The following is an excerpt from the article "Weendigo Curse" by several contributing authors. (art by Frank Chavez)
"The Wendigo was gaunt to the point of emaciation, its desiccated skin pulled
tautly over its bones. With its bones pushing out against its skin, its complexion the ash
gray of death, and its eyes pushed back deep into their sockets, 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 odour of decay and decomposition, of death and corruption.”
– Basil H. Johnson, scholar of Objibwa folklore, 2001
Consider the Weendigo legend (also spelled Wendigo, Windago, Witiko, et
cetera). This legend shared by various Northeastern Native American tribes, strikes a
cord with many humans who have experienced a zombie attack. A Weendigo is a
monstrous spirit who possesses a human and compels its host to eat human flesh, or it is
a former-human who is cursed for cannibalism. Different stories presented Weendigos in
different forms: flying creatures, giants and even storm clouds. The unifying theme is
the consequence of the taboo act of eating humans.
As recently as 1907, Jack Fiddler was charged with murder by the Canadian
Mounties after killing his own daughter-in-law. Despite several other witnesses claiming
that she had become a Weendigo, Jack Fiddler was arrested and carried away for trial.
He escaped and hanged himself before he could be captured again.
So, here is what we have within the Weendigo legend: a corpse-like monster, a
theme of hunger to eat human flesh and tragedy in which elders are forced to execute
members of their own families. That certainly seems like a zombie story to me