In northern areas of the United States, originating from Native American folklore, specifically among a number of Algonquin-speaking peoples, including the Ojibwe, the Saulteaux, the Cree, the Naskapi, and the Innu, tales exist of a creature who is malevolent, cannibalistic and supernatural in nature.

It is an astonishingly tall humanoid creature. It can move at breakneck speeds, it has razor sharp teeth and claws and lips often chewed ragged or even gone completely, with a heart made of ice.

The creature can run across treetops, and, again like that author stated, and like so many other cryptids and what may be inter-dimensional beings, an offensive odor may precede it. Sudden snow storms are also attributed to its arrival. Genderless, after its transformation, the creature almost always starts as a human being.

The creature we are talking about today is, of course, the Wendigo.

Sources : Legends of the Nahanni Valley by Hammerson Peters and Dangerous Spirits: The Windigo in Myth and History by Shawn Smallman.