The Buffalo Hunter Hunter

Arthur smokes cigarettes in the chapel to calm himself down, wondering if he can use them against Good Stab. He is startled when the altar statue of the crucified Christ coughs from the smoke, revealing himself as Good Stab. Good Stab shows Arthur that the parishioners have left food outside the chapel to support him during his isolation. The city’s dogs have eaten all the food.

Good Stab withholds the location of the Jesus statue but insinuates that he has beheaded it. He and Arthur challenge each other over their respective religions, which escalates into a debate over the crimes of the US against Indigenous American communities. Arthur alludes to the murders happening in Miles City, prompting Good Stab to imply that Doyle is already dead. 

Arthur offers himself in the place of the other people that Good Stab plans to kill. Good Stab only laughs. They talk about the eradication of buffalo and the buffalo hunters, the fact that buffalo are the only animals that ease up around Good Stab, and the other Pikuni elders whom Good Stab has fed on. Finally, Good Stab reveals that he is there to remind Arthur about a past event he has tried to repress. Arthur invites him to continue his confession.

After Good Stab leaves, Arthur finds Christ’s head on the stoop.

Good Stab takes two years to recover from his reaction to Wolf Calf’s smoking pipe. Napi looks after him, feeding him with his blood and teaching him English through stories of the world’s creation. Good Stab suspects Napi did this so that he could track down Arthur and pursue justice for his actions. 

Napi urges Good Stab to hunt again. Though Good Stab tries to feed on Napi again, he is too weak to grapple with him and thus collapses. The next time he wakes up, Napi is already gone. Good Stab resumes his life and forgets about Napi, only recalling the time he spent there whenever he passes by the site of Napi’s lodge.

At a whiskey fort, Good Stab uses a mirror to observe his transformation. His facial stubble has disappeared, and his hair has turned black, signaling that he has become Pikuni again. To acclimate himself to feeding on Indigenous American people, Good Stab feeds on a Rabbit Man with a broken leg. He then spends time with his buffalo herd, helping to raise their calves. 

One day, the raven spirit-animal associated with Happy leads Good Stab back to the Fat Melters camp. He finds a boy who is trying to chop down a tree. The boy, who dutifully looks after his band’s horses, asks Good Stab questions about the tree, implying that he is curious about its medicinal properties. Good Stab promises to help him.

Good Stab goes hunting and finds a field full of skinned blackhorns, which he understands is a trap. The hunters start firing on him, though Good Stab soon realizes that the hunters are Pikuni. Good Stab is horrified to learn that the Pikuni are resorting to napikwan hunting methods, but he realizes they are doing it to trade for hunting and cooking tools. He feeds on one hunter and then follows the others as they continue their hunt. He scares off the buffalo so that the hunters can’t exploit them and then proceeds to a camp of wolf hunters that have been buried under the snow. Good Stab takes their hunting and cooking tools and gives them to the Fat Melters’ boy.

The boy recognizes Good Stab as The Fullblood from Happy’s stories. When the boy reveals that he was present at the Marias Massacre, Good Stab asks him to share what happened. US soldiers held the boy hostage and promised not to kill him if he did not alert the camp. US Scout Joe Kipp tried to inform the men that it wasn’t Owl Child’s camp. When Heavy Runner came out with his documents to prove they were protected, the other scout, influenced by a tall soldier with his feet in bags, fired at Heavy Runner.

Good Stab learns where the boy’s lodge is and sneaks into it while the boy tends to the horses. He finds the boy’s sister, who had been severely injured in the head in the past. He hesitates to feed on her but finally does it at sunrise. However, he accidentally alerts the camp to his presence, and the Rabbit Men attack him. After pinning him down, they take his scalp and trample him with their horses. The young girl’s blood quickly heals him.

Happy steps forward, recognizing Good Stab from their previous encounter. He accuses Good Stab of killing the sister of the boy, whose name is revealed as Yellow Kidney. Happy shares that Wolf Calf asked the Rabbit Men to find him. Good Stab suggests that they should tell Wolf Calf that he is dead. He soon leaves and stays away from the Fat Melters for a year.

The blood from Yellow Kidney’s sister sustains Good Stab for a long time. He realizes he enjoyed its taste more than the blood of other people. Some months later, he feeds on the blood of a bear that ate a Pikuni boy, which gives him Pikuni dreams. He continues to hunt through the seasons, sometimes feeding on stray Pikuni. One night, a raven leads him back to the Fat Melters. He brings an antelope for Yellow Kidney’s family. Yellow Kidney is nowhere to be found, so Good Stab goes searching for him. He finds Yellow Kidney dead on Weasel Plume’s skin, both having been killed by another creature like Good Stab. Good Stab flees from the warriors who assume that he killed the boy.

During his confession, Good Stab insinuates that he knows where Arthur hides his journal.

On May 1, Arthur writes that Good Stab has deduced his identity. He adds that it has been weeks since the proof of that identity—the letter he had hidden for years—was destroyed. He distances himself from the truth that Good Stab is trying to elicit from him. He also admits that he now fully believes Good Stab’s account despite its fantastical elements. He does not believe, however, that Good Stab was framed for the death of Yellow Kidney. 

Arthur decides he will abandon his parish. He does not write where he plans to go, fearing that Good Stab will use the journal to track him.

Arthur attempts to flee from Miles City. While camping out on the river, the appearance of the headless Christ statue startles him. Good Stab pushes the statue into Arthur’s fire, destroying it. Good Stab tells Arthur that he still must deliver his final confession, which he insists should be done at the chapel. Good Stab bites Arthur but does not drain him. 

When Arthur regains consciousness, he is back in the chapel, tied to the cross. Good Stab lights a candle and shows him that he has lined up the corpses of his Miles City victims on the front pews, beginning with Sheriff Doyle, Livinius Clarkson, and the lodging house regulars. Good Stab sets the corpse of Livinius aflame to illuminate the next row. He reveals that he has also exhumed the corpses of Benjamin Flowers and his sons. He asks Arthur questions that allude to his secret relationship with the Flowers family.

Arthur provokes Good Stab with the murder of Weasel Plume, deducing that the Cat Man had killed him. Good Stab confirms that the Cat Man had survived his death after all and had been spending the intervening years regaining his strength. Good Stab asks about the loss of Arthur’s toes, insinuating that Arthur was the one who urged Joe Cobell to shoot Heavy Runner, beginning the Marias Massacre. Though his conscience is guilty before God, Arthur justifies that he was acting under the orders of General Sheridan and that he had never killed any Indigenous American people. They both scream out of guilt and grief for the massacre. 

Agitated over his attempts to explain the endeavor to build a new nation, Arthur cries that the people they killed were “just Indians.” Good Stab points out that his thinking would be hypocritical if he explained the Flowers murders away by saying they were “just napikwans.” Good Stab refuses to feed on Arthur because he doesn’t want to absorb Arthur’s qualities. He reveals that Benjamin Flowers is Arthur’s son and that Arthur Flowers was named after him. On the night after the massacre, Arthur had sex with a red-haired woman, who gave birth to Benjamin.

Good Stab tells Arthur the last part of his confession. He later cuts Arthur down when Arthur has fallen asleep. Two weeks later, Arthur is still in Miles City. He seals himself inside the church and refuses to admit his parishioners inside for services. Cordelia abandons Arthur. Arthur justifies his actions as his crusade against the demonic monstrosity of Good Stab.