Wétiko is a cree term that describes a cannibalistic spirit driven by greed, excess and selfish consumption (the term also exists in Algonquin, in Ojibwa as windingo, and in Powhatan as wintiko). According to author Jack Forbes, it is “the greatest epidemic sickness known to man” that he contributed to the destructive behavior of Christopher Columbus and his colonial descendants (Columbus and Other Cannibals: The Wétiko Disease of Exploitation, Imperialism and Terrorism, xvi).