Wendigo Sightings

In November 2025 a viral video and clustered eyewitness reports near Rock Hill described a gaunt, emaciated humanoid lurking at the wood line — widely identified as an Appalachian wendigo and reviving regional folklore.

Source: https://www.charlottestories.com/york-county-wendigo-alleged-sightings-spark-new-fears-in-the-south-carolina-woods/

A trail camera in north-central Pennsylvania reportedly captured a tall, gaunt antlered figure interacting with a wolf pack at night; the viral clip was widely shared and labeled a Wendigo by Appalachian cryptid researchers.

Source: https://www.tiktok.com/@trendingtrailcams/video/7527401185909820727

A Kentucky family's home security camera reportedly captured an emaciated, long-limbed humanoid creature stalking the edge of their property at night; the footage aired on Travel Channel's 'Paranormal Caught on Camera' and was widely identified online as a Wendigo. (Modern Appalachian framing — not part of traditional Cree/Anishinaabe taxonomy.)

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1bngQSPLuw

Trappers and guides around Kenora — long called the 'Wendigo Capital of the World' — have reported a tall, emaciated, foul-smelling figure stalking the rocky shoreline near the Cave of the Wendigo.

Source: https://www.americanhauntingsink.com/wendigo

Trapper and guide Howard B. LeBlanc relayed his French-Canadian father's account of a tall, skeletal cannibal-spirit encountered while running traplines northeast of Huntsville before Algonquin became a managed park.

Source: http://www.pararesearchers.org/index.php/folklore-a-mythology/306-the-wendigo

Repeated wendigo encounters were reported in and around Roseau from the late 1800s through the 1920s; locals claimed each sighting of the gaunt, antlered figure was followed by an unexpected death.

Source: https://www.legendsofamerica.com/mn-wendigo/

Anishinaabe ogimaa and shaman Jack Fiddler, credited with killing 14 wendigos from 1885-1907, was arrested by NWMP for executing his daughter-in-law Wahsakapeequay; he hanged himself in custody on September 30, 1907.

Source: https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/zhauwuno_geezhigo_gaubow_13E.html

Cree communities of the Manitoba boreal forest historically reported windigo possession during famine winters: emaciated victims craving human flesh whose hearts were said to have turned to ice, often executed by relatives or shamans.

Source: https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/windigo

For 19 days the Woodland Cree of Trout Lake tried to exorcise Felix Auger — praying, drumming, sweat lodge, pouring boiling bear grease — as he insisted his heart was turning to ice; after his death they decapitated and burned the body to prevent his return as a wendigo.

Source: https://mysteriesofcanada.com/saskatchewan/classic-canadian-wendigo-stories-episode-2/

Plains Cree woman Napesoosus and her companion Pay-i-uu were tried for manslaughter after killing a man they believed had become a Wehtigo; Justice Charles Rouleau presided and rebuked Indigenous belief in the cannibal spirit during sentencing.

Source: https://historyboots.wordpress.com/2015/06/13/additional-information-ate-his-family-wendigos-and-murder-trials-in-19th-century-western-canada/

Cree trapper Swift Runner (Ka-Ki-Si-Kutchin) was hanged at Fort Saskatchewan after murdering and cannibalizing his wife, mother, brother and six children in winter camp, claiming wendigo possession; the case became the prototype of 'wendigo psychosis'.

Source: https://www.executedtoday.com/2014/12/20/1879-swift-runner-wendigo/

Anishinaabe oral traditions of Northern Ontario describe wiindigoo — towering, ice-hearted cannibal giants haunting the boreal forest in winter; the wiindigookaanzhimowin satirical dance was performed in famine times to reinforce the wendigo taboo.

Source: https://northernontario.travel/superior-country/anishinaabe-stories-northern-ontario-indigenous-lore

Hudson's Bay Company traders recorded multiple Cree accounts of community members descending into 'wendigo fits,' with at least one trapper executed by his own band after refusing food and reportedly developing an insatiable craving for human flesh.

Source: https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/windigo

French Jesuit missionary Paul Le Jeune recorded the first known written reference to the Wendigo while living among the Algonquin, describing tales of a starving cannibal spirit haunting the winter forests north of the St. Lawrence.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendigo