Swift Runner

by Colin Argyle Thomson

The true story of a Native man who murdered and consumed his own family in 1879.

Here was Swift Runner, a man touched by destiny's crooked finger. A complex set of circumstances, changes and predispositions turned that worthy man into a raging cannibal-murderer whose crimes remain unequaled in Canadian history. It was as if rough, frontier surgery had removed his soul. In its place grew an evil spirit or force so strong, so irrestible that the giant hunter, whose angers and frustrations had led him to a suffocating miasma and madness, could not stop his slaughter of 9 people he loved.

114 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 1984

Reviews

[Fishface · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, what a horrible case. The title of the book is also the name of the man pictured in shackles on the front cover; he was arrested after it came out that he'd killed and eaten nine members of his family. This is more of a historical treatise than a true crime story, but it has elements of TC, some great diagnostic clues to what leads a man to be susceptible to the Windigo, and a fine study of the differing reactions of the Indian and white reactions to the crime, which remained the worst in Canadian history for many years to come. The writing is amusingly purple but it's still a very short read. The big bonus in this book is the map of Canada showing all the Windigo cases the author was able to find, with a list of the names of the afflicted. Don't read this the same night you watch THE SHINING, as I foolishly did.

[Mandy-Lyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, I’ll say I am grateful that someone took the time to research and account for this very potent chapter in Canada’s history… the magnitude of this work lies in it’s communication of the truly horrifying societal and psychological factors that shaped Canada’s foundation. Though it functions at times as a “making a murderer” type exposé, intentionally or not, it does successfully translate how deep and unfathomable racial and cultural abuse (and genocide) was THE gateway to the rise of white power in the west, highlighting historical truths that are often ignored - without hiding any bodies in it’s process. With that said, I found this author to be a real nosebleed to read. The actual facts as researched feel cut and glued together in purpose of “the plot”, the remaining prose a tiring lope between repetitive sensationalism and unsolicited opinion veiled as fact indulgence. For instance, upon not knowing the names of Swift Runner’s immediate family (and ostensibly, his victims) the author decides to create a compelling little list of self made “indian names” (such as Little Bird and Sun On The Mountain). He admits this in the margins, if you are astute enough to fact check the footnotes.

While the author does seem to basically comprehend the substantial deeper significance to Swift Runner’s life, death and actions - he takes so many liberties in describing and personifying these actions that I often threw the book down in disgust. He repeats the center themes over and over and over and over and over… and seems to personally (and almost sensually) indulge in fantasizing and fictionalizing the feelings and actions of a man that he never knew and a crime that he was not witness to. Instead of hearing what occurred on record, as we are made to feel is happening in establishing chapters, we are instead often and suddenly placed into romantic death fantasies - such as one, by example, where “a child’s lifeless eyes became dark and increasingly empty as his life ebbed from him, the pain of each breath growing duller, his last attempts at living letting red touch the corners of his flowered mouth”. It’s jarring to be thrown in and out of blatant story telling within a historical account… so much so that one is forced to take a moment to wonder what the author was hoping to achieve with it. If I had to guess, I’d say we are dealing with a white college professor with unsatisfied fantasies of being a horror writer. What does that have to do with Swift Runner? Well… he’s a very interesting and controversial figure to project upon, ain’t he? “Such a horrifying story with so much death and gore”… and heck: Ol’ Swifty sure can’t speak for himself.

Thompson seems to infer himself above the dehumanization of racial stereotypes, while simultaneously leaning into them with disassociated intensity. The self indulgence of that, the revisionism… and the overtly sensational fantasy cast that the author bestows on what he acknowledges to be extremely horrendous governmental structures of abuse (how many times he waxes on the scarlet coats of the nobel founding RCMP who executed Swift Runner)… it just made me feel sick. Swift Runner is a page of history that all people should learn. His story is a pure, true tear to heart at the foundational layers of systemic abuse that the Canadian Government has levied against the First Nation. His story deserved to be told and still, yearns to be heard, to be soulfully felt. I just wish it hadn’t been left to this guy to write it. Bottom line: this recount of unfathomable cultural abuse and it’s most horrifying repercussions is rife with the inequalities that it suggests it’s revealing and telling on. Definitely read it. Just don’t expect too much.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book tells the true story of a Cree trapper named Swift Runner, who brutally murdered and cannibalized his family in 1878.