The wendigo (Ojibwe:wiindigoo, Cree: wīhtikow/wetiko, Other Algonquian languages: Wiindigoo, Weendigo, Windego, Wiindgoo, Windgo, Windago, Windiga, Wendego, Windagoo, Widjigo, Wiijigoo, Wijigo, Weejigo, Wìdjigò, Wintigo, Wentigo, Wehndigo, Wentiko, Windgoe, Wītikō, Wintsigo)1) is not a single entity but rather the term seems to refer to a species of mythological creatures created through various practices linked to cannibalism. As is the case with many other creatures in Native belief, wendigos are usually not spoken about openly.
While the legend around the wendigo mostly stems from retellings of oral history of several First Nations of Native American peoples, the creatures themselves have become so popular in modern fiction, that all sorts of movies, novels, TV productions and musicians have created their own versions of them, that don't comply with any of the Native lore. This has lead to stark criticism towards Westerners from members of Native American Nations whenever they encounter clearly modern fictional stories, creepypastas, but also depictions of wendigos all over the internet. They argue that there are clear descriptions of the wendigo in their traditions that are linked to not just the moral of the linked myths but also their belief systems and that the Western interpretation of the creature does not resemble any of them, yet the way it is talked about tries to appeal through “exoticizing” of Native lore. The wendigo has appeared in traditional tales from Algonquian Nations such as the Ojibwe, the Saulteaux, the Cree, the Naskapi, and the Innu 2)3) but might also be more widespread in the mythology of peoples living in the American North.
There are several different versions as to how wendigos come into existence. They seem to share a common denominator of that the wendigo is generally not thought of as being a creature that exists in nature, rather wendigos are so destructive, that they contradict all law of nature. A wendigo is thought to come into existence when a human feasts on human flesh. Depending on the variation of the story, the wendigo either emerges from the human's body when he finally dies, the human turns into the wendigo in a short span of time or the wendigo manifests as a creature separate from the human.
Cannibalism is thought of as mostly linked to times when humans don't find anything to eat, rather than being a deliberate action by murderous characters. This might explain why the wendigo is usually mentioned in stories about harsh winters in the woods and mountains when people simply aren't always able to find vegetables, fruit, herbs or hunt successfully due to high visibility in the snow. If a person resorts to cannibalism, even if the person being eaten was willing to help them out, the wendigo emerges. Wendigos are starving constantly and can not be saturated. In some stories they eat until the whole region they roam is devoid of any life and then feed on their own body. In other versions of the story the wendigo only feeds on what he was created by, human flesh. Animals, plants and other lifeforms are generally safe from the creature, humans however should leave the area the wendigo lives in.
There are two general versions of what a wendigo is described to look like, the Native American version and the modern invention depicted in movies, series, books, on album covers and tattoos. Only one of the two is based on the tradition of describing creatures actually witnessed, the second seems to be a combination of “creepy” things found in nature.
The original stories told by First Nations describe either an emaciated humanoid smelling like rotten flesh from miles away or a giant steadily gaining height the more bodies he feeds on. The color of the skin is usually described as that of a person that has frozen to death, very light with a slight blue hue and limbs black from frostbite.
Basil Johnston describes a wendigo as described by people of the Ojibwe Nation:
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. 4)
Even though they are barely skin and bone, they seem to possess a superhuman strength that enables them to kill and feed on either animals and people or just people.
The second description of the wendigo is the one from modern works of fiction which is not based on any known traditional lore. Here the wendigo is either a slender human that grows horns or antlers, moves fast and watches murderers from afar or a creature living in the woods that consists of carcasses of different animals. A wendigo might have the body of a bear with the skull of a deer and deer antlers or the skeleton of a human and the skull of a wolf. It may wear fur to disguise itself as a living being or rot visibly, wearing an open ribcage, having maggots crawling inside of it or being a literal skeleton. These wendigos don't kill for food, they kill for revenge against a murderer or for absolutely no reason it seems. This version is rejected by all traditions who see the wendigo as a symbol of hunger, harsh winters and human greed.