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From Ronald L. Baker's outstanding classic, Hoosier Folk Legends (Indiana University Press, 1982), which is required reading for anyone interested in folklore, especially that pertaining to Indiana:
"127. The Loup Garou
"It was reported many years ago that some kind of wild animal was running loose out by the old French graveyard. It was claimed that several queer animals were not animals at all but people that had been bewitched. John Vatchet claimed that one of these animals sprang at him one night as he was going through the old graveyard and that he had quite a tussle for his life.
"Charles Vatchet lived down by the site where the present hospital is located. There were a number of apple trees along this street, and as this was before the time of street lights, the place was very dark. One night as Mr. Vatchet was going home, an object having the shape of a wild animal sprang at Mr. Vatchet. He cut the animal with his knife in his struggle, and the object turned into a man. He gave Mr. Vatchet his name and address (the man was from Evansville), and requested that he should not tell anyone for one year and a day or he would turn back into an animal. When the animals were injured to the extent that brought blood, the charm was broken."
Note (page 246): This werewolf story (Motif D113.1.1) was collected from an elderly French woman in Vincennes. Legends of the loup garou, common among French-Americans and French-Canadians, were brought to the New World from France. See Paul Sebillot, Le Folk-Lore de France (Paris, 1904-1907), I, 284-285; II, 205, 206, 373, 437; III, 54-56; IV, 210, 240, 340; Richard M. Dorson, Bloodstoppers and Bearwalkers (Cambridge, Mass., 1952), pp. 69 ff.; Paul A.W. Wallace, Baptiste Laroque, Legends of French Canada (Toronto, 1923), pp. 42-46. Typically a loup garou is freed from his animal form by cutting him. See Harold Thompson, Body, Boots, and Britches (Philadelphia, 1940), pp. 115-116. Motifs D712.6, "Disenchantment by sounding," and D712.4, "Disenchantment by drawing blood." (Works Progress Administration. Indiana Files of the Federal Writers' Project, Cunningham Memorial Library, Indiana State University, Terre Haute, Indiana.)
EMAIL: rlking@indian.vinu.edu