The Wendigo, sometimes referred to as Windigo, Wiindigoo, Windago, or Windiga, is considered by some modern paranormal researchers to be a regional name for Bigfoot or Sasquatch. However, Native American Indian legend portrays the Wendigo as another, infinitely more dangerous, creature all together. In both cases the creature has very similar descriptions, a large bipedal creature reaching heights up to 15 feet, glowing eyes, long yellowish canine teeth, and in the case of the Wendigo, a hyper-extended tongue. Other accounts of the Wendigo say that the creature has no fur at all and a pale almost dead looking skin.
According to Native American mythology the Wendigo was once a great warrior, when faced with an enemy he could not defeat the Wendigo could give his soul and life in exchange for the power needed to defeat the enemy and save his tribe. However, once the threat was eliminated the Wendigo was forced to leave his tribe and wonder the countryside for eternity. The Wendigo is further more cursed with a taste for human flesh. The first accounts of the Wendigo myth by explorers and missionaries date back to the 17th century. They describe it rather generically as a werewolf, devil or cannibal. Different origins of the Wendigo are described in various forms of the myth, besides a warrior giving his soul to save his village other versions of the myth state that a hunter may become a Wendigo when encountering it in the forest at night, others state that a person may become a Wendigo as a result of being possessed by the creature in a dream. When the cannibalistic element of the myth is expressed, it is said that anyone who eats the flesh of a human will be transformed into a Wendigo.
It is the cannibalistic aspect of this myth that has caused some to speculate that the Wendigo myth was used as a deterrent and cautionary tale among northern tribes whose winters where long and bitter and whose hunting parties often were trapped in storms with no other option but to turn to cannibalism and consume members of their own party to survive. Some researchers have noted that the Wendigo maybe a myth based on the personification of the hardships of winter and the fear of those who would resort to cannibalism. Believers in this theory often cite the Wendigo�s physical deformities and how they are suggestive to starvation and frostbite.
In 1907, the same year that Algernon Blackwood wrote a short story entitled The Wendigo, a Cree man named Jack Fiddler claimed to have killed 14 of theses Monsters during the course of his lifetime. This story generated international attention when Mr. Fiddler, who at the time was 87 years old, was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of a Cree woman, whom he claimed was on the verge of transforming into a Wendigo. It was said that neither Jack, nor his son Joseph, hesitated in pleading guilty to the murder, however both insisted that their actions averted what could have quickly become a greater tragedy should the woman have been allowed to transform.
Visit the Unknown Explorers page on Bigfoot for more information on the creature possibly responsible the Wendigo myth.
No physical evidence of the Wendigo exists at this time; however see the Unknown Explorers page on Bigfoot for evidence of the creature which could be responsible for the Wendigo myth.
No documented sightings of the Wendigo could be found at this time, see the Unknown Explorers page on Bigfoot for sightings of this possible explanation for the Wendigo.