Wendigo (creature)

"Wendigo is an Algonqiuan word. It means "evil that devours." They're hundreds of years old. Each was once a man, sometimes an indian or other times a frontiersmen or a minor or hunter.[...]During some harsh winter, a guy finds himself starving, cut off from supplies or help -- becomes a cannabil to survive, eating other members of his tribe or camp. Cultures all over the world believe that eating human flesh gives a person certain abilities -- speed, strength, immortality. If you eat enough of it, over years, you become this less-than-human things. You're always hungry."

- Sam and Dean on the Wendigo

Wendigos are a type of monster, whose name means "evil that devours."

Characteristics
Wendigos were once humans, but after being forced to eat human flesh to survive, they become supernatural monsters that retain little human features they once possessed. After their transformation, they begin to crave human flesh and feed solely on it.

Although their name is described as an 'evil spirit', it is technically, a monster, and places it in the same classification as vampires and werewolves.

At the same time, Wendigos are embodiments of gluttony, greed, and excess; never satisfied after killing and consuming one person, they are constantly searching for new victims. It is also common that wendigos just capture humans to hoard their food, and then eat when hungry.

Wendigos are rarely seen out of Minnesota or the north of Michigan. They are hundreds of years old, and they also have hibernation behavior during the long, cold winters they must survive--meaning they must hoard food if it is scarce. In addition, they keep their victims in dark and isolated places, such as caves or abandoned mines.

Wendigos are very deadly and fast hunters capable of ripping humans to shreds with their claws.

Appearance


Wendigos are taller than humans, standing at about twelve feet tall. They appear emaciated and have pale green skin, incredibly thin that their bones are visible, a symbolism of their unquenchable hunger. They are humanoid and are equipped with sharp claws used to rip prey to shreds. They have red eyes, with sharp yellow crooked teeth.

Powers and Abilities
Wendigos are excellent hunters, either during the day or at night, as Sam and Dean said themselves, "It's a damn-near perfect hunter." and, "This thing is a good hunter in the day, but an unbelievable hunter at night". There are few possibilities to defeat a wendigo during the day, but it is almost impossible to defeat them at night, since it is their favorite period to hunt. Also despite being animal like, Wendigos are intelligent, as intelligent as humans, thus making them even more dangerous.


 * Voice Mimicry - Wendigos can imitate the voices of humans to lure unsuspecting victims.
 * Immortality - Wendigos can live forever.
 * Super speed - Wendigos possess inhuman speed, enough to move from one place to another in under three seconds.
 * Superhuman Strength - Wendigos are incredibly strong, even by monster terms, they can tear humans limb from limb, snap necks and carry two people at once and even drag them up a tree with ease.
 * Superhuman Agility - Wendigos can jump from tree to tree without being deterred by the foliage.
 * Invulnerability - Wendigos are invulnerable to (albeit irritated by) normal knives and guns.
 * Claws - Wendigo have giant claws, which they use to hunt or to attack.
 * Super Senses - Wendigos possess enhanced senses, making them perfect hunters, they can see perfectly in darkness, and have similairly enhanced hearing.

Vulnerabilities

 * Fire - The only known way to kill a Wendigo is to burn them to death.
 * Anasazi Symbols - Special Anasazi symbols, drawn in protective circles, will keep a Wendigo away, much as salt does with Demons.
 * The Colt - Since it can kill almost anything, it could presumably kill a Wendigo.

Season 1
While trying to find their father, John Winchester, Sam and Dean help a family whose brother has gone missing on a camping trip. He has been taken by a Wendigo, but they find him alive in an abandoned mine where the Wendigo stores its victims as living food sources. Dean kills the creature by shooting it with a flare gun.

Season 6
Sam finds a mask of a Wendigo in the trunk of the Impala. Dean tells him that he helped Ben Braeden make it for Halloween, and Sam admits that it is a good likeness.

A Wendigo is mentioned being in New Mexico by the Demon Ellsworth to be captured by and brought in so Crowley can question it.

Lore
The Wendigo (also known as Windigo, Weendigo, Windago, Waindigo, Windiga,Witiko, Wihtikow, and numerous other variants) is a mythical creature appearing in the mythology of the Algonquian people. It is a malevolent cannibalistic spirit into which humans could transform, or which could possess humans. Those who indulged in cannibalism were at particular risk, and the legend appears to have reinforced this practice as a taboo.

Wendigo psychosis is the name conventionally given to a culture-bound disorder which involves an intense craving for human flesh and the fear that the sufferer would turn into a cannibal. This once occurred frequently among Algonquian Native cultures, but has declined due to the Native American urbanization.

Apperances

 * Season One
 * Wendigo
 * Season Six
 * The Third Man (Mentioned)
 * The Man Who Would Be King (Mentioned)
 * Supernatural: Fresh Meat
 * Season Eight
 * Southern Comfort (Mentioned)
 * Freaks and Geeks (Mentioned)
 * Clip Show (Flashback)

Trivia

 * The Wendigo, as depicted in the series, resembles Basil Johnston's description of how Wendigos were viewed:

The Wendigo was gaunt to the point of emaciation, its desiccated skin pulled tautly 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 suppurations of the flesh, the Wendigo gave off a strange and eerie odour of decay and decomposition, of death and corruption.


 * The wendigo in Supernatural, resemble the wendigo in original folklore. However, there is no commonly-known lore that says that they can mimic the voice of a human, can climb and jump from tree to tree, and can be repelled by Anasazi symbols. Every other charateristics of the character of the show is true to real folklore of the creature.


 * As a human becomes a Wendigo through cannabilism it's possible that Wendigo's are the only monsters except Amazons not descended from Eve. However the fact that demons were hunting them in Season Six, suggests that they are descendants of Eve.