Indigenous legends

Episode 17: Le Nain Rouge

/ Samantha Engel / Leave a comment


Does a small red demon roam the streets of Detroit, Michigan? Probably not! In this episode, Samantha and Aaron dive into the story of the Nain Rouge. The creature first appeared in an 1880s tale on the history of Detroit as the foil to Antoine Laumet de la Mothe Cadillac, and today the creature is taunted and chased out of the city in an annual parade called La Marche du Nain Rouge. Was the story of the Nain Rouge fact? Should we chase the “red devil” out of Detroit? Listen to this episode and find out!

Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, Image courtesy of detroithistorical.org
Le Nain Rouge at La Marche du Nain Rouge, Image courtesy of Detroit Metro Times
Marie Caroline Watson Hamlin’s Grave, image found on findagrave.org. Hamlin is buried in the Mount Elliot Cemetery in Detroit.
Sign for the Detroit Dwarf beer by Detroit Brewing Company

Intro- 00:14
Settling Michigan and the Scoundrel Cadillac- 02:43
The Hamlin Narrative- 07:20
Hamlin’s History- 15:07
Charles Montgomery Skinner- 17:30
Other Appearances- 19:24
Midway Break- 24:04
Lutin- 28:55
Puckwudgies!- 32:00
La Marche du Nain Rouge- 36:00
Stop the Nain Shame!- 38:08
What Do We Do With It All?- 41:25

Further Reading:
Legends of Le Detroit (Overview with link to book)
Detroit Metro Times Article
Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac
Wayne State University Project
Charles Montgomery Skinner’s Myths and Legends of Our Own Land

Episode 16: The Windigo: From Legend to Pop Culture

/ Samantha Engel / 2 Comments

The legendary monster of Algonquian lore, the Windigo (or Wendigo), regularly appears in popular culture, but how well is it represented? What is the Windigo? Samantha and Aaron dive into the legend of the Windigo, explore actual Windigo cases, and then put television and comic books to task. Who passes and who fails? What do we lose when the monster is removed from its cultural context? Find out in this week’s episode of Great Lakes Lore!

The Windigo’s MO- 1:39
Cannibalism!- 5:52 
Jack Fiddler the Windigo Hunter- 8:47
The Swift Runner Case- 12:37
The Windigo and Canadian Law- 14:52
L’Espagnol- 17:57
Midway Break- 20:26
Algernon Blackwood- 27:32
Native American Legends in Pop Culture- 29:55
X-Files and the Manitou- 32:56
Hulk Smash Windigo!- 39:02
Charmed- 41:46 
Supernatural- 43:22
Windigo Psychosis- 49:25
Wrap-Up- 53:20

  • Map of Algonquian language pre-European contact (image from Wikipedia)
  • Swift Runner (image from fortsaskonline.com)
  • Robert Fiddler, son of Jack Fiddler (image from Wikipedia)
  • We…think this speaks for itself…

Further Reading

Jack Fiddler

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teaching of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer

“Cannibals and Colonizers: An Analysis of the Wendigo in Louise Erdrich’s Love Medicine” by Elaine Tousignant from The University of San Francisco

“The Windigo Psychosis: Psychodynamic, Cultural, and Social Factors in Aberrant Behavior” by Thomas H. Hay

“The Windigo in the Material World” by Robert R. Brightman in Ethnohistory 35, no. 4 (1988): 337–79.

Gitchi Bitobig, Grand Marais: Early Accounts of the Anishinaabeg and the North Shore Fur Trade by Timothy Cochrane

Nazare, Joe. “The Horror! The Horror? The Appropriation, and Reclamation, of Native American Mythology.” Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts 11, no. 1 (41) (2000): 24–51. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43308417.

DeSanti, Brady. Journal of Religion & Popular Culture, Fall 2015, Vol. 27 Issue 3, p186-201

Evans, Catherine L. “Heart of Ice: Indigenous Defendants and Colonial Law in the Canadian North-West.” Law and History Review 36, no. 2 (2018): 199–234. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26564583.