There’s one monster in Native American mythology that I always thought was pretty cool and scary, the windigo. Supposedly, the creature is fairly widespread among many different tribes. The basic pattern is that its some kind of malevolent spirit which lives deep in the woods. In the depths of the winter, the windigo seeks to feast on human flesh. It will either attack humans directly, as a sort of a half-man/half-beast type thing, or it will possess a human, and drive them to pscyhotic cannibalism.

This is the best site I could find about the windigo. There doesn’t seem to be a ton of information on it online. I think the first place I came across the legend of the windigo was in a Wolverine graphic novel. Unfortunately, I don’t know the title of it (but I do remember the cover). In it, Wolverine, as Logan, is doing his thing in the wilds of Canada, and it’s all snowy, and like all this stuff happens. And then he sort of communes with this tribe of windigo creatures, and he finds out they aren’t so much evil as they are misunderstood by humans. Either that or like, since he’s some sort of half-beast himself, they are sort of accepting of him. In any event, it was cool as shit. I wish I still had it.

Oh, also, I found out that “windigo psychosis” is considered to be one of those culture-specific mental illnesses, which are also sometimes referred to as culture-bound syndromes. All of them are really oddly fascinating, I think, and I’d very much like to find a book about them. Here’s what that site has to say about windigo psychosis:

This condition was reported among the Northern Algonkian language group of Indians (Chippewa, Ojibwa, and Cree) living around the Great Lakes of Canada and the United States. Windigo psychosis usually developed in the winter when families were isolated by heavy snow for months in their cabins and had inadequate food supplies. The initial symptoms of this form of mental illness were usually poor appetite, nausea, and vomiting. Subsequently, the individual would develop a characteristic delusion of being transformed into a Windigo monster. These supernatural beings eat human flesh. People who have Windigo psychosis increasingly see others around them as being edible. At the same time, they have an exaggerated fear of becoming cannibals. A modern medical diagnosis of this condition might label it paranoia because of the irrational perceptions of being persecuted. In this case, it is the Windigo monsters who are the persecutors–they are trying to turn people into Windigo monsters like themselves… Victims of Windigo psychosis experienced extreme anxiety and sometimes attempted suicide to prevent themselves from becoming Windigo monsters.

Additional Resources:

1. “Beware the Windigo” (good article)
2. More about the windigo (long and rambling, but some good info)