14
Wednesday, October 7, 2020 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Commentary...
The evil spirit of the
Great North Woods
By Jim Cornelius
Editor In Chief
As the seasons turn into
the waning of the year,
October is the month for
exploring the uncanny.
Through this month, The
Nugget will explore some
spooky folk mythology from
various cultures that make
up the American quilt&
The Wendigo
An evil spirit of the
Great North Woods, an
eater of human flesh,
a stealer of souls: The
Wendigo. Whisper that
name in the autumn twilight
woods. <Weennndigooo&=
The word is enough all
by itself to send shivers
down the spine.
The Wendigo is a winter
demon of Algonquin leg-
end, and it seems that many
cultures of that extensive
American Indian language
group across Canada and
the U.S. knew him.
An Ojibwe scholar
describes the demon thus:
<The Wendigo was
gaunt to the point of ema-
ciation, its desiccated skin
pulled tautly over its bones.
With its bones pushing out
against its skin, its com-
plexion the ash gray of
death, and its eyes pushed
back deep into their sock-
ets, the Wendigo looked
like a gaunt skeleton
recently disinterred from
the grave. What lips it had
were tattered and bloody
[&.] Unclean and suffering
from suppurations of the
flesh, the Wendigo gave off
a strange and eerie odor of
decay and decomposition,
of death and corruption.=
Many Algonquin peo-
ples believed that the
demon could turn <them=
into Wendigos 4 a belief
so strong that it is (some-
what controversially) con-
sidered a <culture-specific=
psychological phenomenon
4 Wendigo Psychosis.
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS 3 LOLPEOR
In the 1870s, a Cree
hunter and trapper named
Swift Runner <went
We n d i g o = a n d k i l l e d
and ate his family. From
Murderpedia:
<Swift Runner was a
Cree Indian who lived dur-
ing the last century in what
is now central Alberta. His
background seemed not
unusual. As a young man
he received a solid useful
Cree education; he mar-
ried and had a family of six
children; he traded with the
Hudson9s Bay Company;
and, in 1875, he served as
a guide for the North West
Mounted Police.
<But Swift Runner 9s
life ended in tragedy and
notoriety. During the win-
ter of 1878-79, a time of
starvation and misery for
the Cree people, he became
possessed by the Windigo
psychosis (an aberration
characterized by grand
delusions and cannibalis-
tic impulses that anthro-
pologists have identified
in several Canadian Indian
cultures). He murdered
his wife and family and
cooked and ate their flesh.
Eventually he was arrested,
brought to trial, and in
December, 1879, hanged at
Fort Saskatchewan.=
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LETTERS
Continued from page 9
This abusiveness must stop. An attacker
slaps the face of a victim to stun them, freeze
them into inaction. This is an intentional strat-
egy of abusiveness to gain advantage and
exploit the situation. At the deep level of sur-
vival, it creates a fight, flight, or freeze reac-
tion. This dynamic does not belong in func-
tional politics in democracy. We must break
the freeze and act to stop this domestic vio-
lence at the spectacular scale of our national
house.
Stop enabling this cycle of mental sick-
ness and intergenerational trauma. Chaos is
a strategy, a slap in the face, to disable the
priceless gift of language and communica-
tion. Connecting needs equal parts of talking
and listening, speech and space for silence.
Communication is the channel back to trust,
co-operation, respect and safety. Chaos is the
sledgehammer the breaks it.
Recognize the danger. This is not enter-
tainment reality TV, but the lives of real
people who face death as a consequence of
abusive dysfunction of President Trump and
his enablers. It is who he is. Preventable pan-
demic deaths, genocide (our Gwi9chen people
in Alaska), destruction of environmental life
support systems, hateful divisiveness lead-
ing to violence 4 all are direct evidence of
life-threatening choices with which this man
assaults the American people.
Who are you in my community who sup-
port death to my fellow Americans? Who are
you that have not the courage to face your inner
darkness and who revel in the entertainment of
suffering? Who are you, and will you not stand
with me in defending life, something bigger
than an ideology or an autocrat? Whoever
you are, sick or healthy, addicted, discour-
aged, indifferent or on the fence, I will do my
best to stand with you when you are scared,
Year-round
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sit with you when you are sick, and love you
unconditionally as my country folk as we seek
to heal and reunite. The first steps start right
here, together. Speak up to stop abuse, national
and domestic. Support healing and life.
Rachel Smith
s
s
s
To the Editor:
This letter is written to thank those volun-
teers who participated in the final Crossroads
Homeowners Association road cleanup for
2020 which occurred on Saturday, October
3. Volunteers included Gail Halley, Geneieve
MacKensie, Amber Barton, Joanne Anttila,
Sean Smith, Bill Anttila, Kerry Goff, Ron
Thorkildson, Sharon Thorkildson, and Lucy
Grittman. There was more trash than antici-
pated, considering Highway 242 was closed
due to recent forest fires The next-scheduled
road-litter cleanup for the stretch of road from
Edgington Road to Cold Springs Campground
will be in April 2021.
Bill Anttila
s
s
s
To the Editor:
I believe this is by far the worst election in
history since 1789.
No president since Abraham Lincoln has
faced this much hatred and still achieved
more. It cost Lincoln his life, and also John F.
Kennedy; wounded Reagan.
I feel that Christians need to pray hard as
Trump and Pence are in grave danger.
I think Trump will be re-elected and start
bringing God9s light back to this country. If
Christians fervently pray, we will drive dark-
ness away and bring back light.
God had a plan for all humanity to live in
peace, harmony, love one for another. We went
off the plan; time to come back.
Chet Davis
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