They're hundreds of years old.
Each was once a man, sometimes an indian, or other times a frontiersman or a miner or hunter.
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 thing.
You're always hungry.
Wendigo is a cree indian word.
It means "Evil that devours".
During some harsh Winter, a person finds themselves starving, cut off from supplies or help-- becomes a cannibal to survive, eating other members of his tribe or camp.