Lewis Chad - Wendigo Lore: Monsters, Myths, and Madness

Copyright 2020, 2021 On The Road Publications

E-book published by: Beyond The Fray Publishing, a division of Beyond The Fray, LLC

Cover Design: Kevin Lee Nelson / Back Cover Art: Rick Fisk

All photos taken by the authors unless noted

First and foremost, we have to thank our Back Roads Lore colleague, and all around badass, Noah Voss. Noah was with us on some of our most dangerous expeditions and his impact on this book can be felt in every chapter.

A big thank you goes out to Joseph A. Citro for lending his expertise to this project and agreeing to write the foreword.

Another round of enormous appreciation goes out to cold weather hating Nisa Giaquinto for all of her support and advice, and all my love to Leo Lewis, the bravest kid I know.

Special thanks to Rebekah Hansen for all of her encouragement, insightful advice, and support.

Additional thanks also to Gary and Adonna Nelson for always having my back with every crazy idea Ive ever had.

A big thank you to David Weatherly for adding his immense expertise to this project

Of course, this book would not be nearly as awesome as it is without assistance from a ton of researchers, tour guides, and experts in their field including:

Britt Dahl and the rest of the amazing staff at the Roseau County Historical Museum in Roseau, Minnesota

Pearl Lorentzen and everyone at Slave Lakes Lakeside Leader Newspaper

The wonderful staff at the Fort Saskatchewan Museum and Historic Site

Professor Shawn Smallman who was gracious enough to answer all of our pesky emails.

John Robert Colombo for providing us with some keen insight on the legend.

Our colleagues Linda Godfrey and Todd Roll, who also lent their knowledge to this project.

The Provincial Archives of Albertaa treasure trove of great history.

We also have to thank the numerous historical societies, research libraries, universities and public libraries that assisted us in our research. These places are truly a treasure for us all.

There is no one correct way to spell wendigo. Numerous variations existed based on geographic location, time period, culture, and the overall spelling prowess of those who were documenting the legend. We ultimately chose the wendigo spelling because it was the version that we encountered most while growing up and living in the Great Lakes area of the United States. Obviously in Canada, spelling it as windigo is the more common modern preference, but in the United States, the version with an e is most commonly used.

Others may argue that we should have used an even earlier version of the nameto which our reply is--- which one? No matter what spelling we pick, there are going to be some who disagree with our choice. We also recognize that outside of the various spellings, there are completely different names given to what were/are seemingly the same creatures (Chenoo, Stone Coat, Mhuwe, etc...) encountered in different locations. Yet in order to avoid confusion, and for the sake of simplicity, we chose to use Wendigo.

Here are just a few of the other various spellings of the creature:

windigo,wiindigoo, weendigo, windego, wiindgoo, windgo, windago, windiga, wendego, windagoo, widjigo, wiijigoo, wijigo, weejigo, wintigo, wentigo, wehndigo, wentiko, Windgoe, wintsigo. windigoag , windegoag, wiindigooag, windikouk, witiko, wihtikow.

Cultural Sensitivity

Although we cover this concern quite extensively in the Unthawing the Legend chapter, we felt its importance warranted another mention. The origin of the wendigo will forever be a First Nation legend. However, for the last several hundred years, much like humankind itself, the legend has morphed, progressed, and spread, not just in location, but in thought as well. We feel that our research, and this book, will bear out that we have treated this legend with the utmost appreciation and respect.

No Agenda

It was not our intent to try to convince or dissuade you regarding the credibility of these legends. We do not come at this legend with an agenda or purpose other than a keen appreciation for the lore. We provided commentary in places where we deemed it necessary, and pointed out correlations or inconsistencies where we saw fit, but for the most part we allowed these stories and legends to exist in their natural habitat free from over speculation or hypothesizing. In spots where the legend is complex or filled with jargon (Windigo Psychosis) -- we provided an overview of the theories and trust that you will reach your own conclusion.

An Overload of Information

With nearly two decades of our own personal travel and on-site research at our disposal, combined with countless academic papers, historical newspaper articles, and a robust supply of books dealing with the subject, our greatest challenge was deciding what information would have to be cut from the book. We could have easily (and happily) made this a 1,000-page tome. However, our goal was to try to make this book a definitive guide to wendigo lore, while simultaneously keeping it easily approachable for the general public. The literature on wendigo lore is already overflowing with academic papers and books that approach the topic from an anthropological, ethnohistorical, and sociological perspective, yet nearly all fail to even remotely address the supernatural aspect of the legend. We feel our work is the first major investigation into the creature that approaches the subject as not merely fantasy or a mental illness, but an essential part of the existence of those who believed in it.

Can you remember your first encounter with the Wendigo?

For me it was when I was about 10 years old. The fright it gave me resulted in sleepless nights, daytime dread, and a lifelong sense of unease. Really. It was that high-impact. This was 1961, the era of live TV. I had blundered into a short-lived series called Great Ghost Tales. At that age, of course, I knew everything about monsters and ghosts, but I had never heard a damn thing about Wendigos. A what? people replied when I asked around. Back then no one knew anything about Wendigos.

As I recall, the 30-minute broadcast was a totally successful exercise in tension and terror. I ignored the writers name, but carried the disturbing scenario around with me until, as a teenager, I stumbled across the source material in a horror anthology: Algernon Blackwoods 1910 short story The Wendigo. Reading it was an unnerving experience, though it didnt hold me in thrall the way that 30-minute B&W drama had. Something about that initial contact lodged the Wendigo firmly in my memory. Since then I have never been able to go hiking or camping without it disrupting whatever reverie I might be enjoying.