The Wendigo

THE WENDIGO
©2016 Lori L. Simpson

This article is about some of the traditional  Native American and First Nation thoughts on the cannibalistic Wendigo spirit. I neither endorse nor disagree with these beliefs as written here.

"Beware of the  Wendigo!" say people among several native tribes in the US Great Lakes regions and parts of Canada.

The Wendigo are  gaunt, grey, sometimes giant beings with torn bloody lips and a never ending appetite for human flesh. They are believed to be the evil spirits of  people who have committed cannibalism, perhaps in times of famine. Certain tribes say a Wendigo may come as the end result of a person who is too greedy, as well.

These ideas may be linked to cultural taboos against greed and consumption of human bodies, one of the articles I referenced claims. There are traditions that state a person  might also be possessed by a Wendigo, however. It also said... 

A Wendigo can be summoned simply by mentioning one, especially in deep winter. And that it can lure humans by calling the names of the living into the howling winter wind.

So if you hear yourself being summoned into the winters blast for some unknown reason... Don't go. Do whatever you have to to resist!

Just... Don't... Go!