Kanontsistonties

The Kanontsistonties (also known as "Flying Heads") are figures in Native American folklore: they were believed to be the cursed souls of those who engaged in cannibalism or other horrific acts in life and were thus punished in the afterlife as a monstrous entity that constantly seeks out food but can never truly satisfy its hunger.

History
Kanontsistonties were common in Native American folklore and ghost tales, the most famous of which depicts one of the few ways to destroy the otherwise invulnerable monsters and thus became popular as a legend.

This particular story concerns a woman who is hounded by a Flying Head that seeks to devour her, while terrorizing its victim the monster is tricked into eating a hearthstone and burst into flames before self-destructing, thus saving the woman from anotherwise certain and grisly death.

Appearance
Kanontsistonties are depicted as large human heads on wings with no neck or body, depictions vary on whether the head is fully human, animalistic or skeletal but many depictions seem to show it as skeletal (though in older myths it seems the heads were simply those of a human, suggesting much less visible decay).

Abilities
Kanontsistonties were depicted as supernatural, undead monsters and thus had ghostly abilities to turn intangible or invisible at will, they could deliver a powerful bite capable of tearing through flesh, bone and muscle with ease and their appearance was frightening and terrible.

As undead monsters they were seen as invulnerable to harm and virtually immortal, yet as was shown in the story of the woman and the fire they can be harmed and even destroyed by some methods - such as fire or extreme heat (this is a common trait in undead as fire is said to be lethal to other malignant undead such as vampires in other cultures).

Trivia

 * eihiihan follow a very strong and recurring theme in Native American folklore that cannibalism will turn people into monsters, other examples of this are the Wendigo and the Teihiihan.