In some First Nations communities other symptoms such as insatiable greed and destruction of the environment are also thought to be symptoms of Wendigo psychosis. Etymology
The word appears in many Native American languages, and has many alternative translations. The source of the English word is the Ojibwe word wiindigoo. In the Cree language it is wīhtikow, also transliterated wetiko. Other transliterations include Wiindigoo, Weendigo, Windego, Wiindgoo, Windgo, Windago, Windiga, Wendego, Windagoo, Widjigo, Wiijigoo, Wijigo, Weejigo, Wìdjigò, Wintigo, Wentigo, Wehndigo, Wentiko, Windgoe, Wītikō, and Wintsigo. A plural form windigoag is also spelled windegoag, wiindigooag, or windikouk.The Proto-Algonquian term has been reconstructed as *wi·nteko·wa, which may have meant "owl". Parallels
The Wechuge is a similar being that appears in the legends of the Athabaskan people of the Northwest Pacific Coast. It too is cannibalistic; however, it is characterized as enlightened with ancestral insights. Folklore
Description
The wendigo is part of the traditional belief system of a number of Algonquin-speaking peoples, including the Ojibwe, the Saulteaux, the Cree, the Naskapi, and the Innu. Although descriptions can vary somewhat, common to all these cultures is the view that the wendigo is a malevolent, cannibalistic, supernatural being. They were strongly associated with winter, the north, coldness, famine, and starvation.Basil H. Johnston, an Ojibwe teacher and scholar from Ontario, gives a description of a wendigo:

The Wendigo was gaunt to the point of emaciation, its desiccated skin pulled tightly over its bones.
", in which the creatures are described as "poor souls turned into monsters by obsession and desperation." A wendigo also appears in the 2020 horror film The Retreat.The 2015 horror survival video game Until Dawn by Supermassive Games features wendigos as the main antagonists. Wrist, the 2016 debut novel by Canadian horror fiction writer Nathan Niigan Noodin Adler, was based on the story of the wendigo.The 2015 series Summoner by Taran Matharu featured a type of demon known as a Wendigo.In the 2018 role-playing game Fallout 76 by Bethesda Game Studios, wendigos are featured as one of the cryptid enemies found in the area of Appalachia; mutated from people who consumed human flesh in isolation.In the 2018 first-person shooter video game Dusk, wendigos are featured as strong enemies that remain invisible to the player until they receive damage. Several of these creatures also appear in the games cover art.In the 2021 film Antlers by Scott Cooper, Frank, Lucas father, transforms into a wendigo, which is portrayed as a deer-like creature with a glowing heart that moves from person to person with a never ending hunger. Guillermo del Toro, producer of the film, developed the wendigo on the basis that the more the creature eats, the more it gets hungry and the more it gets hungry, the weaker it becomes. References
Citations
General and cited sources
Brightman, Robert A. (1988). "The Windigo in the Material World" (PDF). Ethnohistory. 35 (4): 337–379. doi:10.2307/482140. JSTOR 482140. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 8, 2019. Colombo, J.R. ed. Wendigo.