Case file · Folklore / legend
Jack Fiddler and the windigo trial
In 1907 the North-West Mounted Police arrested Jack Fiddler, an Anishininew (Oji-Cree) leader at Sandy Lake, Ontario, for killing people he believed were turning windigo.
1907 CE · 53.06, -93.34 · status: official
The account
Fiddler said he had ended some 14 windigo threats in his life, often at the request of the families. He took his own life in custody; his brother Joseph was convicted in 1908, and the sentence was commuted. The case is a key record of how windigo belief worked as a community protection against famine cannibalism.