Jack Fiddler, Wendigo's last hunter

(article by Gian Mario Mollar, originally published on Far west)

His name was Ojibwa Zhauwuno-Geezhigo-Gaubow, "He who stands out against the southern sky", and, in the Cree dialect, Maisaninnine o Mesnawetheno, "Man of Style," but the white men of the Hudson Bay Company nicknamed him Jack Fiddler. Born between 1830 and 1840 in the wild and lush land northwest of Lake Ontario, the son of a respected and feared shaman, he himself became the leader and shaman of the Sandy Lake Sucker tribe. At the time of his childhood, the region was deprived of animals and men, as the Hudson's Bay Company, dedicated to the fur trade, had now abandoned the outpost after years of intensive and indiscriminate hunting that had impoverished the territory. The Sucker tribe was thus forced to move further south, to Big Trout Lake, to trade and the young Zhauwuno-Geezhigo-Gaubow he worked for some time as a boatman, to transport furs to the York Factory.Β 

Robert Fiddler, son of Jack.

The lack of interest in those lands was only temporary: towards 1860, the number of fur animals increased again, and with them the Company returned, which reopened the trading posts on Island Lake. The Sucker tribe, despite having relations with the neighboring Pelican and Sturgeons tribes, lived rather isolated from Western civilization, but he, from time to time, went to the outpost to trade furs and, in the course of these sporadic visits, probably earned the nickname of Fiddler, "Violinist". Growing up, Jack married five wives, who bore him eight sons and five daughters. Polygamy, more than dictated by unbridled instincts as was believed at the time, was a necessity for those tribes, as for males violent death or due to accidents in the forest was not an uncommon case. As his father before him, Jack Fiddler was known for his shamanic abilities: he had visions, healed the sick, knew how to cast curses or protect from evil, but, above all, he was able to face the fearsome Wendigo.

The Wendigo

What is a Wendigo (o Windigo, Weteko, Weetiko, depending on the dialects)? After millennia in the forest, Algonquian mythology personifies the brutality of nature in a tremendous monster, with a skeletal body, with large claws and sharp fangs. Writer and teacher Ojibwai Basil Johnston gives us a rather gruesome description:

β€œThe Wendigo was thin enough to be emaciated, his dry skin seemed stretched over his bones. With his bones protruding from his skin, his ashen complexion and his eyes deeply set in their sockets, the Wendigo looked like a bony corpse just unearthed from the grave. What remained of his lips was tattered and bleeding […] Dirty and with purulent flesh, the Wendigo gave off a strange and repulsive smell of decay and decay, of death and corruption. "

In other tales, the Wendigo is described as a giant covered in hair and endowed with great strength and, in still others, to these humanoid characteristics are added a skull and deer antlers. In any case, the Wendigo is associated with winter, frost and hunger. He has a heart of ice and an insatiable hunger, which is extinguished only with the consumption of human flesh [cf. Psychosis in the shamanic vision of the Algonquians: The Windigo]. The Wendigo is an exceptional hunter, which does not abandon its prey either during the day or during the night. He moves quickly, so much so that his feet wear out from the friction with the ground, which then fall and pop up spontaneously.

But the Wendigo is more than that: Algernon Blackwood, in one of his masterful and chilling gothic stories, describes him as "the personification of the Call of the Forest, which some natures feel to the point of being destroyed". As such, it is configured as an evil spirit that possesses human beings, especially when they remain alone in the darkness of the trees, in the "desolate splendor of remote and lonely forestsΒ», Deprived of food and desperate, powerless in the face of the violence of a nature that overwhelms them. The desire for human flesh is, in those cases, the only alternative to certain death and it is the cannibalistic act that initiates the metamorphosis into a monster.

Even within the tribe, however, individuals can be affected by demonic psychosis. Symptoms are creeping at first: the affected individual gradually becomes unable to carry out their tribal duties, becomes isolated, loses appetite and interest in others, to the point of wanting to get away or be turned away or killed. Gradually, the possessed person develops the same symptoms as the manita, or spirit, who possesses him, his heart becomes ice and his feet red-hot, and the hunger for the flesh of his fellow men becomes irrepressible. When the transformation takes place, his strength and cruelty will be such as to endanger the entire tribe.

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in Relations des JΓ©suites de la Nouvelle-France, written by Jesuit missionaries in the second half of the 1600s, there is a paragraph that very well describes this rampant psychosis among the Algonquians:

β€œThese poor men (according to what they told us) were struck by a disease unknown to us, but not very unusual among the people we were looking for. They are not affected by lunatism [archaic term for depression], hypochondria or frenzy; but rather they have a combination of all these kinds of diseases, which strikes their imaginations and causes them more than canine hunger. This makes them so hungry for human flesh that they launch themselves on women, children, and even men, like real werewolves, and devour them voraciously, unable to calm or satiate their appetite - they are always on the lookout for new prey, and the more they eat the hungrier they get. This disease had attacked our delegates; and, since death is among these peoples the only remedy to stop such murders, they were killed to stop the course of their madness. "

It is interesting to note that the phenomenon did not concern only tribes without contact with whites, but also natives more integrated with Western culture. In the winter of 1878, for example, the case of a trapper Alberta, of Cree origins, Fast Runner, who, being isolated in a shack, butchered and ate his wife and five children, although the emergency reserves were easily accessible. The unfortunate then ended up confessing his sins and was executed in Fort Saskatchewan. G.Generally, individuals affected by the disorder are particularly greedy, or gluttonous: theΒ Wendigo also represents this uncontrolled lust, and it is no coincidence that the natives, in describing the predatory attitude of white men in their lands, often resort to this metaphor.

On closer inspection, therefore, the Wendigo is not simply a monster, but it is also a word that summarizes both the cause and the effect, both the disease and the person affected by it. How, then, to interpret this mysterious figure? A cryptozoologist might imagine a tangible being, and delight in finding similarities with other shaggy beings seen in American forests, such as the Big Foot or Sasquatch, even if the latter lack the wickedness and ruthlessness of the Wendigo. By enlarging the campor, similar figures are found in many Indo-European cultures, such as the god Cernunnus worshiped by Celtic druids [cf. Cernunno, Odin, Dionysus and other deities of the 'Winter Sun'], the Pan of the ancient Greeks, the Krampus of Trentino [cfr. From Pan to the Devil: the 'demonization' and the removal of ancient European cults]. All these figures belong to the archetype ofhomo selvaticus, the savage who lives in the woods, but, although not devoid of disturbing aspects, they are still far from the cannibal fury that characterizes the Wendigo.

The research becomes more interesting if we identify the Wendigo with a sort of possession, which pervades minds made sensitive by external conditions, such as isolation and hunger, not uncommon for a hunter-gatherer people, or by an inner disposition. Also in this case, the parallels with other cultures are many, but they become more stringent. Just think of the vampires, who share with the ice-hearted monster the inextinguishable thirst for human blood, or the werewolves, who remember its bestiality and uncontrollable voracity, with all the plethora of folkloric beings related to them, such as , for example the furious warriors Berserker of Norse mythology [cf. Metamorphosis and ritual battles in the myth and folklore of the Eurasian populations]. Another equally interesting interpretative path can be the psychological one. On closer inspection, in fact, the "heart of ice" of Wendigo is a metaphor that perfectly describes many aspects - excluding cannibalism, of course - of depression: a sense of apathy, of estrangement from the social life of the group which is expressed in the inability to feed and sleep, which affects men and women alike.

Wendigo's last hunter

nowΒ that the shadow of the Wendigo has loomed more clearly, let's go back to the story of Jack Fiddler. In his lifetime, the sorcerer and chief Sucker killed fourteen wendigos. Some were reportedly sent against his tribe by hostile shamans, others manifested themselves within the tribe, suddenly developing an incurable and all-consuming desire for human flesh. Among the Assiniboine, the Cree and the Ojibwa there is a satirical and apotropaic dance, by performing which the fear of contagion is exorcised and, at the same time, the seriousness of this taboo is reaffirmed. However, when the infection had taken possession of an individual, it was too late to resort to dance or other treatments: it was necessary to act before the individual completely transformed into the being who possessed it, because at that point it would have been much more difficult. counter it.

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In some cases, it was the sick themselves who asked to be killed, in others it was their families who did it, but always the final decision rested with the council of the Elders, the Elders, who consulted with Jack Fiddler to decide what to do. Considered outside of magical and tribal thinking, the killing of the Wendigo appears to be a brutal and merciless euthanasia practice. It must be considered, however, that it was an evil for which there were no remedies and that the shaman, by suppressing the sick person, not only aimed to spare the individual further suffering, but acted in the interest of the public good, aiming to exclude the spread of a contagion within the community. In general, the patient was strangled and his body burned to prevent others from becoming infected. Defeating a Wendigo after the transformation, however, involved much greater risks: it was necessary to fight it with fire, to try to melt its heart of ice, or pierce the heart itself with a spear.

Jack Fiddler practiced this type of ritual many times, and in some cases, it didn't have to be easy for him: while on a fur trade expedition, he had to kill his own brother Peter.Β Flett and, in 1906, when he was already old, it was the turn of Wahsakapeequay, his daughter-in-law. The young woman was in a desperate psychophysical condition, and so Jack and brother Joseph, after consulting with the elders, decided to resort to her extreme remedy, strangling her. In 1907, the Sucker community received a visit from two Mounties, the famous Β«Red JacketsΒ» of Mounted Police Canadian. In all likelihood, this was not a casual visit, as Canada was looking in the far north for new land for settlers. The two mounties they had learned from Norman (Owl) Rae, an in-law of the Fiddlers, learned of the ritual strangulation and had rushed to enforce the law. It mattered little that, for many of the Suckers, they were the first white men ever met: the two brothers were arrested and detained inΒ Norway House awaiting trial. Not only that, before leaving the village, the two diligent guardians of the order declared that the men had to abandon polygamy, giving up "extra" wives. In August, the news began to appear in the newspapers, with sensational headlines, which spoke of savage customs and devil worship: the Toronto Globe, for example, announced "Dark Acts of the Keewatin Indians - Strangle and burn sick friendsΒ».

Those who were better informed of the facts, however, made different considerations. Edward Sanders, officer of the Royal North West Mounted Police, recommended dropping the case, because "it is clear that the evidence does not justify the indictment". Still others, such as Sergeant David Bennet Smith, emphasized the venerable age of Jack Smith, who was then approaching eighty: "Jack Fiddler is very old… he falls and his pulse and heart rate are very weak on these occasions". Methodist missionary Joseph Albert George Lousley also noted the shaman's composure and dignity: "He does not give the slightest sign of hostility or hatred towards men or God, nor of rebellion or disbelief, he is a calm man full of dignity, who has lived his life with a clear conscience.Β».

Despite these unconventional voices, times and places were certainly not propitious to cultural relativism and the records of the trial of Jack Fiddler - which have come down to us in full - clearly testify to this cultural climate. The phrase that best sums up the concept is the one pronounced by magistrate Aylesworth Bowen Perry: "no pagan belief can justify what is prohibited by law". The fact that the accused was not even aware of the violated law is a secondary detail, to be resolved with "executive clemencyWhich does not undermine the universality of the law itself. The interrogation of the witness for the prosecution, Owl Rae, is particularly interesting from this point of view:

QUESTION: Have you heard anyone oppose the killing of the woman?
REPLY: No.

D: Do you have any news of others from that tribe or in the vicinity who were executed in the same way?
R: I heard they did.

D: Do you know why they do it?
R: They were afraid that, being sick, they would turn into cannibals, man-eaters, and destroy them. This is why they do it.

D: What kind of sick people are put to death?
R: I do not know.

D: How do they decide when it is necessary to put a person to death for a disease?
R: I don't know how it is decided.

D: Why didn't you say anything when you saw that they were strangling her?
R: I could have said something - I don't know what the law says.

D: So was it the gang law they were applying?
R: That's the law, from what I've heard.

D: Who did you hear it from?
R: I don't know - everyone says it.

D: Is it a common topic of conversation among the tribes?
R: Yup.

D: Do you know anything about the laws of the white man?
R: No.

D: Have they ever taught you to distinguish between what's right and what's wrong?
R: No, they never taught me.

D: Have you ever seen a white man before this time, where you came to Norway House?
R: I have sometimes seen a white man who used to come to Island Lake.

D: Did none of these white men ever tell you about good and evil, or did they have it translated to you?
R: No, I haven't really talked to him at all.

D: Have you ever talked to him about anything else?
R: No.

D: Have you ever listened to a missionary or talked to one of them?
R: I once saw a missionary in Sandy Lake.

D: Did you hear him speak or did you listen to what he said?
R: Yup.

D: Was he talking to the Sucker tribe or the Crane tribe?
R: I do not remember. I saw a missionary but I don't know what tribe he was talking to.

D: Don't you know who was there?
R: There were a lot of people there.

D: Was there also the prisoner, or was the chief of the Sucker tribe?
R: I do not know. I hardly remember. I don't know if they were there or not.

D: You claimed that the chief [Jack Fiddler] and prisoner Joseph were present at the strangulation. Did the prisoner say something to the Chief or to the woman while he was strangling her?
R: After they strangled the woman, the prisoner and the Chief started talking, saying they would do what was right for the woman, and that they would bury her properly.

D: Did they say anything else?
R: No.

D: Did they say anything before strangling her?
R: I didn't hear them say anything.

D: Did they say anything before strangling her?
R: No.

Reading it, one notices not only a precise accusatory strategy, namely that of demonstrating that Jack and Joseph Fiddler were aware of violating the law, but also a sort of paternalistic sense of superiority. The natives are considered unable to distinguish between good and evil, unless some whites take the time to come and teach them. Jack Fiddler never went to trial. On 30 September, after 15 weeks of imprisonment, the chieftain managed to escape and went into hiding. Later that same day, they found him hanged from a tree. Brother Joseph Pesequan did not have a better fate: despite his many extenuating circumstances, he was sentenced to hang. The appeals, based on his "ignorance" of Canadian law and on his respect for traditional rules, were finally successful, but the news of the commutation of the sentence arrived in 1909, three days later than his death.

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Shortly thereafter, the Sucker tribe was induced to sign treaties and submit to Canadian law. Jack's son, Robert Fiddler, succeeded him at the head of the tribe and settled with it in Deer Lake and, later, in Sandy Lake. The Wendigo phenomenon waned more and more as the twentieth century progressed, probably due to increasingly frequent contacts with white communities and the progressive loss of community identity of the natives.

In conclusion, the story of Jack Fiddler, in addition to containing interesting ethnographic elements, is the story of a confrontation (and, unfortunately, of a clash and oppression) between radically different cultures. The "white" culture felt not only entitled, but even obliged to amend the "wild" behavior of the natives, as if it were a mission, the "burden of the white manOf which Rudyard Kipling spoke. Behind the philosophical-religious confrontation, however, there were much more prosaic interests, such as the exploitation of the earth and its resources. Although obscure and semi-forgotten by the official chronicles, this episode presents us with far more far-reaching and burning topical problems.


Essays


Italian Literature

  • Algernon Blackwood, The Wendigo, 1910, in Collected Works, E-artnow, 2015
  • Gianfranco Manfredi - Pasquale Frisenda, Windigo, Magic Wind n. 8, Bonelli Editore, 1998
  • Adam Neville, The Ritual, Pan Books, 2011

Cinema

  • Antonia Bird, The insatiable, 1999
  • Larry Fessenden, Wendigo, 2001
  • Jack Heller, Dark was the night, 2014

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