The Wendigo is said to be a man-eating or evil spirit from the folklore of Algonquian tribes. The Wendigo is described as a monster with some characteristics of a human or as a spirit who has possessed a human being and made them become monstrous. Its influence is said to cause acts of murder, insatiable greed and cannibalism. The Wendigo is part of the traditional belief system of a number of Algonquin-speaking tribes, including the Ojibwe, the Saulteaux, the Cree, the Naskapi, and the Innu. Although descriptions can vary, common to all these cultures is the view that the Wendigo is a malevolent, cannibalistic, supernatural being. They were strongly associated with winter, the north, coldness, famine, and starvation.
Basil H. Johnston, an Ojibwe teacher and scholar from Ontario, gives a description of a Wendigo:
"The Wendigo was gaunt to the point of emaciation, its desiccated skin pulled tightly over its bones. With its bones pushing out against its skin, its complexion the ash-gray of death, and its eyes pushed back deep into their sockets, the Wendigo looked like a gaunt skeleton recently disinterred from the grave. What lips it had were tattered and bloody ... Unclean and suffering from suppuration of the flesh, the Wendigo gave off a strange and eerie odor of decay and decomposition, of death and corruption."
In some traditions, humans overpowered by greed could turn into Wendigos; the myth thus served as a method of encouraging cooperation and moderation. Other sources say Wendigos were created when a human resorted to cannibalism to survive.
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