Forget Bigfoot. The Native American legend of the Wendigo is much, much scarier. For centuries, American Indian tribes have told stories of the "the evil spirit that devours mankind." It is said to dwell in the frozen forests and tundra of northern Minnesota and Southern Ontario

According to some legends, the Wendigo is the spirit of tortured souls who were forced to resort to cannibalism to survive the frigid winters. The creature is typically depicted as 15-feet tall, with a skeletal face and antlers - plus an insatiable hunger.

During the 1800s, the terrifying creature made frequent appearances in Roseau, a small hamlet near the Canadian border. Each sighting was allegedly followed by the death of the witness or someone they loved.

So when you're walking through the woods of Northern Minnesota on a moonless winter night, beware. What you think is a deer - a rustle in the trees, a pair of antlers emerging from the brush - might be something far more nefarious.

The legend lends its name to the disputed modern medical term Wendigo psychosis, which is considered by some psychiatrists to be a syndrome that creates an intense craving for human flesh and a fear of becoming a cannibal.

Ironically, this psychosis is said to occur within people living around the Great Lakes of Canada and the United States. Wendigo psychosis usually develops in the winter in individuals who are isolated by heavy snow for long periods.

People who have Wendigo psychosis increasingly see others around them a being edible. At the same time, they have an exaggerated fear of becoming cannibals.

A ocumented case occurred in 1878 when a Plains Cree trapper from Alberta, named Swift Runner, suffered one of the worst cases known. Swift Runner was a trader with the Hudson’s Bay Company who was married and the father of six children.

During the winter of 1878-79, Swift Runner and his family were starving, along with numerous other Cree families. His eldest son was the first to die of starvation and at some point, Swift Runner succumbed to Wendigo psychosis.

Though emergency food supplies were available at Hudson’s Bay Company post some 25 miles away, he did not attempt to travel there. Rather, he killed the remaining members of his family and consumed them. He eventually confessed and was executed by authorities at Fort Saskatchewan