Description
Dangerous Spirits: The Windigo in Myth and History by Shawn Smallman, a professor of international studies at Portland State University, in Oregon, traces previously recorded accounts by early missionaries, fur traders, colonial officials, anthropologists’ field notes, and legal authorities about the Algonquian phenomenon known as the windigo. This cannibalistic being with supernatural powers has been recorded in these early records by Europeans and continue to appear as a metaphor for selfishness in contemporary pop culture films and novels by non-Indigenous storytellers. The author points out that Margaret Atwood has used this frightening being in her writing and First Nations authors such as Tomson Highway, Eden Robinson, Edmund Metatawabin, and Joseph Boyden have employed this spirit creature in their novels. The readable account contains archival photographs, references, and an index.