Witigo and the Two
Women
There are two kinds of Witigo stories,
one of them is told only to men.
There were two young women, they went to this place and there was a hut there, kind of like a tepee. They went into the hut to fast and dream, a vision quest. When they went to sleep, the two young women received their dreams from the spirits. The young women were also fooling around with a couple of young men that were not supposed to be bothering the young women on their quest.
There are rules of respect and conduct when vision questing, you must respect the spirits. The young women didn't follow the rules. It was very disrespectful to be with the opposite sex when on their quest.
One of the young women dreamed "wrong" (an evil spirit gave her a vision), she turned into a Witigo. One of the young men really wanted to go see his woman for some sex. The young men kept wondering about their girlfriends, so one of the men grabbed his partner on the chest and said "Come on, come on lets go".
The Witigo have a lot of power, they're very powerful. The young men kept saying to each other "You go in first". Well, the one that wanted to go there in the first place went in there first. As soon as he opened the flap of the hut, it was like he was sucked into the hut. The other young man ran. He was scared.
The young man went and got a group of men to go back with him to the hut. One of the young women had turned into a Witigo and had eaten her friend and her boyfriend. When the group of men opened the flap to the hut, the only thing that was left was the young man's penis. The Witigo did not eat that because that was what she wanted, and caused her to behave disrespectfully.
INTERVIEW WITH: Michael Smith
COMMUNITY: Pinehouse
DATE: March 12, 2001
INTERVIEWER: Marlene Highway
Write: Lac la Ronge Indian Band Education, Box 480, La Ronge, SK. S0J 1L0