Etsy Beaucarne: Scholar, Survivor, and the Last Beaucarne

Overview

Etsy Beaucarne is the present-day protagonist of The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, a 42-year-old single white professor at the University of Wyoming who has just been denied tenure. In July 2012, she discovers the hidden journal of her great-great-great-grandfather Arthur Beaucarne, a Lutheran pastor who vanished in 1912 while investigating a series of skinning murders. Desperate to salvage her academic career, Etsy begins transcribing the journal, believing it will become a marketable book. What she finds instead is a century-old chronicle of colonial violence, a supernatural force demanding reckoning, and a truth that forces her to become the agent of justice her ancestor evaded.

Plot Role

Etsy serves as the framing narrator and the contemporary investigator. Her transcription alternates with Arthur’s diary entries, creating a dual timeline that connects the 1870 Marias Massacre to 2012. She is not merely a passive scholar; her actions trigger the story’s resolution. When she learns the journal is bound in human skin—her own great-great-grandfather’s—and that the being called Good Stab has been waiting for her, she moves from observer to participant. Her final confrontation with Arthur (transformed into a giant prairie‑dog monster) at the massacre site and her destruction of the journal with her father’s ashes end the supernatural cycle. She also meets Good Stab by the river, where she learns he was the construction worker who originally unearthed the journal, and watches him ride away with the Blackfeet.

Motivations and Traits Shown Through Actions

Etsy’s primary motivation is academic survival. She admits that a book contract would “position her on campus for a long and comfortable career.” Her methodical work—printing scanned images on card stock and arranging them across her apartment—shows discipline and obsessive attention. Yet she also admits that she feels a personal connection to Arthur, whispering his name from her balcony in hopes of hearing him in return.

Her actions reveal a deep capacity for love, especially toward her cat Taz. She bathes him after fights, keeps him out of danger, and when Good Stab appears holding Taz, she falls to her knees begging for the cat’s life. This vulnerability makes her later bravery more striking. When she discovers the journal is bound in human skin—her great-great-grandfather’s—she does not collapse; she calls the library to ask how far back cold cases go, already planning to act.

A key trait is her willingness to face the supernatural without denial. After Good Stab’s visit, she jots a “dying declaration” but quickly composes herself. She does not run. Instead, she packs her belongings, loads her transformed “greatest‑grandfather” (Arthur as a buffalo‑headed creature) into her car, and drives to the massacre site. That decision—to go where the story began—is both practical and symbolic.

Chronological Arc

July 2012: Etsy discovers Arthur’s journal hidden in a parsonage wall. She begins transcribing, alternating with her own commentary on her tenure denial and her loneliness.
Fall 2012: She deepens her research, learning about Good Stab and the skinning murders. She remains unsure whether Arthur was good or evil.
January 2013: Etsy finishes the transcription but learns the journal is bound in human skin. Her father dies the same week. She receives a letter from the Blackfeet Nation.
Confrontation: Good Stab appears in her apartment as a bison‑headed figure, returning her cat and explaining Arthur’s punishment. Etsy drives to the Marias Massacre site, kills Arthur with a nail gun and cable saw, and destroys the journal with her father’s ashes.
Resolution: She meets Good Stab by the river. He reveals he was the construction worker who found the journal. He rides away with the Blackfeet, ending the cycle.

Relationships

Arthur Beaucarne (ancestor): Etsy feels both kinship and suspicion. She calls his name into the dark, hoping to hear him, but later acknowledges that his behavior in 1912 was “erratic.” Their relationship culminates in her killing him—an act of mercy and justice.
Her father: A distant figure she feels she disappointed. His death leaves her an orphan, and she uses his ashes to destroy the journal, blending grief with necessity.
Taz (cat): Her closest companion. Taz’s safety is her primary concern during Good Stab’s visit. His purring and her concern for him humanize her amid the horror.
Good Stab: Initially a terrifying figure, he becomes a reluctant guide. He does not kill her; instead he shows her what she must do. Their final meeting by the river is almost peaceful.
Marcie (property manager) and police: Adversaries who intrude on her supernatural crisis, highlighting the mundane world’s inability to understand what she faces.

Key Decisions and Consequences

Transcribing the journal: This decision leads to tenure denial (because the committee deems the project unmeritorious) but also opens the door to the supernatural truth. Without it, the cycle would remain unbroken.
Going to the massacre site: She could have ignored Good Stab’s presence or fled. Instead she drives to the place where the violence began, directly confronting the past.
Killing Arthur: She uses mundane tools (nail gun, cable saw) to dispatch the transformed pastor. This act ends Arthur’s centuries‑long punishment and frees her from ancestral guilt.
Destroying the journal with her father’s ashes: She does not donate or sell the artifact. By burning it, she literally lays the family’s past to rest.

Theme and Symbol Connections

Colonial violence and genocide: Arthur’s participation in the Marias Massacre (1870) is the root of the curse. Etsy’s modern‑day investigation cannot separate her from that history.
Vampirism as consumption: Good Stab’s actions—skinning hunters, feeding on cattle, and transforming Arthur—mirror the consumption of Indigenous land and life by settlers. Etsy’s transcription is itself a form of consumption, which she must finally reject.
Justice and revenge: Etsy becomes the instrument of justice that Arthur evaded. Her killing is not vengeful but necessary, matching Good Stab’s measured tone.
Identity and cultural erasure: Etsy’s French surname (“beautiful meat”) and her discovery that her family line was preserved through coerced unions highlight the erasure of Indigenous and mixed‑race identities. She later identifies as “the last of the Beaucarnes,” a lineage marked by violence.
Guilt and absolution: Etsy grapples with her own complicity—she used the journal for career gain—and her father’s complicity. Destroying the journal with his ashes is an act of shared absolution.

Five Book‑Specific Questions and Answers

Why does Etsy transcribe Arthur’s journal?
She is a professor denied tenure and believes the transcription will lead to a book contract, securing her position on campus. She also feels a personal connection to Arthur as her great‑great‑great‑grandfather.
What shocking fact does Etsy learn about the journal’s binding?
She is told by a librarian that forensic testing revealed the journal’s buckskin cover is actually human skin—specifically the skin of Benjamin Flowers, Arthur’s son and Etsy’s great‑great‑grandfather.
How does Good Stab first appear to Etsy?
He appears in her apartment hallway as a bison‑headed figure with human limbs, wearing a pearl snap shirt and work boots. He holds her cat Taz, whose face is crusted with dried blood.
How does Etsy kill the transformed Arthur?
She drives to the Marias Massacre site, where Arthur is now a giant prairie‑dog monster. She kills him using a nail gun and a cable saw.
What does Etsy do with the journal at the end of the novel?
She destroys the journal by burning it with her father’s ashes, then meets Good Stab by the river, where he explains his role and rides away with the Blackfeet.