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Swift Runner, one of the Canadian Indians,was executed recently at Fort Saskatchewan, in the North West Territory. His crime was killing and eating his mother, his wife and seven children, some time during last Winter, and he was convicted on his own confession. Or-dinarily, an Indian’s affection for his childrentranscends anything known to civilized life.He is also a kind and devoted husband, but ho regards his mother os having performed the full duty of woman in giving birth to himself. It is difficult to understand how Swift Runner, though on the verge of starvation, couJd havebrought himself to the gastronomical contemplation of liia family! The North American Indian abhors the. idea of eating human flesh,.and regards his dead with a superstitious reverence that cannot be shaken. He never ceases mourning for the departed of^his relatives, and when his child dies he wraps a lock of its hair in his “medicine,” which then becomes the “spirit” of the infant, and this abides with' him always. In his operation Swift. Runner developed a perversion of every instinct of an Indian. He overcame his natural affectionfor those dependent upon him, and then overcame every superstition of his soul. The only reasonable deduction is, that the man was in-sane, a fact, which if it be a fact, should have made itself manifest at the trial, as a crazy Indian never has a lucid interval In fchoir insanity, their natures are inverted. Everything is upside down. They are the diametrical opponents of sane Indians; are warlike when there is every enoouragemenfc to peace, and peaceful when threatened., So, if Swift Runner wore non compos, his conduct is explicable on that basis, white if he were sane, there is no satisfactory solution. of his wide departure from the dominant and rigid instincts of Indian nature.*----«N*Acting. Superintendent Henrv Tj
Newspaper Details
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Brooklyn, New York, US
Thu, Jan 15, 1880
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 23 Nov 2019
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