Of course, it makes sense that in an isolated, natural, harsh environment, there is a fear of getting lost, not having enough food, succumbing to the elements, and turning into a savage marauder simply to survive. Cannibalism is perhaps the worst fate that many could envision, such as in 1972 when an Uruguayan rugby team's plane crashed in Chile in the aptly-named Valley of Tears, as outlined in National Geographic, and the survivors resorted to eating each other.
Such is the case with the wendigo, whose legend likely grew from some real-life murderers and cannibals within the Rocky Mountains. According to the Algonquin, many people went missing from the late 1800s to the early 1900s. Non-coincidentally, this is when stories of the wendigo flourished, fueled by individuals such as Swift Runner, who in 1879 murdered and ate his entire family while claiming to be under the "wendigo spirit." This and other, similar stories from that time gave the wendigo its nicknames, "spirit of lonely places" and "the evil spirit that devours mankind."
The simplest and least glamorous version of the wendigo story may be the most likely, however: He was just a simple hunter who got lost and couldn't find food. He represents the violence of the natural world as it's inflicted on people subject to its whims, and could even symbolize the fear of the loss of self and land felt by indigenous people who came face-to-face with European colonizers.
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