Swift Runner Cannibalized His Family

Wendigo psychosis is a disputed culture-bound syndrome historically reported among Algonquian-speaking First Nations in Canada, characterized by an intense craving for human flesh and fear of becoming a cannibal. During the winter of 1878, a Plains Cree trapper from Alberta named Swift Runner lost his eldest son to starvation before killing and eating his wife and five remaining children. Because emergency food supplies were available at a Hudson's Bay Company post only 25 miles away, the case was classified as wendigo psychosis rather than survival cannibalism. Swift Runner later confessed, and authorities executed him at Fort Saskatchewan.

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