The Buffalo Hunter Hunter

On March 31, 1912, an Indigenous American man attends Arthur’s Sunday service for the second week in a row, which bothers him. The man wears his hair long, suggesting that he never entered a Jesuit school, yet he dresses in the black robes of a priest. He also wears a pair of darkened glasses. Arthur assumes that the man killed the owner of the robes and then put them on because he thought they were required for entry. Arthur speculates that the man has come either out of hunger or curiosity. He also feels as though the man has come to judge him.



At the end of the service, the man waits until he and Arthur are left alone. The man calls Arthur “Three-Persons,” referring to the doctrine of the Holy Trinity of God. He explains that the glasses protect him from the symptoms of an illness caused by bright light. Arthur offers to put out all but one of the candles to make him more comfortable. As they talk, Arthur struggles to make sense of the terms the man uses to refer to animals, like “big-mouth” (wolf) and “blackhorn” (buffalo).

The man explains that he has come to confess. He introduces himself as Good Stab, though as a child he was called Weasel Plume. He is a member of the Small Robes, an Amskapi Pikuni band that forms part of the Blackfeet people. Good Stab is also known by the names Takes No Scalps and The Fullblood. The first of these names appears to distress him. Arthur reassures him that it speaks to his mercy.

Good Stab thinks that Arthur might not believe his confession. He implies that he has been exiled from the Small Robes. Arthur reverently submits himself to Good Stab’s confession by declaring, “I listen with a good heart” (35), marking the first of several conversations between them.

Good Stab was born to Wolf Calf, a Black-Patched Moccasin man, and Curly Hair Woman, a Small Robe who died in labor, during a year marked by falling stars (later suggested to be 1833). As an adult, Good Stab had a family, but they were all killed during a raid by the Black Paint People. This makes Good Stab around 80 years old at the time of his confession, though Arthur had observed that he only looked to be in his thirties or forties.

When Good Stab was 37 years old, a Pikuni named Owl Child killed a napikwan (white) rancher named Malcolm Clarke. US soldiers were dispatched to retaliate against Owl Child, but they committed the Marias Massacre on the camp of Chief Heavy Runner. Owl Child and an assembly of warriors remain fugitive and escape up the Backbone of the World (the Rocky Mountains), a sacred Pikuni site.



Good Stab and his hunting partner, Tall Dog, are also on the Backbone during this time, accompanying two other men—Hunts-to-the-Side and Peasy—at their request. They are trying to reach a wagon train that was recently attacked, hoping to hide the dead soldiers before anyone else finds them. Good Stab regrets not knowing that this excursion would mark the last time he ever left his camp. 

When Good Stab’s party reaches the wagon train, they find some of the dead Napikwan soldiers, though they are dressed like Pikuni. Good Stab keeps two brass buttons from one of the soldiers’ coats in his moccasin. Tall Dog deduces that the ambush was staged to justify further violence against the Pikuni. The party starts cleaning up the site, but when they find a caged man in one of the wagons, it startles them. The man has pale white skin and is intelligent but feral. The cage is covered in tiny crosses.

Good Stab starts calling the caged man the Cat Man because of his feral behavior. The men repeatedly shoot the Cat Man with arrows and guns, but the Cat Man survives every shot. The men decide the Cat Man is a napikwan god but agree that he cannot be killed and buried on their hunting grounds. They soon remember a prophecy that the Great White God will climb Chief Mountain, causing it to collapse and create a haven that will protect the Pikuni from the napikwan. They decide to bring the Cat Man up Chief Mountain to see if he is the Great White God.

While securing Cat Man’s cage for the journey, Good Stab finds beaver pelts in the wagon. He realizes he can trade them in for a repeating firearm. Good Stab wants a repeating gun because his last one was destroyed in an accident that injured a boy named White Teeth. White Teeth’s mother subsequently ostracized Good Stab, forcing him to feel guilty for the accident. Getting a new gun will improve Good Stab’s hunting yield and restore his self-esteem. Because there are only nine pelts in the wagon, Good Stab only needs one more to secure the deal.

On their way to Chief Mountain, the party discovers footprint tracks and discerns that there are 20 napikwan soldiers nearby. An approaching snowstorm further endangers their journey. Peasy suggests they can avoid being detected if they follow the soldiers’ trail. At a steep passage, Good Stab is sent to retrieve wood that can be used as a yoke for the horses. At his age, Good Stab resents being ordered around like an assistant, but he goes anyway, putting his hope in the promise of a new gun.

Good Stab finds a beaver lodge next to a pond. Beyond the pond, a swift-runner (rabbit) directs Good Stab to the wood he needs for the yoke. However, Good Stab is so determined to get the new gun that he scares the swift-runner away. He destroys the beaver lodge and kills one of them for its pelt. Good Stab now sees this as the moment he condemned his soul since killing beavers is forbidden among his people.

Good Stab hides the beaver pelt so that he can retrieve it on his way to the traders. He suddenly hears gunfire and races back to the wagon, where his companions engage in battle with the soldiers. Tall Dog has been shot. Hunts-to-the-Side is already dead, having failed to use his gun against the soldiers. Good Stab gets shot in the shoulder. Peasy calls the attention of the soldiers, singing a death song. The soldiers fire on him at once, inspiring Good Stab to sing his own death song. He is too scared to commit to it. As Peasy dies, he releases the Cat Man from his cage. 

The Cat Man swiftly kills four soldiers in a fit of violence. He takes one of the soldiers and drinks his blood. Good Stab retrieves a repeating firearm from one of the dead soldiers and then uses it to shoot at more soldiers. This catches the Cat Man’s attention, who rushes to Good Stab and drinks his blood as well. Another soldier stops them, who shoots at the Cat Man with a cannon that tears him in half. The soldier then fatally shoots Good Stab with his handgun.

The Cat Man’s blood pours over Good Stab’s face. Good Stab’s dying thoughts are of who will find them first: carrion birds or the Pikuni.

In his journal, Arthur writes about a cake he received from one of his parishioners, which he quickly finishes on his own. He continues to think about his conversation with Good Stab, whom he finds both interesting and mischievous. Soon after Good Stab’s first confession, Arthur went through his trunk to locate an old letter he had written in his youth. He has deliberately hidden the letter away for years because of how much it reminds him of a past he has been trying to escape. When he retrieves the letter, he assures himself that Good Stab’s arrival isn’t connected to his past. He throws the letter into the fireplace.

Arthur points out the historical inaccuracies in Good Stab’s retelling, from the misidentification of the cannon used in the battle to the details surrounding the hunt for Owl Child. He finally calls Good Stab’s battle with the soldiers a complete fabrication but promises to look past these oversights on the grounds of eliciting Good Stab’s confession in good faith.

Another skinned corpse is found outside the city. Sheriff Lacy Doyle calls Arthur to bless the body. Once again, the corpse’s face has been painted yellow and black. Livinius Clarkson suggests that the killer is more careful with painting now, though he clarifies that he is referring generally to Indigenous American people. He explains the old practices of buffalo hunting—including lining up the carcasses and poisoning them to discourage scavengers—and how Indigenous people would sneak into the hunters’ camps to skin the buffalo, painting the carcasses’ faces as a sign of respect. This bolsters their suspicion that the killer is an Indigenous American person, though the motives remain unclear. The sheriff lets his dog bite into the corpse’s meat.

Arthur shares that after his conversation with Good Stab, he checked the chapel offering plate and was shocked to find two brass buttons, much like the ones Good Stab discussed in his confession.

The sheriff’s dog dies, confirming that the recently discovered corpse was poisoned. This rumor spreads to Arthur’s congregation, which worsens his distraction throughout the next service. Good Stab is once again present.

Arthur writes in his journal that he feels he must record as much as he can from Good Stab’s stories, believing the Blackfeet will soon become extinct. He starts referring to these transcriptions as “The Gospel of Good Stab” to distinguish them from his entries.

After the service, Arthur serves Good Stab a bowl of rabbit stew. Good Stab recalls the Marias Massacre, which happened at the same time as the massacre that killed Good Stab. Arthur invites him to continue his confession.