The Algonquian are North American natives who were prominent along the Atlantic coast,
as well as around the great lakes, such as the Ojibwe, Saultough, the Cree, Naskapi,
and the Innu people.
They believed in a mythical being known as the Wendigo, a cannibal monster or spirit
that lived in the forests of eastern North America.
The Wendigo, for all that we know, is simply a legend, but what if it wasn’t?
Today, life's biggest questions ask, what if the wendigo was real.
Hello and welcome back to life’s biggest questions, I’m Charlotte Dobre.
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First, if you’ve never heard of the Wendigo before, here's what you need to know.
According to Algonquian legend, the Wendigo can appear as a horned monster, that has some
characteristics of a human.
The Wendigo has the ability to possess human beings and turn them into cannibals, murderers
as well as cause them to have insatiable greed.
Some indigenous people believe those who destroy the environment have been possessed by the
Wendigo.
In psychiatry, the term wendigo psychosis is a medical term used to refer to someone
who has intense cravings for human flesh and fear of becoming a cannibal.
There have even been people who have claimed to have been possessed by wendigos.
In 1878 a Cree man known as a swift runner was suddenly overcome with the need to butcher
his entire family.
Following the death of his son, which was reportedly due to the harsh winter of 1878,
Swift runner consumed the remains of his wife and 5 remaining children.
He confessed but blamed the murders he committed on the Wendigo.
He was subsequently executed by the authorities at Fort Saskatchewan.
Locals in Roseau in Northern Minnesota claimed to have seen the Wendigo from the 1800s to
1920s.
each time, a death followed.
So what does the wendigo look like?
Heres a description according to Basil Johnson, an Ojibwe scholar.
The Wendigo was gaunt to the point of emaciation, its desiccated skin pulled tightly over its
bones.
With its bones pushing outward 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 suppurations of the flesh.
The Wendigo gave off a strange and eerie odor of decay and decomposition, of death and corruption.
Wendigos are also very large beings, giants, many times larger than human beings.
This is because whenever a wendigo eats, it grows in proportion to the meal it just had.
For this reason, wendigos are never full.
They are both gluttonous as well as extremely thin due to starvation.
The idea of a wendigo is similar to that of a zombie.
So now that you know a bit about the Wendigo, let's talk about what would happen if it were
a real being.
Some tribes believe the Wendigo to be a real being, and they are so afraid of it that they
perform ceremonial dances in times of famine or harsh winters.
The dances reminded people of the importance of cooperation and moderation, while at the
same time reinforcing the threat of the Wendigo in their minds.
It is believed that the myth of the windigo originated as a way to prevent those who were
starving in times of famine from resorting to cannibalism.
Put it this way, if the wendigo was real, we would be pretty much screwed, especially
those of us who love the outdoors.
It stalks its prey, lures them away from safety into the deep wilderness.
It's even possible for the Wendigo to mimic human voices.
Maybe it would mimic the voice of a loved one, lost in the woods screaming for help,
and you would follow it.
Once it possesses you, it slowly begins to infect you.
It torments its victims with strange smells, nightmares and a burning sensation throughout
their legs and feet.
As a result of the burning sensation, victims strip down naked and run through the forest
like madmen.
If the Wendigo were real, there would undoubtedly be a ban on camping and hiking.
We would never get to experience the beauty of mountainous areas or forests because those
places are where the wendigo lurks.
Those who had been infected by the wendigo would be left in the woods to live out their
existence.
Wooded areas would likely be fenced off, or even burnt to a crisp so there would be nowhere
for the Wendigo to hide.
What do you think would happen if the wendigo was real?
Let us know in the comment section.
For now, I’m Charlotte Dobre and you’ve been watching life’s biggest questions.
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