The father of the family was condemned to death by hanging; before he died, he defended himself by claiming that the wendigo had possessed him, forcing him to kill his family. In 1982 John Colombo assembled a comprehensive compilation of accounts (both traditional and modern) on the Wendigo. No purchase necessary. One Wendigo roams free on Blackwood Mountain, stalking and potentially killing the group members through the night. There is only witness testimony and circumstantial evidence. The creature has ventured the wilderness for years, threatening the existence of Native American tribes with it's unforgiving hunger for blood, and possession of its victims. How to Escape or Kill a Wendigo - How Wendigoes Work - HowStuffWorks Wendigo, The Mythical Creature, The Legend and Its Origin Its glassy eyes, vacant as they are brooding with evil, reflect the moon from sunken black sockets. Can you turn into a Wendigo? - TimesMojo The wendigo is a demonic spirit rooted in Algonquin-based Native American folklore. He believes that sometimes it's the little things that aren't taught in history class that are the most fascinating. One example isOjibwe activist Winona LaDukewho has called for a decisive shift away from what she has termedWendigo Economicsfor the sake of the health of the natural world. The emaciated creature has a stag skull head, sunken eyes, and skin stretched impossibly tight over its bones. I've studied this subject myself and in actual Native American lore the perception of the Wendigo changes immensely from tribe to tribe. In the course of the transformation from human to wendigo, the person exhibits increasing selfishness, violence, hunger, and greedparticularly for human flesh. All rights reserved. Some tribes believed all it took was to be excessively selfish and greedy. However, the Wendigo drops that plan and just seems cool with feasting and holing up in the cave with the boys. There are two ways in which wendigo can possess you. He begins to get visions of the wendigo. Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. Missionaries, too, had significant standing in their society and came across as credible sources of information. This disorder is popularly known as wendigo psychosis, although science has never described this syndrome as such. There are over five movies out now that have the title of Wendigo, along with countless other horror and thriller movies that have some variation of this creature. The Wendigo is the antagonist of the story and stalks Trish throughout the novel. She heard that a wendigo is supposed to live in the icy waters of that inner lake. It hunts during the three nights of the full moon, seeking to devour the hearts of its victims. ), and Stiles searched for the Nemeton Tree last season, they awakened its powers and turned it back into a beacon for supernatural creatures. Wendigos are cursed with never-ending hunger, which is why they always look emaciated. The Wendigo: An Indigenous American Demon Born from Human Greed Copyright 2023 Facing History & Ourselves. The United States of Cryptids: A Tour of American Myths and Monsters. The Wendigo has been described as a demon or an evil winter spirit that takes over humans who have committed the sin of cannibalism, selfishness, and gluttony. Refer to each styles convention regarding the best way to format page numbers and retrieval dates. Name These tales are believed to be the world's first zombie stories. The Edmonton UFO and the Copper Plate: Can YOU Crack the Code? Physical proof of the creature remains elusive. Facing History & Ourselves uses lessons of history to challenge teachers and their students to stand up to bigotry and hate. The Wendigo is said to inhabit a large territory bounded by the Atlantic Ocean in the east, the Arctic Ocean in the north, and the Rocky Mountains in the west. The legends of the Wendigo are associated with the times of harsh weather conditions in the cold seasons when isolation from heavy snowfall is most common. The only cures for wendigoism are either to pour hot bear fat down the persons throat to melt that iceor to kill them. In Monday night's third episode "Muted," Teen Wolf introduced a Wendigo, yet another supernatural creature, and he was just as scary as the Berserkers from last week and The Mute, who may also be this season's biggest villain, The Benefactor. "Wendigo (or Windigo) The town and authorities didnt believe his excuse for starvation as a supply outpost was just 25 miles from his home, and he could have easily made a trip to the outpost when the weather broke and bought supplies. Beyond a compelling and macabre figment of entertainment inspired by the old legend, the cryptid has left no proof that it is anything more than a myth. He writes: Wtikois a Cree termwhich refers to a cannibal or, more specifically, to an evil person or spirit who terrorizes other creatures by means of terrible evil acts, including cannibalism I have come to the conclusion that imperialism and exploitation are forms of cannibalism and, in fact, are precisely those forms of cannibalism which are most diabolical or evil It should be understood thatwtikosdo not eat other humans only in a symbolic sense. After all, Wendigos are transformed/possessed humans in some legends anyway. After it takes control of its host, the beast assumes the identity of the person. Their eyes are often sunken in but glow. In the late 20th century, a researcher named Carol Crawford Ryan gathered stories from locals about Lake Windigo, some of which seemed to go back hundreds of years. The Wendigo was the most horrible of the Manitous, representing the vilest characteristics of humanity. Its strikingly tall yet seems fragile and haggard, falling apart from decomposition as it moves. ), firstborn son of Jacob and Leah (Gen. 29:32; 46:8), and the eponymous ancestor of the tribe of Reuben. The Algonquin legend describes the nightmarish creature as having pale ashy skin stretched tight like a latex suit over the jutting spurs of protruding bones. The player must survive the Wendigo and get rid of the curse in order to beat the game. Interesting history topics are just a click away. WordPress. The name Chinook may have been taken from the Chehalis name cinuk for the people and the village on Baker Bay, Reuben Both traditional and modern descriptions indicate that the Wendigo also has glowing eyes, yellow fangs, and a long tongue. . This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks.