July 9, 2024 • 46 mins
Welcome to the Haunted Legends Podcast! Join hosts Ray and Sierra as they delve into the chilling lore of the Wendigo, a mythological creature rooted in Native American folklore. This episode explores the various interpretations and descriptions of the Wendigo, from its origins with the Algonquin tribes to its portrayal in modern culture.
Ray and Sierra discuss the Wendigo's terrifying characteristics, its insatiable hunger for human flesh, and its reputed ability to possess humans, turning them into cannibals. They also touch on historical accounts, including chilling tales of alleged Wendigo encounters and the tragic story of Swift Runner.
Is the Wendigo a creature of the cold forests of North America, a manifestation of human fears, or simply a cautionary tale passed down through generations? Tune in to explore these questions and more, as our hosts share their thoughts, research, and listener interactions.
Don't miss out on this spine-tingling episode that will leave you questioning the boundaries between myth and reality.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Music.
(01:01):
Music.
What's going on everybody welcome to the haunted legends podcast i am your host
ray and this is my co-host sierra how's everybody doing tonight hi courtney
(01:25):
courtney's already in look at her,
hey carmen well for some reason it's not letting me show comments so it's gonna be on you hi carmen,
so how are you ray how how are you how was your day not too bad just another day of work,
(01:45):
I feel that. Hi, Damien. Hello, Damien.
I am not staying cool in the heat. Me and the heat don't get along.
Trying to stay cool. But where I work, they don't have AC in the warehouse.
Yeah. Isn't it like a Big Ten building? Not really.
Hmm. It used to be, I don't know if you've heard of MB&A Bank.
(02:07):
Nope. The Bank of Delaware. There used to be an MB&A Bank there.
And so just a big warehouse offices have AC, but the warehouse doesn't.
Damn. It is what it is. I would rather take like a cool crisp autumn day over this. Any, any time.
(02:30):
Yeah. Or it could be like winter time when our heaters broke for like three
weeks, then we didn't have heat in the warehouse either.
But it's easier to like warm up. It was cold. Oh, it was cold in there.
See, give me the rain. I could survive in Washington State where it rained all
(02:51):
the time. That would make me happy.
Like, I don't need the sun. The sun hates me anyways. So I don't need the sun.
But today we're talking about the Wendigo. Wendigo?
Wendigo? Wendigo. Wendigo. There's so many different ways, like so many different,
(03:14):
the most well-known term is Wendigo.
Hello, Stacey. Happy birthday. She is a crisp 35 years old today.
Younger than me? Just kidding. I said that to make her feel better.
But would you like to start or do you want me to start?
(03:35):
You haven't started in a couple of weeks. I think it's your turn. My turn? All right.
So a Wendigo is a Native American belief.
Leaf it started with the algonquin tribes
it's a mythological cannibalistic
monster in the spiritual tradition of north american algonquin tribes they have
(03:58):
a word for it which i'm going to slaughter it's we neck neck to go wa is what
they call but it means owl translate to,
it's referred to as a fearsome beast that stalks and eats humans or a spirit
(04:20):
that possesses humans causing them to turn into cannibals so when i was doing
research like there's there's a lot of like.
Different ways of describing what the wendigo is like it's not just like bigfoot
everybody Everybody knows who Bigfoot is like Bigfoot's Bigfoot.
(04:40):
But like, there's a lot of like controversial, like some say it has hair.
Some say it doesn't have hair.
Like some say it has horns. Other one says it has antlers like a deer.
So it's, it's really like, we don't know which one's true. Like I've never run into one. Thank God.
Cause I would probably be, you know, eating people alive and I'm okay with not doing that.
(05:05):
Some of the descriptions is it's
an emaciated figure that stands 15 feet tall however i also read that people
there some people believe that it it starts out as like normal height like five
six foot right but it grows taller the more that it feeds on humans,
(05:29):
So there's people who believe that there's Wendigos that are as tall as trees.
Interesting. Now, if I saw something as tall as trees, a creature as tall as
a tree coming at me, I would just lay down and surrender.
Yeah, one of the things I heard with the whole eating humans thing is it doesn't
(05:52):
matter how many humans that they eat, they always crave more.
They never get filled.
Like where does it go because they don't you don't you've never no one's ever
said that there's been a fat wendigo when they go
yeah you know the strange
reports of people experiencing strange vision and eerie sounds
around the country that could be mistaken identity see and
(06:16):
that's another thing people relate
the wendigo to skinwalkers as
well because one of the things that
both share is they try to lure lure out their their food you know thank you
(06:37):
they say that they have sunken or glowing eyes with fangs and claws.
Some say they have pointed ears and horns
other people say they have antlers like a deer imagine the
jerky that you could get out of that thing if they're
always emaciated then you ain't gonna get no jerky from
(07:00):
them listen thank you
Damien said
it's possible shapeshifter could take wind to go form yeah I mean I guess it
depends on what you believe with a shapeshifter like can a shapeshifter turn
into literally everything hey I see thank you so I tried looking for a recent
(07:23):
sighting and I could not find one.
I could not find one at all.
So I, I, I would say it's more of an Indian myth than anything.
Orman says, would they raise allergic to Wendigo? Probably. Oh,
that's not going to be good. Getting a Wendigo tattoo.
(07:44):
You're not to sit still and like not sneeze or anything. The other part that's
not going to do me any good is apparently a Wendigo smells like rotten flesh.
Oh, so I would never, I would never be able to smell it coming.
So that's fun. I mean, you can't smell Bigfoot coming either.
You know, that's true. I can't smell anything.
(08:07):
So they also say that Wendigos have sharp eyesight, hearing,
and a sense of smell, along with super speed and super strength.
So he's got the whole kit and caboodle. Like, he's got everything.
Okay. And they're usually found living in colder climates along the woodlands
of Canada and the United States.
(08:28):
So you're not going to find one in like florida yeah you
know down in florida you can find the skunk ape so you got
a cousin a bigfoot down there damien says
i got no sense of taste or smell lost mine 30 years ago i could hug a skunk
same i've been in an area where a skunk sprayed and everyone else was like coughing
(08:52):
and covering their nose with their eyes water and they're like Like, okay.
Completely unaffected. Did you know that you could kill a Wendigo? No.
How do you do that? Some say only a shaman can do it. Hmm.
(09:12):
They say that a shaman is the only one that can subdue or destroy a Wendigo
by using a silver, steel, or iron bullet or blade.
Interesting. Yeah.
I mean, I mean, I guess silver, steel and iron, they're kind of the same,
but like they do have different properties.
(09:33):
I don't know. Other people say that you have to cut out their heart and burn
it to fully vanquish the spirit for good.
No, I'm not trying to go like go after a Wendigo and try cutting his heart out.
Yeah, I'm good. hey zach sounds werewolves or wolfman another thing about their
(09:59):
appearance that i read was that they have they have no lips from being like
so hungry like it's literally just like bone,
hi sarah we love you so i guess for those who don't know what Wendigo looks
like. I'll show a quick picture.
(10:21):
See, there's a lot of misconceptions on what it looks like, what it doesn't look like.
Yep. You have two versions here. You have the one with the deer antlers and
the one without. Mm-hmm.
Now, what would you do if that thing came running at you in the middle of the
woods? Yell zombie and run.
(10:41):
But if it's got super speed and super strength, How are you going to protect
yourself, Ray? I have no idea.
Hopefully it just ends me so I don't become a Wendigo myself.
No. I did hear a story. Some people say that a Wendigo is focused on one thing
(11:04):
and one thing only, and it's feeding. Right?
But I read, and I didn't save it, but I read where...
There is a story from the Cree Indians that says,
wendigo lured a little boy out to the woods right he the wendigo went and cut
(11:27):
the boy's hand to see if he was fat enough but he wasn't fat enough but like he held him captive and,
was hoping that he would get fatter but he wasn't because he wasn't eating so the.
Wendigo went and took the boy to a village
and told him to go eat to go
(11:48):
get food but he had to to be back in like a certain amount of
time but when the boy went to the village he told
them like hey like there's a wendigo like
he cut my hand look at my hand and like apparently the tribe went and killed
the wendigo and cut off his legs they left went back to see if he was dead and
(12:10):
apparently the wendigo was sitting there like sucking his juices out of his own legs it was
weird wow it was weird but the point of me saying that is some say that he's
focused on just feeding feeding feeding but like there's at least a few brain
cells up there if he's like,
you know he's not completely just like cannibalistic monster like he's got a,
(12:34):
some point of thinking i guess i don't know is this where the idea of zombies came from Maybe.
Maybe. Everything comes from somewhere. Amber said that thing is as ugly as
some of those creatures on Lord of the Rings.
Okay, some of them are a little fugly, okay? I will give you that.
(12:54):
But she also watched all of them where it was all straight up makeup.
She hasn't even made it to The Hobbit where they're all CGI.
She said every single one of those orcs and everything were all ugly.
There's some cute ones, you know?
Because that would that would really help us.
(13:18):
It's okay, I'll be doing it on video. That's it.
Jeez. Bless you. Thank you. Looks like you're allergic to them too.
I have not sneezed the whole day. What is happening?
Yeah, she was talking about the orcs.
It is. I did read that. It's more associated with the winter, the cold.
(13:42):
That's why you're not going to see it down in Lake Florida. It's going to stay
up in the colder climates.
Hmm. So you're okay walking around in the woods in the summertime,
just in the wintertime. Yeah. It's hot.
Mosquitoes. So I wanted to dive more into this.
The Cree mythology and the Cree Indians believe that the Wendigo is an evil spirit.
(14:05):
Okay. Some people think it's just a creature of its own. Other people think
that it's an evil spirit that possesses humans.
Do you want to know how it possesses humans, Ray?
How's that? Through your dreams. through your
dreams so don't go camping in the
wintertime right apparently it enters into your dreams and it bites you in your
(14:26):
dreams and that's how it latches on to you and you be you become like a like
a passenger within your body like you can know everything that's going on it's
just like something has complete control like possession.
The host is you know if you end
up getting possessed by a wendigo like you get to watch the wendigo goes and
(14:48):
eats people yeah they do say now this is a little warning for y'all they do
say that there are some people that are more susceptible to becoming possessed,
and those are the people that are real greedy gluttonous or starving from starvation.
(15:10):
So like when you have say two hikers that go out and to the wilderness and they get lost and,
you know if you're hungry enough your best
friend of 20 years look a real tasty over there they say
that that's the thoughts that you get are
of the wendigo that that the wendigo is the the one putting those thoughts into
(15:34):
your head yeah like when you get to a point of i'm gonna die or i need to eat
something and then once you can once you commit that unspeakable act,
you become possessed by the spirit now here's the thing is it one spirit is there multiple spirits,
like i don't know like is the wendigo just one one being on its own or like
(16:02):
little wendigo babies like i don't know i don't know how it works my mom can't stay on the platform.
But i did read that there's a way to purge yourself of the spirit that is possessing
your body and by to do that you need to feast on fatty animal meats or animal
(16:26):
grease this will cause your
body to eject the evil spirit through vomiting ice.
Vomiting ice. That's what it said in two different sections. I don't know. Huh?
Feel like you are possessed by a wendigo and just go into your kitchen get the
can of bacon grease and just start eating it the problem is once you're like
(16:51):
in that form of being a wendigo,
you just crave human flesh the whole
time so how are
you gonna fight that how long does it take you to
get to that form though like again if
you're a hiker in the middle of the woods lost you eat your friends
right how long between that moment
(17:13):
and to looking like a wendigo like obviously
it's not going to happen like overnight yeah you're
not going to wake up a changed person so i think like in the beginning like
when you're like oh crap so i feel like if it's not i don't think it's like
a flip of a switch if you're possessed by it yeah like they're taking the control
but if you are still in somewhat of control i think it's like a steady deterioration,
(17:39):
do you do you know when the first one to go would have to have a physical body
to consume humans so what would mean it's killable yeah like i said earlier
they said that either a silver iron or,
what was the other one steel steel bullet or blade will kill it but others say
(18:01):
that you need to rip out its heart and burn it by fire.
Like me is a fire but do you know when the first written report of a wendigo was no when was it,
1636 that is a long time ago and it was a in a report written by a french man
(18:22):
named paul he was a missionary living among the algonquin people and what is now quebec.
And paul described a woman who warned of a creature that had eaten some tribal
members and that would eat a great many more of them if he were not called elsewhere,
(18:45):
so she's like hey you gotta leave or this like thing in the woods is gonna keep eating people,
damien's asking if there's any cures if you're infected other
than the information i got about the eating like the fatty meats and animal
grease like other that like i didn't see much anything so you're probably just
(19:07):
on your own hi jeff there were there were a few people that,
committed murder because they thought that a person was possessed by the wendigo
did you know of that yeah so one of the most known ones there was a case in alberta canada in 1879,
(19:34):
where a cree hunter and trapper named swift runner claimed that a wendigo wendigo
spirit had entered his dreams and told him to eat his family he was tried for murder,
found guilty and he was hung for his crimes that same year.
Terrifying now like I have some messed up dreams but like yeah what happens
(20:00):
when you taser one to go same as when you taxer any living thing boom,
taser any living thing how about this Damien you go you tase one and you let
me know how that goes but please get it on video please,
(20:20):
i'm shaky yeah have
a good camera keep it still like there
was another case in 1907 around the
sandy lake first nation community in
ontario where a shaman by
the name of jack fiddler and his brother joseph
(20:42):
were charged with murder of joseph's daughter-in-law
who they strangled to prevent from becoming possessed by a wendigo but then
again jack escaped and strangled himself and then joe died from tuberculosis
two years later so like you have these people,
(21:05):
that are one one is they said that they they saved her from turning into a wendigo go.
Now, I've met some crazy people. But like, what if they weren't lying?
What if they weren't making it up?
Who are we to tell them that they're crazy?
(21:27):
We can't. We can't. But that's the ultimate...
It comes from, you know, like psychologists, psychiatrists, it's all like scientific
based. Nobody really knows.
I guess, you know, they, they go more on like scientific based things rather
than, you know, this person's really possessed by something.
(21:49):
Yeah. Now I, I enjoy a good science fact just as much as the rest of it,
but I don't think science is going to answer all the questions that we have.
Could a wendigo be a level of consciousness and
we project it into a tangible form it's possible like
we talk we talk about that you know we mentioned
(22:11):
that with the with the i think like a large enough group of people believe in
something doesn't make it real like i also read somewhere where the algonquin
tribes would use the wendigo as like,
To keep the children from straying too far into the woods.
(22:32):
Like, obviously, we weren't there back then. We don't know how it started.
Like, could it have just been, you know, some tribe member who maybe,
you know, smoked a little too much that day or drank a little too much wine
or whatever and made up this, like, could it have started as just,
like, a scary story for kids?
(22:53):
All right so going back
to the whole antlers thing did a tribesman at the very beginning of this put
on a deer head skull on top of his head to scare the kids possible that's that's possible,
(23:15):
like there's so many again like we weren't there like never experienced in person
but like i I like going back to what Sarah said, like, I believe that if enough
people believe in something, it makes it real.
Like Santa Claus is a perfect example.
You know, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy.
(23:38):
So many people believe it, thus making it, you know, it's a real thing.
Yeah. You know, but like, I would wonder if, again, the story of a Wendigo started
off as like a scary story to tell kids.
And then those kids grew up, they told their kids the stories because that's
(24:00):
what they grew up hearing.
And like, after a few generations, like you're going to have a lot of people
believing in one and, you know, one thing. Yeah.
Started as you know some shaman having a
dream and this thing came to him in his dreams and he told the story after that
(24:20):
also possible could it really be a creature that lives in the woods absolutely
you know but the same thing could be said for you know bigfoot the loch ness monster,
you know you know there's a pot there's
a possibility that none of them could be real we're just all making it up in
our heads could be could be but we're still gonna go try to look for them people
(24:46):
might think we're crazy but it's all about the footage yes gaining getting the evidence.
Now i do have a little more stories to add on to that too,
so of course what i have is you know the one that goes a horrifying creature
that appears in the algonquin native america
(25:09):
tribe legend who devours human
flesh to survive the harsh winters but are they only a myth or are they really
cannibalistic humanoids waiting in forest for their next victim as the tale
goes on the first ever wendigo was once a lost hunter during a brutally cold
winter the man's intense hunger drove him to cannibalism,
(25:33):
After feasting on another human's flesh, he transformed into a crazed man-beast,
roaming the forest in search of more people to eat.
Tasty. But there's another version of the story. The first Wendigo is said to
have been a warrior who made a deal with the devil.
In order to save his tribe, he gave up his soul and was transformed into a Wendigo.
(25:54):
Hmm. When peace ensued, there was no need for such a fearsome creature,
and the warrior was banished from his tribe and forced to live as an outcast. Okay.
Just like that the tale of
the wendigo comes from algonquin native
american folklore the exact detail is very
(26:16):
depending on who you ask some people who claim to account of the beast say it's
relative to big say it's a relative of bigfoot other reports compare the wendigo
to werewolf instead the algonquins are some of the most extensive and numerous
of the native american groups in North America.
They once lived along the Atlantic coast and Great Lakes region.
(26:39):
However, Wendigo-like creatures are also found in the legends of other Native
American tribes, including the neighbors of the Algonquians,
the Iroquois, among these people.
The creature known as the Stone Coat bears some similarities to the Wendigo. go.
Interesting. I was going back over to the comments.
(27:06):
Wade said that it's called the topple effect. I didn't know it was called something.
I just couldn't remember what it was.
But yeah, it's believed that all of us putting the energy into believing something
can create it. The mind is a crazy thing.
We don't fully understand what the mind can do.
No, definitely not. where is that
(27:28):
island is that the one in
australia i believe is it but if there's an island that has can a cannibalistic
tribe okay cool but like how long has it been there is they were talking about
the one to go back in 1636 probably well before that do you have originals is that what this called.
(27:54):
The aboriginal tribe gotcha i heard humans taste like chicken would be understandable
why the wendigo find this tasty little barbecue sauce tasty i can just imagine
damien's gonna run into a wendigo and just be like call me a little chicky noogie
so i don't know i don't know,
(28:14):
i think a lot of people believe it i think that it started from somewhere because
things just don't happen yeah reason right whether it started out as.
Warrior making a deal with the devil or a
children's bedtime story or if
(28:34):
it really is something that comes into your dreams when you're starving i don't
know what another interesting fact that I found is there was a book called The
Wilderness Hunter that came out in 1893.
The future U.S. president, Theodore Roosevelt,
(28:56):
good old Teddy, includes a goblin story about a bear-like beast that stalks
the camp of two hunters, leaving only one of them to survive,
And the other one was left alive to tell the tale.
The people that have read this book have interpreted that Teddy's beast as being
(29:18):
either Bigfoot or a Wendigo.
Interesting. But I feel like if we're going based off of what people assume
that it looks like, right?
Bigfoot and Wendigo. go like if there was a fight between the two i think i
think my money would be on bigfoot,
(29:39):
i think my money would be on bigfoot well what if it's a 15-foot wendigo i would
i would hope my bigfoot would just slip through the dimension and come back
on a better day i don't know.
What would you do with a 15-foot one when they go i ain't running i'll have
to like make a phone and call it the Godzilla real quick and be like,
(30:01):
hey, I need you to roll up.
That's like trying to run from the trees that walk in the two towers. Tree beard?
How did who die? Damien. But Bigfoot's not seen like that.
Yeah, Bigfoot's not a Massey. Yeah, so I don't know. And you still don't know what Bigfoot eats.
(30:23):
Some say he eats deer. Some say that he eats fruits.
If you... the tiny Bigfoot BFRO. They can kill like apples. Hmm.
Searching for big fun bring apples the wendigo like a lot of pulp culture stuff,
(30:45):
has like they have adapted or have taken the wendigo and turned it into so many things like,
and have you seen uh stephen king's pet cemetery the original there was a wendigo,
i don't know about the i don't know about the um the new remake because i haven't watched it i I refuse.
(31:06):
I'll have to watch it again. I haven't watched it since I was younger.
It's a very long time since I've watched it. Yeah. Last time I watched it was with my mom.
Yeah. I was a kid last time I watched it. Yeah.
My favorite shows. One of my favorite shows, Supernatural. They have an episode about it.
(31:31):
It's in video games. games there's oh i can't remember what video game it was
but there's a video game that had a very more historical interpretation about
it i can't remember what game it was,
see i have no interest in watching the remake either my mom is a very very avid
(31:51):
stephen king fan and has been for a very long time so remakes do not do not bode well with her at all,
At all.
I'm trying to remember what the video game was.
But there's also a movie. While you think about it, I do have some more interesting stuff.
(32:15):
Yes, tell me all the interesting stuff. Roughly translated, the word Wendigo
means the evil spirit that devours mankind.
Another translation said to be made by a German explorer in 1860 equates the
word Wendigo with cannibal.
Wendigo are said to have an insatiable hunger for human flesh.
(32:36):
No matter how much flesh they eat, they remain hungry.
This hunger is reflected in their appearance, which according to some is extremely thin.
Then with some of the stuff you already went over, but it's just added in here.
Despite their gaunt physiques, Wendigo are described as by some as giants,
(32:57):
measuring to about 14.8 to 15 feet in height.
Whilst there is a slight variation as to the physical description of this creature
amongst the different Algonquian peoples, it is generally agreed that the Wendigo have glowing eyes,
long yellowed fangs, and long tongues.
(33:20):
Said to have a sallow and yellowish skin though others
say they are matted with hair or have a decaying skin
according to ethno
historian nathan carlson it's also
been said that the wendigo has large sharp claws and massive eyes like an owl
however some other people simply describe the wendigo as a skeleton-like figure
(33:43):
with ash-toned skin different versions of the wendigo legend say say different
things about his speed and ability.
Some claim he is unusually fast and can endure walking for long periods of time,
even in harsh winter conditions.
Others say he walks in a more haggard manner, as if he is falling apart,
but speed wouldn't be a necessary skill for a monster of this nature.
(34:08):
Once it has infiltrated human minds, he can turn them into Wendigo as well,
instilling upon them the same lust for human flesh that he himself has.
One of the most infamous cases in this story of Swift Runner,
a Native American man who murdered and ate his whole family during the winter of 1879.
(34:29):
According to Animal Planet, Swift Runner claimed to be possessed by a Wendigo
spirit at the time of the murders, but still he was hanged for his crime.
Some believe that the human personality continues to reside within the Wendigo,
specifically where its heart should be.
This person is frozen, and the
only way to kill a Wendigo is to kill the human within it as well. Hmm.
(34:54):
So that's if they believe that the Wendigo is a spirit, that it inhabits a body. Mm-hmm.
But then again, you have the other belief that it is like a creature in itself.
Yeah. So again, we really don't know what it is. You have different people saying different things.
What I would like to do, and I would like to be able to go and talk to an actual Indian tribe.
(35:22):
Yeah. I know that they're not
always very forthcoming with information and stories and stuff like that.
Some of them, depending on who you talk to, I'm sure that they would talk.
But it's kind of what happens in our world stays in our world kind of thing.
Now, I know my buddy down in Florida doesn't have, you know,
(35:47):
they don't have when it goes in Florida, but he knows some Native Americans down there.
So maybe that might be something that we'll have to look into. Yeah, for sure.
He said his guy that he knows has a lot of stories. I do quite enjoy listening to stories.
(36:08):
But we also talk about, just going back to the fact that a window goes always hungry.
Do you know how terrible that would be?
To never feel like he would be the perfect person to invite over Thanksgiving
Day. You'll have no leftovers.
And he'll be the only one left. Right.
(36:29):
So, like, what you're saying is I need to, like, send an invitation to a Wendigo.
And then, like, I invite everybody that I don't want to know anymore to a party
and then just not show up to my own party.
My fault or would it be the wendigo's fault what a
(36:50):
parasite would be a parasite needs to infect
human through dream before it has physical form it
says that the one one claim is that
the wendigo will go and bite you
in your dream before you
were and then at that point you are possessed best yeah
(37:11):
so i don't know haunts and legends story
time we should write a book scary stories for
kids like like fairy tales but
you got more i do all right let's go right so some believe that the human personality
continues to i read that one already a few legends state that the frozen in
(37:36):
person is successfully rescued from inside the creature.
In most cases, however, death is the only way to free a person from a Wendigo.
But no matter which version sounds the most plausible, this is obviously not
a creature you'd want to run into on a hike.
Clearly. Wendigo are believed to roam around the forests where the Algonquians
lived, and forest dwellers that disappeared over the years are rumored to have
(37:59):
been eaten by these creatures.
Many Wendigo sightings have been reported it over time but only by Native Americans.
Not only by Native Americans but by white settlers as well at the turn of the
20th century the Algonquian tribes
blamed many unsolved disappearances of people and when to go to tax.
At the beginning of the 20th century, an 87-year-old by the name of Jack Fiddler
(38:23):
was tried for murder of a woman.
Whilst he pleaded guilty to the crime, he defended a law her.
Try to get her back in. There you are.
I don't know what happened. My computer just like, it said I was disconnected
from the internet, but like I'm still connected to the internet.
(38:46):
That's weird. It was a ghost.
Jack Fiddler, while he pleaded guilty to the crime, he defended himself by saying
that the woman was on the verge of transforming into a Wendigo as she was being
possessed by the evil spirit.
Therefore, she had to be killed before she murdered other members of the tribe.
In addition to this woman, Fiddler
(39:08):
claimed to have slain at least 13 other Wendigo during his lifetime.
See, but that's the thing is,
how do you know when they're still human looking? Like, how do you know?
Is it just a super greedy person? Is it someone that's...
Does the person just for some
(39:28):
reason have a craving for human flesh before
they finally decide to
go for it maybe do you
remember i can't remember what it
was there was this like i think it was out west the
words work there was
(39:49):
a bunch of people traveling and they got they had
to stop and they turned cannibals they had to go over a mountain pass does anybody
know what i'm talking about this is what happens i my my process my brain works
with only retaining certain bits and pieces of information is quite aggravating sometimes.
(40:11):
But anyways continue tell me more the donner party see mom knew what i was talking
about like they literally turned cannibals was that a one day ago but it was
a good time it was one in their time. They couldn't find food.
Yeah, but believers of the Wendigo are still...
Believers say the Wendigo is still out there in the woods.
(40:34):
And underneath that terrifying flesh-eating demon, there might still be a human
man who was once just a hungry hunter.
Hmm. Did you know that there's a Lake Wendigo? A Lake Wendigo? No.
It's in Minnesota.
It's literally called Lake Wendigo Oh, an actual lake called Wendigo Yeah Okay,
(41:00):
I thought you meant Wendigo that lived on the lake I mean, what else would you call it Wendigo?
It's a 199 acre lake Hmm.
The lake derives its name from the Wendigo of the Algonquin mythology.
Like it's named after a Wendigo. Yeah.
(41:22):
The lake. I also read somewhere too, that, that there is like a big, like King Wendigo too.
I just don't remember. I think it was like, it's up in Canada.
Speaking of Minnesota and Canada, there's
still many stories told of the Wendigos that have been seen in
(41:43):
northern ontario near the cave of the wendigo
bless you so there's
a cave of the wendigo also and around the
town of kenora where a creature has been spotted by
traders trackers and trappers for decades there are
many who still believe that the wendigo roams the woods and the
(42:03):
prairies of northern minnesota and canada whether it seeks human flesh or acts
as a potent coming of doom is anyone's guess but before you start to doubt that
you exist remember that the stories and legends of this fearsome creature have
been around since before the white man walked on these shores.
So the legends have to have gotten started somehow and it wasn't by us white
(42:30):
folk i'll tell you that much.
Again, whether it's a scary story that was told to children, a way to keep them from,
running off too far in the woods, whether it's, you know, Johnny came back and
started eating people, you know, we are never going to know how it really started.
(42:52):
Because another problem you run into, again, like I said in the beginning,
is the Indian tribes, they're not Writing down everything that happens on a
piece of paper. Yeah, it's all verbally told.
Right. And passed down from generation to generation.
And how much is that getting contorted as it's passed down? Yep.
(43:19):
I mean, we're not here to say it's real or it's not real. We're just here to question everything.
These are the facts that, you know,
we were able to find. We could all be wrong. All of it could be wrong.
Camelism will still practice in Papua New Guinea until 2012.
Is that the one to go society hiding in plain sight? Maybe.
(43:44):
Demi, do you want to go check it out and then let us know? I think Damien should be our scout.
We'll send him to make sure it's... Or is the whole practice of cannibalism...
Did they come up with the idea of creating this creature as their excuse to
perform the cannibalism?
(44:06):
I mean... To make them not look like, oh, we're crazy.
People are allowed to have their beliefs, right? Right? Just like you're allowed
to have your beliefs. I'm allowed to have my beliefs. Right.
But here's the thing too. If you have a cannibalistic community,
(44:26):
where are they getting their food from?
Are they going to the morgue and hijacking morgues?
It was reproducing. Maybe they're doing human sacrifices.
They better not be eating babies. Now, that would be weird. That would be bad.
That's where I would draw the line. Eat all the adults you want.
(44:50):
Tourists. Probably. Yeah, but still, people shouldn't be eaten without their permission, okay?
I'm all for believing what you want.
You are free to do that, but when it comes to eating people,
maybe it's probably a bad idea.
(45:12):
Yeah just a little bit but
who knows who knows what the
wendigo is is it a spirit is it a beast is it just a children's bedtime story
are we allergic to it sounds like it you know what is life anymore but i think
(45:34):
that's kind of about all i had yeah same here so anybody have any
last minute questions, anything at all.
Don't forget to check out buddy Thayer at eight o'clock on the get haunted network.
Maybe, maybe it is. Maybe it's a, you know, Tennessee crisis.
Apparently you both are. You've been sneezing the whole time.
(45:55):
I have not sneezed all day, all day. And here I am.
Makes no sense. But,
at 8 o'clock on the Get Haunted Network. I'm sure he's got a pretty cool topic
today at 8, so hop on over there.
Sneeze means surprise coming. I like surprises. Maybe the surprise is my food upstairs.
(46:21):
Wendigo, is it going to come into our dreams tonight? No, thank you.
Alright guys, you guys have a wonderful rest of your night.
Thank you so much for tuning in with haunts and legends and hanging out with us for an hour tonight.
We appreciate you and all of your support and we will see you next week.
(46:42):
Same place, same time with a brand new topic.
Have a good night guys. All right. Bye.
Music.
(01:01):
Music.
What's going on everybody welcome to the haunted legends podcast i am your host
ray and this is my co-host sierra how's everybody doing tonight hi courtney
(01:25):
courtney's already in look at her,
hey carmen well for some reason it's not letting me show comments so it's gonna be on you hi carmen,
so how are you ray how how are you how was your day not too bad just another day of work,
(01:45):
I feel that. Hi, Damien. Hello, Damien.
I am not staying cool in the heat. Me and the heat don't get along.
Trying to stay cool. But where I work, they don't have AC in the warehouse.
Yeah. Isn't it like a Big Ten building? Not really.
Hmm. It used to be, I don't know if you've heard of MB&A Bank.
(02:07):
Nope. The Bank of Delaware. There used to be an MB&A Bank there.
And so just a big warehouse offices have AC, but the warehouse doesn't.
Damn. It is what it is. I would rather take like a cool crisp autumn day over this. Any, any time.
(02:30):
Yeah. Or it could be like winter time when our heaters broke for like three
weeks, then we didn't have heat in the warehouse either.
But it's easier to like warm up. It was cold. Oh, it was cold in there.
See, give me the rain. I could survive in Washington State where it rained all
(02:51):
the time. That would make me happy.
Like, I don't need the sun. The sun hates me anyways. So I don't need the sun.
But today we're talking about the Wendigo. Wendigo?
Wendigo? Wendigo. Wendigo. There's so many different ways, like so many different,
(03:14):
the most well-known term is Wendigo.
Hello, Stacey. Happy birthday. She is a crisp 35 years old today.
Younger than me? Just kidding. I said that to make her feel better.
But would you like to start or do you want me to start?
(03:35):
You haven't started in a couple of weeks. I think it's your turn. My turn? All right.
So a Wendigo is a Native American belief.
Leaf it started with the algonquin tribes
it's a mythological cannibalistic
monster in the spiritual tradition of north american algonquin tribes they have
(03:58):
a word for it which i'm going to slaughter it's we neck neck to go wa is what
they call but it means owl translate to,
it's referred to as a fearsome beast that stalks and eats humans or a spirit
(04:20):
that possesses humans causing them to turn into cannibals so when i was doing
research like there's there's a lot of like.
Different ways of describing what the wendigo is like it's not just like bigfoot
everybody Everybody knows who Bigfoot is like Bigfoot's Bigfoot.
(04:40):
But like, there's a lot of like controversial, like some say it has hair.
Some say it doesn't have hair.
Like some say it has horns. Other one says it has antlers like a deer.
So it's, it's really like, we don't know which one's true. Like I've never run into one. Thank God.
Cause I would probably be, you know, eating people alive and I'm okay with not doing that.
(05:05):
Some of the descriptions is it's
an emaciated figure that stands 15 feet tall however i also read that people
there some people believe that it it starts out as like normal height like five
six foot right but it grows taller the more that it feeds on humans,
(05:29):
So there's people who believe that there's Wendigos that are as tall as trees.
Interesting. Now, if I saw something as tall as trees, a creature as tall as
a tree coming at me, I would just lay down and surrender.
Yeah, one of the things I heard with the whole eating humans thing is it doesn't
(05:52):
matter how many humans that they eat, they always crave more.
They never get filled.
Like where does it go because they don't you don't you've never no one's ever
said that there's been a fat wendigo when they go
yeah you know the strange
reports of people experiencing strange vision and eerie sounds
around the country that could be mistaken identity see and
(06:16):
that's another thing people relate
the wendigo to skinwalkers as
well because one of the things that
both share is they try to lure lure out their their food you know thank you
(06:37):
they say that they have sunken or glowing eyes with fangs and claws.
Some say they have pointed ears and horns
other people say they have antlers like a deer imagine the
jerky that you could get out of that thing if they're
always emaciated then you ain't gonna get no jerky from
(07:00):
them listen thank you
Damien said
it's possible shapeshifter could take wind to go form yeah I mean I guess it
depends on what you believe with a shapeshifter like can a shapeshifter turn
into literally everything hey I see thank you so I tried looking for a recent
(07:23):
sighting and I could not find one.
I could not find one at all.
So I, I, I would say it's more of an Indian myth than anything.
Orman says, would they raise allergic to Wendigo? Probably. Oh,
that's not going to be good. Getting a Wendigo tattoo.
(07:44):
You're not to sit still and like not sneeze or anything. The other part that's
not going to do me any good is apparently a Wendigo smells like rotten flesh.
Oh, so I would never, I would never be able to smell it coming.
So that's fun. I mean, you can't smell Bigfoot coming either.
You know, that's true. I can't smell anything.
(08:07):
So they also say that Wendigos have sharp eyesight, hearing,
and a sense of smell, along with super speed and super strength.
So he's got the whole kit and caboodle. Like, he's got everything.
Okay. And they're usually found living in colder climates along the woodlands
of Canada and the United States.
(08:28):
So you're not going to find one in like florida yeah you
know down in florida you can find the skunk ape so you got
a cousin a bigfoot down there damien says
i got no sense of taste or smell lost mine 30 years ago i could hug a skunk
same i've been in an area where a skunk sprayed and everyone else was like coughing
(08:52):
and covering their nose with their eyes water and they're like Like, okay.
Completely unaffected. Did you know that you could kill a Wendigo? No.
How do you do that? Some say only a shaman can do it. Hmm.
(09:12):
They say that a shaman is the only one that can subdue or destroy a Wendigo
by using a silver, steel, or iron bullet or blade.
Interesting. Yeah.
I mean, I mean, I guess silver, steel and iron, they're kind of the same,
but like they do have different properties.
(09:33):
I don't know. Other people say that you have to cut out their heart and burn
it to fully vanquish the spirit for good.
No, I'm not trying to go like go after a Wendigo and try cutting his heart out.
Yeah, I'm good. hey zach sounds werewolves or wolfman another thing about their
(09:59):
appearance that i read was that they have they have no lips from being like
so hungry like it's literally just like bone,
hi sarah we love you so i guess for those who don't know what Wendigo looks
like. I'll show a quick picture.
(10:21):
See, there's a lot of misconceptions on what it looks like, what it doesn't look like.
Yep. You have two versions here. You have the one with the deer antlers and
the one without. Mm-hmm.
Now, what would you do if that thing came running at you in the middle of the
woods? Yell zombie and run.
(10:41):
But if it's got super speed and super strength, How are you going to protect
yourself, Ray? I have no idea.
Hopefully it just ends me so I don't become a Wendigo myself.
No. I did hear a story. Some people say that a Wendigo is focused on one thing
(11:04):
and one thing only, and it's feeding. Right?
But I read, and I didn't save it, but I read where...
There is a story from the Cree Indians that says,
wendigo lured a little boy out to the woods right he the wendigo went and cut
(11:27):
the boy's hand to see if he was fat enough but he wasn't fat enough but like he held him captive and,
was hoping that he would get fatter but he wasn't because he wasn't eating so the.
Wendigo went and took the boy to a village
and told him to go eat to go
(11:48):
get food but he had to to be back in like a certain amount of
time but when the boy went to the village he told
them like hey like there's a wendigo like
he cut my hand look at my hand and like apparently the tribe went and killed
the wendigo and cut off his legs they left went back to see if he was dead and
(12:10):
apparently the wendigo was sitting there like sucking his juices out of his own legs it was
weird wow it was weird but the point of me saying that is some say that he's
focused on just feeding feeding feeding but like there's at least a few brain
cells up there if he's like,
you know he's not completely just like cannibalistic monster like he's got a,
(12:34):
some point of thinking i guess i don't know is this where the idea of zombies came from Maybe.
Maybe. Everything comes from somewhere. Amber said that thing is as ugly as
some of those creatures on Lord of the Rings.
Okay, some of them are a little fugly, okay? I will give you that.
(12:54):
But she also watched all of them where it was all straight up makeup.
She hasn't even made it to The Hobbit where they're all CGI.
She said every single one of those orcs and everything were all ugly.
There's some cute ones, you know?
Because that would that would really help us.
(13:18):
It's okay, I'll be doing it on video. That's it.
Jeez. Bless you. Thank you. Looks like you're allergic to them too.
I have not sneezed the whole day. What is happening?
Yeah, she was talking about the orcs.
It is. I did read that. It's more associated with the winter, the cold.
(13:42):
That's why you're not going to see it down in Lake Florida. It's going to stay
up in the colder climates.
Hmm. So you're okay walking around in the woods in the summertime,
just in the wintertime. Yeah. It's hot.
Mosquitoes. So I wanted to dive more into this.
The Cree mythology and the Cree Indians believe that the Wendigo is an evil spirit.
(14:05):
Okay. Some people think it's just a creature of its own. Other people think
that it's an evil spirit that possesses humans.
Do you want to know how it possesses humans, Ray?
How's that? Through your dreams. through your
dreams so don't go camping in the
wintertime right apparently it enters into your dreams and it bites you in your
(14:26):
dreams and that's how it latches on to you and you be you become like a like
a passenger within your body like you can know everything that's going on it's
just like something has complete control like possession.
The host is you know if you end
up getting possessed by a wendigo like you get to watch the wendigo goes and
(14:48):
eats people yeah they do say now this is a little warning for y'all they do
say that there are some people that are more susceptible to becoming possessed,
and those are the people that are real greedy gluttonous or starving from starvation.
(15:10):
So like when you have say two hikers that go out and to the wilderness and they get lost and,
you know if you're hungry enough your best
friend of 20 years look a real tasty over there they say
that that's the thoughts that you get are
of the wendigo that that the wendigo is the the one putting those thoughts into
(15:34):
your head yeah like when you get to a point of i'm gonna die or i need to eat
something and then once you can once you commit that unspeakable act,
you become possessed by the spirit now here's the thing is it one spirit is there multiple spirits,
like i don't know like is the wendigo just one one being on its own or like
(16:02):
little wendigo babies like i don't know i don't know how it works my mom can't stay on the platform.
But i did read that there's a way to purge yourself of the spirit that is possessing
your body and by to do that you need to feast on fatty animal meats or animal
(16:26):
grease this will cause your
body to eject the evil spirit through vomiting ice.
Vomiting ice. That's what it said in two different sections. I don't know. Huh?
Feel like you are possessed by a wendigo and just go into your kitchen get the
can of bacon grease and just start eating it the problem is once you're like
(16:51):
in that form of being a wendigo,
you just crave human flesh the whole
time so how are
you gonna fight that how long does it take you to
get to that form though like again if
you're a hiker in the middle of the woods lost you eat your friends
right how long between that moment
(17:13):
and to looking like a wendigo like obviously
it's not going to happen like overnight yeah you're
not going to wake up a changed person so i think like in the beginning like
when you're like oh crap so i feel like if it's not i don't think it's like
a flip of a switch if you're possessed by it yeah like they're taking the control
but if you are still in somewhat of control i think it's like a steady deterioration,
(17:39):
do you do you know when the first one to go would have to have a physical body
to consume humans so what would mean it's killable yeah like i said earlier
they said that either a silver iron or,
what was the other one steel steel bullet or blade will kill it but others say
(18:01):
that you need to rip out its heart and burn it by fire.
Like me is a fire but do you know when the first written report of a wendigo was no when was it,
1636 that is a long time ago and it was a in a report written by a french man
(18:22):
named paul he was a missionary living among the algonquin people and what is now quebec.
And paul described a woman who warned of a creature that had eaten some tribal
members and that would eat a great many more of them if he were not called elsewhere,
(18:45):
so she's like hey you gotta leave or this like thing in the woods is gonna keep eating people,
damien's asking if there's any cures if you're infected other
than the information i got about the eating like the fatty meats and animal
grease like other that like i didn't see much anything so you're probably just
(19:07):
on your own hi jeff there were there were a few people that,
committed murder because they thought that a person was possessed by the wendigo
did you know of that yeah so one of the most known ones there was a case in alberta canada in 1879,
(19:34):
where a cree hunter and trapper named swift runner claimed that a wendigo wendigo
spirit had entered his dreams and told him to eat his family he was tried for murder,
found guilty and he was hung for his crimes that same year.
Terrifying now like I have some messed up dreams but like yeah what happens
(20:00):
when you taser one to go same as when you taxer any living thing boom,
taser any living thing how about this Damien you go you tase one and you let
me know how that goes but please get it on video please,
(20:20):
i'm shaky yeah have
a good camera keep it still like there
was another case in 1907 around the
sandy lake first nation community in
ontario where a shaman by
the name of jack fiddler and his brother joseph
(20:42):
were charged with murder of joseph's daughter-in-law
who they strangled to prevent from becoming possessed by a wendigo but then
again jack escaped and strangled himself and then joe died from tuberculosis
two years later so like you have these people,
(21:05):
that are one one is they said that they they saved her from turning into a wendigo go.
Now, I've met some crazy people. But like, what if they weren't lying?
What if they weren't making it up?
Who are we to tell them that they're crazy?
(21:27):
We can't. We can't. But that's the ultimate...
It comes from, you know, like psychologists, psychiatrists, it's all like scientific
based. Nobody really knows.
I guess, you know, they, they go more on like scientific based things rather
than, you know, this person's really possessed by something.
(21:49):
Yeah. Now I, I enjoy a good science fact just as much as the rest of it,
but I don't think science is going to answer all the questions that we have.
Could a wendigo be a level of consciousness and
we project it into a tangible form it's possible like
we talk we talk about that you know we mentioned
(22:11):
that with the with the i think like a large enough group of people believe in
something doesn't make it real like i also read somewhere where the algonquin
tribes would use the wendigo as like,
To keep the children from straying too far into the woods.
(22:32):
Like, obviously, we weren't there back then. We don't know how it started.
Like, could it have just been, you know, some tribe member who maybe,
you know, smoked a little too much that day or drank a little too much wine
or whatever and made up this, like, could it have started as just,
like, a scary story for kids?
(22:53):
All right so going back
to the whole antlers thing did a tribesman at the very beginning of this put
on a deer head skull on top of his head to scare the kids possible that's that's possible,
(23:15):
like there's so many again like we weren't there like never experienced in person
but like i I like going back to what Sarah said, like, I believe that if enough
people believe in something, it makes it real.
Like Santa Claus is a perfect example.
You know, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy.
(23:38):
So many people believe it, thus making it, you know, it's a real thing.
Yeah. You know, but like, I would wonder if, again, the story of a Wendigo started
off as like a scary story to tell kids.
And then those kids grew up, they told their kids the stories because that's
(24:00):
what they grew up hearing.
And like, after a few generations, like you're going to have a lot of people
believing in one and, you know, one thing. Yeah.
Started as you know some shaman having a
dream and this thing came to him in his dreams and he told the story after that
(24:20):
also possible could it really be a creature that lives in the woods absolutely
you know but the same thing could be said for you know bigfoot the loch ness monster,
you know you know there's a pot there's
a possibility that none of them could be real we're just all making it up in
our heads could be could be but we're still gonna go try to look for them people
(24:46):
might think we're crazy but it's all about the footage yes gaining getting the evidence.
Now i do have a little more stories to add on to that too,
so of course what i have is you know the one that goes a horrifying creature
that appears in the algonquin native america
(25:09):
tribe legend who devours human
flesh to survive the harsh winters but are they only a myth or are they really
cannibalistic humanoids waiting in forest for their next victim as the tale
goes on the first ever wendigo was once a lost hunter during a brutally cold
winter the man's intense hunger drove him to cannibalism,
(25:33):
After feasting on another human's flesh, he transformed into a crazed man-beast,
roaming the forest in search of more people to eat.
Tasty. But there's another version of the story. The first Wendigo is said to
have been a warrior who made a deal with the devil.
In order to save his tribe, he gave up his soul and was transformed into a Wendigo.
(25:54):
Hmm. When peace ensued, there was no need for such a fearsome creature,
and the warrior was banished from his tribe and forced to live as an outcast. Okay.
Just like that the tale of
the wendigo comes from algonquin native
american folklore the exact detail is very
(26:16):
depending on who you ask some people who claim to account of the beast say it's
relative to big say it's a relative of bigfoot other reports compare the wendigo
to werewolf instead the algonquins are some of the most extensive and numerous
of the native american groups in North America.
They once lived along the Atlantic coast and Great Lakes region.
(26:39):
However, Wendigo-like creatures are also found in the legends of other Native
American tribes, including the neighbors of the Algonquians,
the Iroquois, among these people.
The creature known as the Stone Coat bears some similarities to the Wendigo. go.
Interesting. I was going back over to the comments.
(27:06):
Wade said that it's called the topple effect. I didn't know it was called something.
I just couldn't remember what it was.
But yeah, it's believed that all of us putting the energy into believing something
can create it. The mind is a crazy thing.
We don't fully understand what the mind can do.
No, definitely not. where is that
(27:28):
island is that the one in
australia i believe is it but if there's an island that has can a cannibalistic
tribe okay cool but like how long has it been there is they were talking about
the one to go back in 1636 probably well before that do you have originals is that what this called.
(27:54):
The aboriginal tribe gotcha i heard humans taste like chicken would be understandable
why the wendigo find this tasty little barbecue sauce tasty i can just imagine
damien's gonna run into a wendigo and just be like call me a little chicky noogie
so i don't know i don't know,
(28:14):
i think a lot of people believe it i think that it started from somewhere because
things just don't happen yeah reason right whether it started out as.
Warrior making a deal with the devil or a
children's bedtime story or if
(28:34):
it really is something that comes into your dreams when you're starving i don't
know what another interesting fact that I found is there was a book called The
Wilderness Hunter that came out in 1893.
The future U.S. president, Theodore Roosevelt,
(28:56):
good old Teddy, includes a goblin story about a bear-like beast that stalks
the camp of two hunters, leaving only one of them to survive,
And the other one was left alive to tell the tale.
The people that have read this book have interpreted that Teddy's beast as being
(29:18):
either Bigfoot or a Wendigo.
Interesting. But I feel like if we're going based off of what people assume
that it looks like, right?
Bigfoot and Wendigo. go like if there was a fight between the two i think i
think my money would be on bigfoot,
(29:39):
i think my money would be on bigfoot well what if it's a 15-foot wendigo i would
i would hope my bigfoot would just slip through the dimension and come back
on a better day i don't know.
What would you do with a 15-foot one when they go i ain't running i'll have
to like make a phone and call it the Godzilla real quick and be like,
(30:01):
hey, I need you to roll up.
That's like trying to run from the trees that walk in the two towers. Tree beard?
How did who die? Damien. But Bigfoot's not seen like that.
Yeah, Bigfoot's not a Massey. Yeah, so I don't know. And you still don't know what Bigfoot eats.
(30:23):
Some say he eats deer. Some say that he eats fruits.
If you... the tiny Bigfoot BFRO. They can kill like apples. Hmm.
Searching for big fun bring apples the wendigo like a lot of pulp culture stuff,
(30:45):
has like they have adapted or have taken the wendigo and turned it into so many things like,
and have you seen uh stephen king's pet cemetery the original there was a wendigo,
i don't know about the i don't know about the um the new remake because i haven't watched it i I refuse.
(31:06):
I'll have to watch it again. I haven't watched it since I was younger.
It's a very long time since I've watched it. Yeah. Last time I watched it was with my mom.
Yeah. I was a kid last time I watched it. Yeah.
My favorite shows. One of my favorite shows, Supernatural. They have an episode about it.
(31:31):
It's in video games. games there's oh i can't remember what video game it was
but there's a video game that had a very more historical interpretation about
it i can't remember what game it was,
see i have no interest in watching the remake either my mom is a very very avid
(31:51):
stephen king fan and has been for a very long time so remakes do not do not bode well with her at all,
At all.
I'm trying to remember what the video game was.
But there's also a movie. While you think about it, I do have some more interesting stuff.
(32:15):
Yes, tell me all the interesting stuff. Roughly translated, the word Wendigo
means the evil spirit that devours mankind.
Another translation said to be made by a German explorer in 1860 equates the
word Wendigo with cannibal.
Wendigo are said to have an insatiable hunger for human flesh.
(32:36):
No matter how much flesh they eat, they remain hungry.
This hunger is reflected in their appearance, which according to some is extremely thin.
Then with some of the stuff you already went over, but it's just added in here.
Despite their gaunt physiques, Wendigo are described as by some as giants,
(32:57):
measuring to about 14.8 to 15 feet in height.
Whilst there is a slight variation as to the physical description of this creature
amongst the different Algonquian peoples, it is generally agreed that the Wendigo have glowing eyes,
long yellowed fangs, and long tongues.
(33:20):
Said to have a sallow and yellowish skin though others
say they are matted with hair or have a decaying skin
according to ethno
historian nathan carlson it's also
been said that the wendigo has large sharp claws and massive eyes like an owl
however some other people simply describe the wendigo as a skeleton-like figure
(33:43):
with ash-toned skin different versions of the wendigo legend say say different
things about his speed and ability.
Some claim he is unusually fast and can endure walking for long periods of time,
even in harsh winter conditions.
Others say he walks in a more haggard manner, as if he is falling apart,
but speed wouldn't be a necessary skill for a monster of this nature.
(34:08):
Once it has infiltrated human minds, he can turn them into Wendigo as well,
instilling upon them the same lust for human flesh that he himself has.
One of the most infamous cases in this story of Swift Runner,
a Native American man who murdered and ate his whole family during the winter of 1879.
(34:29):
According to Animal Planet, Swift Runner claimed to be possessed by a Wendigo
spirit at the time of the murders, but still he was hanged for his crime.
Some believe that the human personality continues to reside within the Wendigo,
specifically where its heart should be.
This person is frozen, and the
only way to kill a Wendigo is to kill the human within it as well. Hmm.
(34:54):
So that's if they believe that the Wendigo is a spirit, that it inhabits a body. Mm-hmm.
But then again, you have the other belief that it is like a creature in itself.
Yeah. So again, we really don't know what it is. You have different people saying different things.
What I would like to do, and I would like to be able to go and talk to an actual Indian tribe.
(35:22):
Yeah. I know that they're not
always very forthcoming with information and stories and stuff like that.
Some of them, depending on who you talk to, I'm sure that they would talk.
But it's kind of what happens in our world stays in our world kind of thing.
Now, I know my buddy down in Florida doesn't have, you know,
(35:47):
they don't have when it goes in Florida, but he knows some Native Americans down there.
So maybe that might be something that we'll have to look into. Yeah, for sure.
He said his guy that he knows has a lot of stories. I do quite enjoy listening to stories.
(36:08):
But we also talk about, just going back to the fact that a window goes always hungry.
Do you know how terrible that would be?
To never feel like he would be the perfect person to invite over Thanksgiving
Day. You'll have no leftovers.
And he'll be the only one left. Right.
(36:29):
So, like, what you're saying is I need to, like, send an invitation to a Wendigo.
And then, like, I invite everybody that I don't want to know anymore to a party
and then just not show up to my own party.
My fault or would it be the wendigo's fault what a
(36:50):
parasite would be a parasite needs to infect
human through dream before it has physical form it
says that the one one claim is that
the wendigo will go and bite you
in your dream before you
were and then at that point you are possessed best yeah
(37:11):
so i don't know haunts and legends story
time we should write a book scary stories for
kids like like fairy tales but
you got more i do all right let's go right so some believe that the human personality
continues to i read that one already a few legends state that the frozen in
(37:36):
person is successfully rescued from inside the creature.
In most cases, however, death is the only way to free a person from a Wendigo.
But no matter which version sounds the most plausible, this is obviously not
a creature you'd want to run into on a hike.
Clearly. Wendigo are believed to roam around the forests where the Algonquians
lived, and forest dwellers that disappeared over the years are rumored to have
(37:59):
been eaten by these creatures.
Many Wendigo sightings have been reported it over time but only by Native Americans.
Not only by Native Americans but by white settlers as well at the turn of the
20th century the Algonquian tribes
blamed many unsolved disappearances of people and when to go to tax.
At the beginning of the 20th century, an 87-year-old by the name of Jack Fiddler
(38:23):
was tried for murder of a woman.
Whilst he pleaded guilty to the crime, he defended a law her.
Try to get her back in. There you are.
I don't know what happened. My computer just like, it said I was disconnected
from the internet, but like I'm still connected to the internet.
(38:46):
That's weird. It was a ghost.
Jack Fiddler, while he pleaded guilty to the crime, he defended himself by saying
that the woman was on the verge of transforming into a Wendigo as she was being
possessed by the evil spirit.
Therefore, she had to be killed before she murdered other members of the tribe.
In addition to this woman, Fiddler
(39:08):
claimed to have slain at least 13 other Wendigo during his lifetime.
See, but that's the thing is,
how do you know when they're still human looking? Like, how do you know?
Is it just a super greedy person? Is it someone that's...
Does the person just for some
(39:28):
reason have a craving for human flesh before
they finally decide to
go for it maybe do you
remember i can't remember what it
was there was this like i think it was out west the
words work there was
(39:49):
a bunch of people traveling and they got they had
to stop and they turned cannibals they had to go over a mountain pass does anybody
know what i'm talking about this is what happens i my my process my brain works
with only retaining certain bits and pieces of information is quite aggravating sometimes.
(40:11):
But anyways continue tell me more the donner party see mom knew what i was talking
about like they literally turned cannibals was that a one day ago but it was
a good time it was one in their time. They couldn't find food.
Yeah, but believers of the Wendigo are still...
Believers say the Wendigo is still out there in the woods.
(40:34):
And underneath that terrifying flesh-eating demon, there might still be a human
man who was once just a hungry hunter.
Hmm. Did you know that there's a Lake Wendigo? A Lake Wendigo? No.
It's in Minnesota.
It's literally called Lake Wendigo Oh, an actual lake called Wendigo Yeah Okay,
(41:00):
I thought you meant Wendigo that lived on the lake I mean, what else would you call it Wendigo?
It's a 199 acre lake Hmm.
The lake derives its name from the Wendigo of the Algonquin mythology.
Like it's named after a Wendigo. Yeah.
(41:22):
The lake. I also read somewhere too, that, that there is like a big, like King Wendigo too.
I just don't remember. I think it was like, it's up in Canada.
Speaking of Minnesota and Canada, there's
still many stories told of the Wendigos that have been seen in
(41:43):
northern ontario near the cave of the wendigo
bless you so there's
a cave of the wendigo also and around the
town of kenora where a creature has been spotted by
traders trackers and trappers for decades there are
many who still believe that the wendigo roams the woods and the
(42:03):
prairies of northern minnesota and canada whether it seeks human flesh or acts
as a potent coming of doom is anyone's guess but before you start to doubt that
you exist remember that the stories and legends of this fearsome creature have
been around since before the white man walked on these shores.
So the legends have to have gotten started somehow and it wasn't by us white
(42:30):
folk i'll tell you that much.
Again, whether it's a scary story that was told to children, a way to keep them from,
running off too far in the woods, whether it's, you know, Johnny came back and
started eating people, you know, we are never going to know how it really started.
(42:52):
Because another problem you run into, again, like I said in the beginning,
is the Indian tribes, they're not Writing down everything that happens on a
piece of paper. Yeah, it's all verbally told.
Right. And passed down from generation to generation.
And how much is that getting contorted as it's passed down? Yep.
(43:19):
I mean, we're not here to say it's real or it's not real. We're just here to question everything.
These are the facts that, you know,
we were able to find. We could all be wrong. All of it could be wrong.
Camelism will still practice in Papua New Guinea until 2012.
Is that the one to go society hiding in plain sight? Maybe.
(43:44):
Demi, do you want to go check it out and then let us know? I think Damien should be our scout.
We'll send him to make sure it's... Or is the whole practice of cannibalism...
Did they come up with the idea of creating this creature as their excuse to
perform the cannibalism?
(44:06):
I mean... To make them not look like, oh, we're crazy.
People are allowed to have their beliefs, right? Right? Just like you're allowed
to have your beliefs. I'm allowed to have my beliefs. Right.
But here's the thing too. If you have a cannibalistic community,
(44:26):
where are they getting their food from?
Are they going to the morgue and hijacking morgues?
It was reproducing. Maybe they're doing human sacrifices.
They better not be eating babies. Now, that would be weird. That would be bad.
That's where I would draw the line. Eat all the adults you want.
(44:50):
Tourists. Probably. Yeah, but still, people shouldn't be eaten without their permission, okay?
I'm all for believing what you want.
You are free to do that, but when it comes to eating people,
maybe it's probably a bad idea.
(45:12):
Yeah just a little bit but
who knows who knows what the
wendigo is is it a spirit is it a beast is it just a children's bedtime story
are we allergic to it sounds like it you know what is life anymore but i think
(45:34):
that's kind of about all i had yeah same here so anybody have any
last minute questions, anything at all.
Don't forget to check out buddy Thayer at eight o'clock on the get haunted network.
Maybe, maybe it is. Maybe it's a, you know, Tennessee crisis.
Apparently you both are. You've been sneezing the whole time.
(45:55):
I have not sneezed all day, all day. And here I am.
Makes no sense. But,
at 8 o'clock on the Get Haunted Network. I'm sure he's got a pretty cool topic
today at 8, so hop on over there.
Sneeze means surprise coming. I like surprises. Maybe the surprise is my food upstairs.
(46:21):
Wendigo, is it going to come into our dreams tonight? No, thank you.
Alright guys, you guys have a wonderful rest of your night.
Thank you so much for tuning in with haunts and legends and hanging out with us for an hour tonight.
We appreciate you and all of your support and we will see you next week.
(46:42):
Same place, same time with a brand new topic.
Have a good night guys. All right. Bye.
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