Good Stab: The Pikuni Warrior Turned Nachzehrer in The Buffalo Hunter Hunter

Overview

Good Stab is a central figure in Stephen Graham Jones's The Buffalo Hunter Hunter — a Pikuni warrior from the Small Robes band of the Amskapi Pikuni (Blackfeet) who transforms into a supernatural predator after drinking the blood of an undead creature. Born during the Year the Stars Fell (the 1833 Leonid meteor shower), he carries multiple names across his life: Weasel Plume, Good Stab, Takes No Scalps, and The Fullblood. Each name marks a distinct phase of his identity and reflects how both his people and outsiders perceive him. Good Stab operates as both narrator and antagonist across the novel's dual timelines — he tells his story to Lutheran pastor Arthur Beaucarnea (Three-Persons) in weekly confessions set in 1912, and his actions echo into the present-day storyline involving Etsy Beaucarnea in 2012. More than a monster, he embodies a living judgment against the colonial violence that decimated his people.

Plot Role

Good Stab serves as the narrative spine of the novel. In the 1912 timeline, he appears each Sunday at Pastor Three-Persons's church in Miles City, Montana, wearing a clerical robe and dark spectacles. He asks to confess, and over successive visits he recounts the story of his life, death, and rebirth as a nachzehrer (a German term for a vampire that surfaces in the pastor's log). These confessional chapters — titled "The Nachzehrer's Dark Gospel" — alternate with the pastor's own diary entries, creating a layered account of violence and guilt.

Simultaneously, Good Stab operates as a terrifying enforcer in the present of 1912. He skins and kills multiple men: the San Francisco socialite Benjamin Flowers and his sons, the postmaster Livinius Clarkson, Sheriff Doyle, and the Pinkerton agent Dove. He fills the church with their corpses and ties the pastor to the crucifix, forcing him to confess his participation in the Marias Massacre of 1870. In the 2012 timeline, Good Stab reveals that Arthur Beaucarnea has been transformed into a giant prairie-dog monster as punishment. He guides Etsy to the massacre site, where she kills Arthur and destroys the journal. Good Stab then rides away with the Blackfeet, ending the cycle of vengeance.

Motivations and Traits

Good Stab's primary motivation is justice. He targets buffalo hunters who slaughtered the herds and any white men complicit in the genocide of the Blackfeet. When the pastor protests that the hunters were "just making a living," Good Stab's response shifts from mirth to something more violent — a reaction that makes clear he sees such rationalizations as morally bankrupt. However, his crusade is complicated by the fact that his blood thirst forces him to kill his own people as well. He drinks the blood of the Pikuni boy White Teeth, an act that devastates him. He also kills elders, whom he describes as the only ones who remember the old ways. In a moment of painful honesty, he tells the pastor, "By taking the lives of the elders, I'm stealing wisdom from the Pikuni."

His traits as a nachzehrer include light sensitivity (he wears dark spectacles), an inability to die, superhuman senses (he hears a cat hunting a mouse from inside the church), and the power to leap without sound. Horses fear him — he admits he has no horse because "horses fear what I have become." His teeth, normally flat, can sharpen when he bares them aggressively. He drinks blood to survive and can heal from wounds that would kill an ordinary man, including being shot, lanced, and scalped. Despite his supernatural nature, he displays a dry, sometimes dark playfulness — he jokes about the Pinkerton agent named Dove by saying "Cats eat doves," a pun on his cat Cordelia and the agent's name.

Chronological Arc

Good Stab's story unfolds across decades. As a young Pikuni warrior, he kills his first soldier at age twelve and earns the name Good Stab. Later, he accompanies three other warriors — Peasy, Hunts-to-the-Side, and Tall Dog — to hide evidence of a wagon train attack. They discover a pale, undead creature in a cage marked with crosses. While hauling the cage toward Chief Mountain, they are ambushed by U.S. soldiers. All three companions die, and Good Stab, mortally wounded, drinks the creature's blood. He dies and awakens as a nachzehrer.

After his transformation, he spends years killing hide hunters and trappers to survive. He accidentally burns down Two Medicine Lodges. He spends two winters with Napi, the trickster figure, who teaches him English by gradually mixing napikwan (white) words into Pikuni. Napi reveals that Good Stab is growing a beard from drinking white men's blood — a sign of how the consumption is changing him. Later, he is entombed in an ice river by the Cat Man (the undead creature he originally drank from) for three winters; he escapes only by chewing off his own hand. He eventually confronts the Cat Man, poisons him with his own blood, and imprisons him alive. This final confrontation gives Good Stab a measure of closure, yet he refuses the label "Piegan" and affirms his identity as Pikuni.

In the 1912 timeline, his arc is one of ritual revelation. He confesses each Sunday, leading the pastor step by step toward the truth of both their pasts. In the 2012 timeline, his arc ends with release: he reveals Arthur's monstrous punishment, guides Etsy to complete the cycle, and then rides away with the Blackfeet.

Relationships

Pastor Three-Persons (Arthur Beaucarnea): The most developed relationship in the novel. The pastor acts as confessor, recorder, and eventual target. Good Stab says he keeps visiting because Arthur "remembers too, though you pretend it never happened." The pastor initially doubts Good Stab's supernatural claims but eventually begins to believe. He attempts to flee but is captured, tied to the cross, and forced to confess his role in the Marias Massacre. Their relationship is one of judge and judged, with Good Stab serving as a moral reckoning.

Napi: The trickster figure takes Good Stab in for two winters, teaches him language, and suspends him upside down to heal. Napi's teachings help Good Stab understand his own hybrid nature — trapped between the Pikuni world and the monstrous form he now inhabits.

The Cat Man: The original undead creature whose blood Good Stab drinks. The Cat Man later becomes Good Stab's enemy, entombing him and forcing him to escape by mutilating himself. Their final confrontation ends with Good Stab imprisoning the Cat Man alive, a reversal of power that shows Good Stab's growth as a predator.

Wolf Calf (his father): After Good Stab has killed Yellow Kidney's son and fled, Wolf Calf finds him, cuts a breathing hole in his chest with a broken pipe, and delivers him to Napi for the winter. This moment is both punishment and care — his father removes him from the community but ensures his survival.

Etsy Beaucarnea (in 2012): In the present-day timeline, Good Stab appears as a construction worker who found Arthur's journal. He guides Etsy to the truth about her great-great-great-grandfather, allows her to kill Arthur in his monster form, and then rides away — a figure who has finally fulfilled his purpose.

Key Decisions and Consequences

Drinking the creature's blood: This is the decision that ends his human life and begins his existence as a nachzehrer. He makes it in desperation, mortally wounded, but it binds him to an endless cycle of hunger and violence.

Killing White Teeth: The Pikuni boy's death devastates Good Stab more than any other. It forces him to confront that his blood thirst will not discriminate between enemy and kin. This loss deepens his self-loathing and his understanding of his own curse.

Killing the elders: Good Stab acknowledges that by drinking the blood of old Blackfeet, he is destroying the last repositories of cultural memory. He frames this as a form of self-harm — he is stealing wisdom from his own people. The decision shows that he is not a simple avenger but a figure of tragic contradictions.

Confronting the Cat Man: Rather than killing the Cat Man immediately, Good Stab poisons him with his own blood and imprisons him alive. This careful, ritualistic approach shows that Good Stab has moved beyond pure vengeance into a mode of deliberate judgment — he wants the Cat Man to suffer and remember.

Confessing to the pastor: Good Stab could kill Arthur quickly, but instead he spins out his story over weeks, forcing the pastor to confront his own guilt. This decision reflects Good Stab's deeper need — not just blood, but recognition and acknowledgment.

Theme and Symbol Connections

Good Stab embodies several of the novel's central themes:

Colonial violence and genocide: Good Stab is a direct product of the massacres and land theft that destroyed the Blackfeet. His transformation into a predatory creature literalizes the way violence begets violence. The buffalo hunters he kills are not random targets — they represent the industrial slaughter of the herds that sustained his people for generations.

Vampirism as consumption: His thirst mirrors the insatiable appetite of colonial expansion. The hide hunters strip the land; Good Stab drinks blood. Both are forms of consumption that cannot stop. The detail that he grows a beard from drinking white men's blood suggests that the consumed takes on the qualities of the consumer — a haunting image of assimilation and loss.

Justice and revenge: Good Stab operates outside any legal system. His justice is personal, symbolic, and relentless. He targets not just the killers but those who remember, those who benefited, and those who looked away. The pastor's punishment — being transformed into a prairie-dog monster and killed by his own descendant — shows that justice in this novel is intergenerational.

Identity and cultural erasure: Good Stab's multiple names reflect the fragmentation of his identity. He was Weasel Plume, then Good Stab, then Takes No Scalps, then The Fullblood. He refuses the label "Piegan" and insists he is Pikuni, but his actions — drinking the blood of his own elders — erode the culture he wants to preserve. He is, in a terrible sense, both victim and perpetrator of erasure.

Guilt and absolution: The entire confessional structure of the novel revolves around guilt. Good Stab confesses his sins to the pastor, but he is also there to force the pastor to confess his own. Neither man achieves absolution; they simply acknowledge what they have done. The pastor writes that he hopes to reach the site of his greatest sin and die there, seeking grace but never certain of receiving it.

For a full understanding of how these themes resolve, see the ending explained page.

Questions and Answers

1. What exactly transforms Good Stab into a nachzehrer, and why does he drink the creature's blood?

Good Stab is mortally wounded in an ambush by U.S. soldiers after he and three companions find a pale, undead creature in a cage marked with crosses. His companions — Peasy, Hunts-to-the-Side, and Tall Dog — are all killed. Dying and desperate, Good Stab drinks the creature's blood. He then dies and awakens as a nachzehrer. The transformation is not a choice in any meaningful sense; it is an act of survival that condemns him to immortality and blood thirst. The creature later reveals itself as the Cat Man, who becomes Good Stab's adversary.

2. Why does Good Stab confess his story to Pastor Three-Persons in 1912?

Good Stab confesses because the pastor was present at the Marias Massacre in 1870 and has spent decades pretending it never happened. Good Stab tells the pastor, "I'm here to remind you." The confession is not about seeking forgiveness for himself; it is a tactic to draw out the pastor's own buried guilt. By telling his story week by week, Good Stab forces the pastor to listen, to record, and ultimately to admit what he did. The pastor eventually writes, "You could prove yourself with a single step" and later admits that Good Stab knows who he is.

3. What is the significance of Good Stab's multiple names?

Each name marks a stage of his life and identity. Weasel Plume is his childhood name. Good Stab is earned when he kills his first soldier at age twelve — it is a warrior name. Takes No Scalps is a nickname that reflects a change in his practice after becoming a nachzehrer. The Fullblood is what others call him, especially Amos Short Ribs and the Pinkerton agent Dove. The names also create distance: Good Stab tells the pastor that the people would not listen to Takes No Scalps, and they do not remember Good Stab. His original self, he believes, was thrown away.

4. How does Good Stab's relationship with Napi shape his understanding of himself?

Napi is a trickster figure who takes Good Stab in for two winters after his father Wolf Calf delivers him to the mountains. Napi teaches Good Stab English by mixing napikwan (white) words into Pikuni, gradually pushing him toward bilingualism. Napi also reveals that Good Stab is growing a beard from drinking white men's blood — a sign that he is physically changing in ways he cannot control. Napi suspends him upside down to heal and provides instruction, but he also vanishes without warning. The relationship gives Good Stab language and perspective, but it does not offer redemption. Napi simply shows him what he has become.

5. What is Good Stab's ultimate purpose in the 2012 timeline, and how does his story end?

In 2012, Good Stab reveals that Arthur Beaucarnea has been transformed into a giant prairie-dog monster — a punishment for his role in the Marias Massacre. Good Stab leads Etsy to the massacre site, where she kills Arthur using a nail gun and cable saw. Afterward, Good Stab meets Etsy by the river. He is the construction worker who originally found Arthur's journal hidden in the parsonage wall. He tells Etsy what happened, then rides away with a group of Blackfeet. His role as avenger and witness is complete. He chooses to leave the cycle of bloodshed behind, though he carries its weight with him.

For further discussion of the novel's complexities, see the questions and answers page.