Wolf Creek Characters: #3, Charley Blackfeather, Scout

WOLF CREEK is probably the most unique western book series ever produced.

Here's how Charles Whipple describes it at his review over at the Western Fictioneers website:

"This is an adventure written by several Western Fictioneers authors, the best the genre’s got, dead or alive. This is a short novel. Know why? It only introduces Wolf Creek and its citizens. Yes, it reaches a satisfying conclusion. But you end up sitting on the edge of your chair reaching for the next volume. While a handful of authors wrote this book, the story fits together well. While there are differences in style, they fit together well. And while Bloody Trail is a fitting beginning to a new series, it also promises many more rousing stories to come."

 

The book is available now at AMAZON and B&N ... you can get more info on the series at the official Wolf Creek WEB SITE .  You can find other reviews below:

 

Western Fiction Review

Singular Points

 

 

On this blog I have been sharing some inside info on some of the series' characters. This time- one of the two in the series that are written by me.

 

 

CHARLEY BLACKFEATHER

Scout

(Troy D. Smith)

 

Charley Blackfeather's father was a runaway slave from Georgia taken in by the Seminoles in Florida (having a Seminole mother makes you a member of the tribe.) Charley grew up in Seminole territory in the Everglades. As a teen and young man he fought against the US in the Seminole Wars, in the band of Black Seminole leader John Horse, one of the last bands to surrender- the US removed them to Indian Territory in 1848. Like most anti-slavery Creeks and Seminoles, he fled to Kansas in 1862 and joined the Union Army (Creek and Seminole governments were pro-Confederate.) Charley's wife and children perished during the Flight of Opothleyahola, when pro-Union Indian refugees were attacked by Confederate forces.

Now he works part-time as a cavalry scout, and makes extra funds by trapping and hunting for hides. He has no permanent base, spending most of his time on the prairie or with the cavalry when there is trouble. He drifts into Wolf Creek fairly often, to barter with Casto Haston the tanner and have a drink or two at Asa’s place.

Appearance: 6’2”, 200 lbs, all muscle. Seminole / African American- wears a single long braid. Most likely to be dressed in canvas pants, high-topped beaded moccasins, black vest but no shirt except in winter (then he favors a white shirt and a sheepskin coat), and a blue cavalry slouch hat (with insignia) adorned with a single crow feather. Carries an Army Colt, a Bowie knife, a steel tomahawk he can throw with deadly accuracy, and a ’66 Winchester yellow boy. He also carries a bow (for those quiet jobs) that he keeps on his horse.

Speaks English like any average black man from the South. Speaks Muscogee (Creek) as a second native language, and fluent Spanish. Also fluent in Cherokee and Choctaw, and pretty good Chickasaw, Cheyenne, Arapaho and Kiowa –with some very basic Comanche and Apache. Does not read or write.

Charley is around fifty years old, but looks 10 or 12 years younger. If Wolf Creek were
a TV series he'd be played by Dennis Haysbert, of 24 and The Unit.

 

CAPTAIN TOM DENT

(supporting character)

 

Captain Tom Dent, age 30, has fought Indians his whole adult life, and has learned a thing or two. He is clean-shaven, 5’11’’, short brown hair. Born: 1841, Johnstown PA, son of a coal miner. When Tom was 18 he and his older brother Clay headed west to be "59ers," during the Pike's Peak gold rush. Clay was killed in a skirmish with Cheyenne Indians. In 1861, Tom joined the Colorado militia and served under Colonel John Chivington. For heroism during the Battle of Glorietta Pass, NM (fighting Rebs, not Indians), he was promoted to lieutenant. In 1864, Chivington ordered his men to attack a peaceful village of Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians, mostly women and children, in Sand Creek CO. Lt. Tom Dent was one of only two company commanders to refuse the order. The soldiers massacred the village, performing terrible atrocities... Dent and the other company commander who had refused to engage testified against Chivington at the resulting inquiry. Dent was despised by many Coloradans, the majority of whom approved Chivington's actions (in fact, the other company commander was murdered for testifying), but had the approval of the U.S. Army command- who offered Dent a commission as Captain in the regular cavalry and assigned him to frontier duty. He is now assigned to Fort Braxton, Kansas, a few miles from Wolf Creek.