Windigo Lake, Star Island

The legend of the “Windigo” or (sometimes “Wendigo,”) starts with the Algonquin tribes of the great lakes. Minnesota’s Ojibwe tribe comes from this ancestry. If a person is reduced to cannibalism in the winter, they may turn into the demonic, and supernatural Windigo creature. Reports on the actual appearance of this creature varies, but it is no longer human and is cursed to devour human flesh to try and quench an unrelenting appetite for the rest of it’s days.

A recent visit to the Leech Lake Reservation found me at Cass Lake this past winter. The Lake is large and there is a small town named after it. In the middle of the lake is Star Island, a sacred place to the people of the Reservation. On Star Island is another smaller lake called Windigo lake and home to the mythical monster. No monsters were sighted on my journey, but it had a rare and fierce beauty…