Wendigo Psychosis: When Culture Creates Mental Illness
In the winter of 1878, a Cree man named Swift Runner arrived at a Hudson’s Bay Company trading post in Alberta, Canada. He was emaciated, nearly dead from starvation. He said his family—his wife and six children—had all died during the harsh winter. He’d buried them in the snow. He was the only survivor. The authorities were suspicious. Swift Runner showed signs of starvation, but not as severe as someone who’d watched his entire family die of hunger should show. ...