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Dangerous Spirits: The Windigo in Myth and History
In the traditional Algonquian world, the windigo is the spirit of selfishness, which can transform a person into a murderous cannibal. Native peoples over a vast stretch of North America--from Virginia in the south to Labrador in the north, from Nova Scotia in the east to Minnesota in the west--believed in the windigo, not only as a myth told in the darkness of winter, but also as a real danger.Drawing on oral narratives, fur traders' journals, trial records, missionary accounts, and anthropologists' field notes, this book is a revealing glimpse into indigenous beliefs, cross-cultural communication, and embryonic colonial relationships. It also ponders the recent resurgence of the windigo in popular culture and its changing meaning in a modern context.
224 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
January 22, 2021
It is hard to believe that someone could write a book about windegos and manage to make it boring, but that is what Shawn Smallman has succeeded in doing. Even including actual windego tales from the historic records of the HBC and missionaries couldn't save this sad tale. Maybe because no attempt was made to convey the outright terror and dread a First Nations' group would have on hearing one of their number had been turned into a windego. Instead, Smallman chooses to look at things from the point of view of the missionaries, who debunked it all as superstition.
The final conclusion was basically that windegos could be everything to everybody at any time. A sad discredit to creature who, treated with the correct respect in the right medium, can be as terrifying today as they were to the Algonquian people who created them.
The final conclusion was basically that windegos could be everything to everybody at any time. A sad discredit to creature who, treated with the correct respect in the right medium, can be as terrifying today as they were to the Algonquian people who created them.
April 23, 2018
Comprehensive account of the belief in the windigo, through many examples, from oral traditions to journal entries and official records. If, influenced by horror stories and movies, one seeks in this book the supernatural, it is not here, or not really as expected. What we have is more how the harsh North with the prospect of famine, ever-looming, birthed the belief in the windigo, and how it evolved with all the changes brought by the European colonization and the expanding Canadian state. Very interesting.
January 27, 2019
This was a rather academic but very readable account of the windigo, a cannibal spirit that is a common cultural belief among the traditions of the Algonquian peoples of North America, a diverse group of Native Americans that exist from Labrador and Nova Scotia south to Virginia and west to the Rocky Mountains. Famous in modern popular culture as a Native American-inspired bogeyman in movies, television shows, and books (a topic briefly touched upon a couple of times by author Shawn Smallman), this book focuses not on discussing popular culture treatment of the windigo but primarily on the windigo legend as it existed among the Algonquin peoples, causes for the windigo belief, how this belief changed over time with increased contact with Euro-Canadian society and culture, and how the belief in windigoes was treated differently by different non-indigenous actors with different motivations.
The windigo was essentially “the spirit of winter,” a malevolent spirit that could transform a man, woman, or child into a cannibalistic monster with a heart of ice (literally), a being that would in time grow into a giant and be practically invulnerable. One of the most dangerous and feared beings in Algonquin myths and legends (and a creature very much thought to be real well into the 20th century), those in danger of becoming a windigo often (but not always) begged to be put to death, the only traditional methods that worked were being struck in the head or decapitated by an axe or being strangled by a cord, rope, or cloth (and the body and sometimes the home burned to ash, according to many stories the icy heart the last to be destroyed). There were many tales, a number in historic times, of people who became windigos and engaged in cannibalism, often of their spouse and children. Some begged for death, others had to be put down by others, preferably family but sometimes the community, while still others were put to death and in no way asked to die. When native peoples had more and more contact with Euro-Canadians (particularly at first the Hudson Bay Company), they often sought the outsiders for help in dealing with windigo, while still later Canadian authorities became involved without indigenous people asking for such intervention.
Though Smallman at times shied away from discussing why there were beliefs in windigos or indeed people thought they were windigos, much of the origins of windigo belief I learned over the course of the book stemmed from a complex mixture of spiritual beliefs, that the windigo “represented the spirit of winter and selfishness, which could undermine the family,” with many windigo tales having to deal with the disruption of families by the individual members be they a husband, wife, son, or daughter, but also from a “superstitious fear of the delirious and mentally ill.” One of the key marks of a person becoming a windigo was delirium (or also as one would say today mental illness, though delirium from a disease was definitely a “sign” of becoming a windigo), of either the person thinking they were transforming into a windigo or by family members or others in the tribe seeing someone in a state of delirium, perhaps hallucinating from a fever, and dispatching them, fearing them a windigo. Also of course people just plain mentally ill.
Both delirium and mentally illness could be brought on by disease and by starvation, starvation until European contact being perhaps the more prevalent cause. Smallman went into some depth showing the association with most windigo stories and legends with life in the subarctic forests of Canada and the extreme northern U.S., that the “challenging world of the boreal forest” lead to winter starvation of the native peoples time and time again, a region where food “was far scarcer…than in the plains, were people relied on the buffalo, or in the High Arctic, were sea mammals and caribou were plentiful.” Living in area where starvation in winter was a real possibility – the lack of food either leading to delirium or increasing one’s vulnerability to disease, which in turn could lead to delirium and at least temporary mental illness – this was a deadly not just because people starved to death or resorted to cannibalism, but because if they became delirious from disease from being starved they could be at danger of being seen as a windigo and killed by family members or members of the community.
Over the course of the book, Smallman showed that the belief in windigos changed over the centuries of contact with Euro-Canadians, that manifestations of the belief in windigos, how they dealt with them, and more were affected by outsider reactions. Sometimes the influence was cultural or in terms of belief (such as the influence of voyageur tales of loup-garou or werewolves) but more often than not the influence was much more dire, mainly in the form of enormous stresses placed upon indigenous peoples in terms of the spread of disease (such as tuberculosis, smallpox, influenza, pneumonia, and whooping cough) or due to the serious depletion of game animals, especially larger animals (vital as food resources and sources of fur to stay warm in winter, largely the result of the fur trade and the Hudson Bay Company, though to be fair to the HBC it tried valiantly to inoculate natives against diseases and often was very merciful in dealing with windigo cases brought to its attention or to them for judgement). These enormous stresses could lead to scores of people delirious and, given apparent Algonquin beliefs on treating those with delirium or mental illness, prove deadly as there were windigo crazes of a sort, where several people in one community could be simultaneously seen as windigos, at best taken to Euro-Canadian authorities for treatment, at worst killed and those who killed the victims also facing harsh punishment as well.
How Euro-Canadians treated windigos was interesting. The Hudson Bay Company officials often adopted a hands-off policy or were kind and tried to help with really no interest in helping kill a windigo at all. This was not surprising because the HBC depended so heavily on indigenous traders bringing in furs and buying their trade goods. Later the Canadian government was very selective in how it handled windigo cases (in terms of punishment of those who killed a windigo), with according to the author mainly intervening to show local indigenous people the Canadian government was in charge and had a reach out there, not intervening much if ever in places such as Quebec because they felt their role secure, but in areas with non-treaty tribes very likely to work to capture and punish those who killed a windigo (though sometimes handing down fairly light but highly symbolic punishments).
As the 20th century rolled on more and more windigos when taken to Euro-Canadian authorities were sent to mental health facilities. Seemingly kind and while this did save a number of people afflicted with thinking they were or accused of being windigos, this was often bewildering to the windigo-afflicted (surrounded by unfamiliar settings and in settings where their language was not spoken) and had sometimes high mortality rates (chiefly from disease, especially tuberculosis).
The book was sometimes a little choppy to read, a common issue I have with many academic writings, dense with quoted sentences or large blocks of quotations, and sometimes accuracy in relating a particularly windigo tale, while achieved, was at the expense of a smoothly written, narrative-driven tale of a particular incident. It could be a little dry at times. I would have definitely liked a few more pages discussing and rating the various depictions of windigos in popular culture, though there were several nice lists of their appearances in various TV shows like _Supernatural_ as well as movies and books. There is an incredibly extensive section of end notes and works cited, probably one of the most extensive sources of further readings on windigos ever compiled (I imagine). The foreword had a fun little diatribe of sorts on Tonto as he appeared in the 2013 _The Lone Ranger_. There are some nice maps, a glossary, and a number of black and white photos.
The windigo was essentially “the spirit of winter,” a malevolent spirit that could transform a man, woman, or child into a cannibalistic monster with a heart of ice (literally), a being that would in time grow into a giant and be practically invulnerable. One of the most dangerous and feared beings in Algonquin myths and legends (and a creature very much thought to be real well into the 20th century), those in danger of becoming a windigo often (but not always) begged to be put to death, the only traditional methods that worked were being struck in the head or decapitated by an axe or being strangled by a cord, rope, or cloth (and the body and sometimes the home burned to ash, according to many stories the icy heart the last to be destroyed). There were many tales, a number in historic times, of people who became windigos and engaged in cannibalism, often of their spouse and children. Some begged for death, others had to be put down by others, preferably family but sometimes the community, while still others were put to death and in no way asked to die. When native peoples had more and more contact with Euro-Canadians (particularly at first the Hudson Bay Company), they often sought the outsiders for help in dealing with windigo, while still later Canadian authorities became involved without indigenous people asking for such intervention.
Though Smallman at times shied away from discussing why there were beliefs in windigos or indeed people thought they were windigos, much of the origins of windigo belief I learned over the course of the book stemmed from a complex mixture of spiritual beliefs, that the windigo “represented the spirit of winter and selfishness, which could undermine the family,” with many windigo tales having to deal with the disruption of families by the individual members be they a husband, wife, son, or daughter, but also from a “superstitious fear of the delirious and mentally ill.” One of the key marks of a person becoming a windigo was delirium (or also as one would say today mental illness, though delirium from a disease was definitely a “sign” of becoming a windigo), of either the person thinking they were transforming into a windigo or by family members or others in the tribe seeing someone in a state of delirium, perhaps hallucinating from a fever, and dispatching them, fearing them a windigo. Also of course people just plain mentally ill.
Both delirium and mentally illness could be brought on by disease and by starvation, starvation until European contact being perhaps the more prevalent cause. Smallman went into some depth showing the association with most windigo stories and legends with life in the subarctic forests of Canada and the extreme northern U.S., that the “challenging world of the boreal forest” lead to winter starvation of the native peoples time and time again, a region where food “was far scarcer…than in the plains, were people relied on the buffalo, or in the High Arctic, were sea mammals and caribou were plentiful.” Living in area where starvation in winter was a real possibility – the lack of food either leading to delirium or increasing one’s vulnerability to disease, which in turn could lead to delirium and at least temporary mental illness – this was a deadly not just because people starved to death or resorted to cannibalism, but because if they became delirious from disease from being starved they could be at danger of being seen as a windigo and killed by family members or members of the community.
Over the course of the book, Smallman showed that the belief in windigos changed over the centuries of contact with Euro-Canadians, that manifestations of the belief in windigos, how they dealt with them, and more were affected by outsider reactions. Sometimes the influence was cultural or in terms of belief (such as the influence of voyageur tales of loup-garou or werewolves) but more often than not the influence was much more dire, mainly in the form of enormous stresses placed upon indigenous peoples in terms of the spread of disease (such as tuberculosis, smallpox, influenza, pneumonia, and whooping cough) or due to the serious depletion of game animals, especially larger animals (vital as food resources and sources of fur to stay warm in winter, largely the result of the fur trade and the Hudson Bay Company, though to be fair to the HBC it tried valiantly to inoculate natives against diseases and often was very merciful in dealing with windigo cases brought to its attention or to them for judgement). These enormous stresses could lead to scores of people delirious and, given apparent Algonquin beliefs on treating those with delirium or mental illness, prove deadly as there were windigo crazes of a sort, where several people in one community could be simultaneously seen as windigos, at best taken to Euro-Canadian authorities for treatment, at worst killed and those who killed the victims also facing harsh punishment as well.
How Euro-Canadians treated windigos was interesting. The Hudson Bay Company officials often adopted a hands-off policy or were kind and tried to help with really no interest in helping kill a windigo at all. This was not surprising because the HBC depended so heavily on indigenous traders bringing in furs and buying their trade goods. Later the Canadian government was very selective in how it handled windigo cases (in terms of punishment of those who killed a windigo), with according to the author mainly intervening to show local indigenous people the Canadian government was in charge and had a reach out there, not intervening much if ever in places such as Quebec because they felt their role secure, but in areas with non-treaty tribes very likely to work to capture and punish those who killed a windigo (though sometimes handing down fairly light but highly symbolic punishments).
As the 20th century rolled on more and more windigos when taken to Euro-Canadian authorities were sent to mental health facilities. Seemingly kind and while this did save a number of people afflicted with thinking they were or accused of being windigos, this was often bewildering to the windigo-afflicted (surrounded by unfamiliar settings and in settings where their language was not spoken) and had sometimes high mortality rates (chiefly from disease, especially tuberculosis).
The book was sometimes a little choppy to read, a common issue I have with many academic writings, dense with quoted sentences or large blocks of quotations, and sometimes accuracy in relating a particularly windigo tale, while achieved, was at the expense of a smoothly written, narrative-driven tale of a particular incident. It could be a little dry at times. I would have definitely liked a few more pages discussing and rating the various depictions of windigos in popular culture, though there were several nice lists of their appearances in various TV shows like _Supernatural_ as well as movies and books. There is an incredibly extensive section of end notes and works cited, probably one of the most extensive sources of further readings on windigos ever compiled (I imagine). The foreword had a fun little diatribe of sorts on Tonto as he appeared in the 2013 _The Lone Ranger_. There are some nice maps, a glossary, and a number of black and white photos.
October 2, 2021
It read like a long college Sociology thesis about the Windigo legends of Algonquian-speaking people of the North drawn from well-documented historical research (plenty of footonotes were included) with the aim of dragging in all of the (current year) Progressive hot topics: race (-ism among leftists), "gender", feminism, and even a little homosexuality. It was surprising- and a relief- that Africans and slavery weren't somehow brought into the lesson. The author's conclusions may interest some, might even be correct, but I ended up skimming much as it doesn't interest me.
In fairness, the back cover does describe his primary intent to discover how this particular myth was interpreted and effected by European colonialists. Reading that would have been enough to convince me not to buy it, but I picked it up online based on the title alone and am disappointed with the content. Algernon Blackwood's "The Wendigo" is one of my longtime favorite ("unfortunately RACIST" -Professor Smallman) stories and I was hoping for simply a good straightforward investigation into the myth.
May 8, 2024
Dangerous Spirits is an engaging academic study of the Windigo in anishinaabe and nehiyawak lore. It traces Windigo stories, from their cannibal/starvation origins, through their post contact changes. Settler writers adopted the Windigo in the early 20th century, transforming them into popular horror stories.
Learned of Dangerous Spirits from the Good Minds website. I thought it might fit one of my new projects and I was right. Thing is, nłeʔkepmx don't have the Windigo, but we have an older, dangerous cannibal only heroes can kill. I initially thought I was working on a sc̓uwenáy̓tmx tale, but my "monster" transforms like a werewolf, but not, and my "monster" wanders Potawatomi territory. And my "monster" might not be the monstrosity he thinks himself.
In one sense, my story looks at the pre-contact nłeʔkepmx concept of good and evil, juxtaposed with the post-residential school version. And then I learned of the Windigo. A shortish novel just got a whole lot longer.
Anyways, kʷukʷscémxʷ, Shawn Smallman. Dangerous Spirits is a brilliant study.
Learned of Dangerous Spirits from the Good Minds website. I thought it might fit one of my new projects and I was right. Thing is, nłeʔkepmx don't have the Windigo, but we have an older, dangerous cannibal only heroes can kill. I initially thought I was working on a sc̓uwenáy̓tmx tale, but my "monster" transforms like a werewolf, but not, and my "monster" wanders Potawatomi territory. And my "monster" might not be the monstrosity he thinks himself.
In one sense, my story looks at the pre-contact nłeʔkepmx concept of good and evil, juxtaposed with the post-residential school version. And then I learned of the Windigo. A shortish novel just got a whole lot longer.
Anyways, kʷukʷscémxʷ, Shawn Smallman. Dangerous Spirits is a brilliant study.
April 13, 2019
Dangerous Spirits is an incredibly academic read that is rather dry. Unless you have a palate for historical accounts, this may be difficult to get through. It was however a comprehensive history of how the wendigo myth/legend progressed.
Although not the author's fault, there is no solid identity for a wendigo, and I found the ambiguity and varying takes very difficult to follow.
As a previous reviewer mentioned, this book does read like a thesis. I wish it were more enjoyable, and provided some of the bigger wendigo stories. This book deliberately avoided them for their own good reasons, but as someone who is not privy to them, I would have liked to know what they were talking about.
I learned a lot, but not all that I was looking to learn.
Although not the author's fault, there is no solid identity for a wendigo, and I found the ambiguity and varying takes very difficult to follow.
As a previous reviewer mentioned, this book does read like a thesis. I wish it were more enjoyable, and provided some of the bigger wendigo stories. This book deliberately avoided them for their own good reasons, but as someone who is not privy to them, I would have liked to know what they were talking about.
I learned a lot, but not all that I was looking to learn.
December 9, 2022
Previous reviewers have said that this book is dry, and could be made more interesting. My argument would be that this is more of an essay, with many dates, names, and citations meant to be a factual recounting of the Wendigo spread through North America. If you want a fictionalized story,that may be read more steadily.
I found this book dry as well to be honest, but it is factual, and does a great job of gathering accounts from many different people, and is the most in depth analysis of this phenomenon in my reading.
I found this book dry as well to be honest, but it is factual, and does a great job of gathering accounts from many different people, and is the most in depth analysis of this phenomenon in my reading.
May 17, 2021
Finally I can take him over in narrative the native perspective.
I have a lifelong interest in all things paranormal. I am currently working on a database reliable information based on myths and legends around the world. I can pick 2 Google Wendigo I mostly got fictional narrative and I'm supportive campfire Tales until I found this book. You're interested in the origins and what the local indigenous people actually believed about this Legend; this is the book you want.
I have a lifelong interest in all things paranormal. I am currently working on a database reliable information based on myths and legends around the world. I can pick 2 Google Wendigo I mostly got fictional narrative and I'm supportive campfire Tales until I found this book. You're interested in the origins and what the local indigenous people actually believed about this Legend; this is the book you want.
January 28, 2024
A very well cited book
It was a quick read despite the denseness of the material and contained a lot of anecdotes.
My only critique is the seemingly white washing of the writing; at times the authors frames his writing from an indigenous perspective but simultaneously minimizes and brushes by the severity of the treatment of indigenous peoples by the priests, police, and government.
It was a quick read despite the denseness of the material and contained a lot of anecdotes.
My only critique is the seemingly white washing of the writing; at times the authors frames his writing from an indigenous perspective but simultaneously minimizes and brushes by the severity of the treatment of indigenous peoples by the priests, police, and government.
September 26, 2019
I got this book because I'm fascinated by the windigo mythos. Unfortunately, the lack of style and flat storytelling makes this a difficult book to get through. Somewhat informative, but the effort to keep reading isn't worth learning the stories.
December 1, 2023
This book is very much an academic paper (a descriptor that can carry many different connotations in this day and age) rather than a collection of spooky stories to tell around the campfire (although some of the events described within are fairly horrific).
It can be described as "dry and boring", but I appreciate it for what it is.
As somebody who is deeply interested in Canadian and American history and is willing to read just about anything to broaden my knowledge on the subject, this book a welcomed part of my library. It doesn't hurt that I also grew up loving tales of the supernatural.
It can be described as "dry and boring", but I appreciate it for what it is.
As somebody who is deeply interested in Canadian and American history and is willing to read just about anything to broaden my knowledge on the subject, this book a welcomed part of my library. It doesn't hurt that I also grew up loving tales of the supernatural.
July 5, 2021
Dangerous Spirits: The Windigo in Myth and History is a fascinating, informative study of the evolving contexts surrounding the windigo legend and its origins among the Algonquian speaking peoples of Northeastern North America. All in all, I felt that Shawn Smallman writes a thorough account of the legend and its cultural milieu, strongly academic but accessible. In spite of being quite an exhaustive work of research, it is quite readable and compact as well. As the windigo legend seems to be growing in popularity within popular culture, especially among fans of “creepy” lore and monsters, this discussion of its origins among a specifically indigenous worldview is very important, I think. Smallman notes that the aboriginal peoples hold ownership of the windigo narratives, but that others can “engage with these stories” respectfully as well. This interplay between cultures is an important aspect of the book
According to the traditions of the northern Algonquian cultures, the windigo, at root, was “the spirit of winter, which could transform a man, woman, or child into a cannibalistic being with a heart of ice,” which, in time, could grow into a giant. However, Smallman shows how this complex and contradictory symbol reflects changing anxieties among the Algonquin peoples and the outsiders they encountered who also interacted with this folklore. Smallman organizes his findings into four chapters, discussing the cultural origins of the windigo among the Algonquin cultures, and their changing contexts as Euro-Canadians attempted to account for it in their own conceptions, including among early colonists and fur traders, later missionaries, and among the representatives of the growing power of Canadian authorities. Whether in the societies of the Cree, Anishinaabe, or that of the French or other Euro-Americans and Canadians, the windigo stories spoke to various cultural concerns that changed as they each interacted. Most fascinating was the influence of gender roles and family among the indigenous origins of the windigo legends, as any conflict during the long winters of the subarctic Boreal forests they called home could be dangerous. In such stories, this selfishness became symbolic of eating your own.
In any case, I feel that Dangerous Spirits is definitely a thought provoking resource for interdisciplinary studies. With threads throughout the social sciences, humanities, there is a lot of inspiration for research topics that could branch out from Smallman’s research.
According to the traditions of the northern Algonquian cultures, the windigo, at root, was “the spirit of winter, which could transform a man, woman, or child into a cannibalistic being with a heart of ice,” which, in time, could grow into a giant. However, Smallman shows how this complex and contradictory symbol reflects changing anxieties among the Algonquin peoples and the outsiders they encountered who also interacted with this folklore. Smallman organizes his findings into four chapters, discussing the cultural origins of the windigo among the Algonquin cultures, and their changing contexts as Euro-Canadians attempted to account for it in their own conceptions, including among early colonists and fur traders, later missionaries, and among the representatives of the growing power of Canadian authorities. Whether in the societies of the Cree, Anishinaabe, or that of the French or other Euro-Americans and Canadians, the windigo stories spoke to various cultural concerns that changed as they each interacted. Most fascinating was the influence of gender roles and family among the indigenous origins of the windigo legends, as any conflict during the long winters of the subarctic Boreal forests they called home could be dangerous. In such stories, this selfishness became symbolic of eating your own.
In any case, I feel that Dangerous Spirits is definitely a thought provoking resource for interdisciplinary studies. With threads throughout the social sciences, humanities, there is a lot of inspiration for research topics that could branch out from Smallman’s research.
November 26, 2016
I always wanted someone to do a thorough academic study of the Wendigo. Each section harvests accounts from different sources, be it indigenous belief, missionary experiences, and modern mental health perspectives. Mostly, the examples of people who believe themselves to be transforming make good fodder for horror writing ideas.
July 16, 2015
Reads more like an academic paper, but very informative.
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