Uploaded June 2023 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
In this video, we explore the infamous story of Swift Runner, one of Canada’s most notorious cannibals, who killed and ate his wife and children in the winter of early 1879. Were Swift Runner’s crimes the actions of a desperate man driven to madness by starvation? Did the Cree hunter suffer from a psychiatric disorder which anthropologists call “Wendigo psychosis”? Or, as his fellow Cree believed, was Swift Runner possessed by the Wendigo, the evil cannibal spirit of the North?
0:00:00 – Front Matter
0:00:18 - The Hanging
0:03:06 - Good Sources
0:06:06 - Swift Runner
0:08:11 - The Wendigo
0:12:11 - Swift Runner’s Appearance at St. Albert
0:15:53 - Discovery of Swift Runner’s Camp
0:21:20 - The Confession
0:27:57 - The Trial
0:32:05 - Wendigo, or Wendigo Psychosis?
Co-Producer, Production Designer, and Cameraman: Will van der Sloot
Wendigo artwork by Tom
JustTomsArt.com
In this video, we explore the infamous story of Swift Runner, one of Canada’s most notorious cannibals, who killed and ate his wife and children in the winter of early 1879. Were Swift Runner’s crimes the actions of a desperate man driven to madness by starvation? Did the Cree hunter suffer from a psychiatric disorder which anthropologists call “Wendigo psychosis”? Or, as his fellow Cree believed, was Swift Runner possessed by the Wendigo, the evil cannibal spirit of the North?
0:00:00 – Front Matter
0:00:18 - The Hanging
0:03:06 - Good Sources
0:06:06 - Swift Runner
0:08:11 - The Wendigo
0:12:11 - Swift Runner’s Appearance at St. Albert
0:15:53 - Discovery of Swift Runner’s Camp
0:21:20 - The Confession
0:27:57 - The Trial
0:32:05 - Wendigo, or Wendigo Psychosis?
Co-Producer, Production Designer, and Cameraman: Will van der Sloot
Wendigo artwork by Tom
JustTomsArt.com
