Evangeline Hartford

## Introduction

  Aiyana belongs to the Karankawa Native American nomadic off shoot of the Gulf of Texas. Her people traveled many areas around Texas seasonally going where the their crops may be more fruitful and the wildlife more plentiful. When the Spaniard settlers made contact there was great strife between them warring to keep their lands from the hands of the settlers trying to push them into barren lands and take the native lands as their own. Many conflicts had broken out, striking each other in the night to try and take back what was there’s.

   One particular night a bloody battle broke out there was no mercy for anyone. A small group survived the massacre and her mother Chenoa was one of those people. Unfortunately, a Spaniard took advantage of her which she had been able to kill to get away, but the deed was done and the seed was sewn within her. This is how Aiyana was born. Her mother chose to keep the child and not eat the poisonous roots, she chose to raise this girl and name her Aiyana.

   Being mixed race for Aiyana was not quite easy. The children knew she looked a bit off from the rest of them and did not treat her too kindly. Neither did the adults. Her mother took care of her the best she could alone in their now small tribe of remaining people pushed into barren lands. Aiyana just wanted a chance from people, as she grew she became more reclusive to others spending most her time learning from the medicine man, hunting and foraging with her horse her mother had given her when she became of age. Animals were her best friends.

   When winter came their people ran out of reserves and began to die of starvation. The snow was cold on their feet causing frost bite to those who didn’t have the hides to cover their feet. This is when Aiyana decided she  will not die and do the means necessary. She ate human flesh of the recently dead.. She was called a Wendigo, a foul creature. The Chief ordered her mother to lock her in the hut until spring broke through and to let her go. Once spring came, she was cast out and her mother’s look of sadness had eaten burned into her memory. Every day she is haunted by the faces of the people she had eaten.

   By this time she had already known how to survive on her own, she kept her herself and is wary of all people. She did not have the ability to speak or read English and she was a frail girl who survived a famine that killed her Tribe. She did was she could to survive which meant she had to steal and even sometimes kill to feed and clothe herself. Until one day she was caught stealing from a old mans house. His name was James Hartford who was a well educated man. He took her in and fed and clothed her and treated her like a daughter. He taught her English and how to read and write. She was cared for a year until Mr. Hartford passed away in his sleep and again she was thrust back into the world and spent many years alone in Texas.

She does what she needs to do to survive at all costs but inside she just wants someone to give her a chance. Times have changed and people are more accepting. She knows one day she will make her mark in this world someway somehow. Even if the world is with her or against her. And that’s why she decided to leave the lands she knew for a new one and traveled her way to Odessa.

## Talents

Aiyana gained many skills from her mother during her time in the Tribe. She was a skillful hunter and survivalist in the harshest environments. She learned what moccasins make less sound and footprints and what colors to wear in the seasons to remain unseen by the enemy. She learned how to cover her tracks and communicated through bird whistles and other animal sounds to communicate with her Tribe during a stealthy attack so to not alert the enemy. Aiyana and her Tribe had to kill and steal to survive and she was use to bloodshed at a young age due to the constant raids by settlers trying to remove them from their homelands. Her mother taught her how information can be traded and bartered to gain goods or services. Everything she learned from her Tribe and Mother aided her in surviving alone when she was kicked out of her Tribe. She had learned plenty however it was incredibly hard doing it alone.

On her own was a different story. By this time she was suffering from the famine and very frail and weak from lack of nutrition. She had plenty pitfalls without having her mother or Tribe members watching her back. What kept her getting back up from all the beatings from failed attempts at stealing food was her will to survive. She eventually got better at it and stole her first meal from a farmer who was preparing to have a family dinner outside on the picnic table that evening. He was coming in and out of the house bringing more food out. That meal had given her body strength to keep fighting.

One fateful day she picked the wrong house to break into to steal food from and a old man saw his door cracked open after coming back from fishing. He locked her in the house with him inside and wrangled poor Aiyana up. He took pity on the poor skin and bones girl. He tried to convince her the best he could that he didn’t mean her harm but she didn’t understand English. He thought food would be the best way to show that and it worked. He taught her how to speak English, read, write and various other things. It was a safe place for Aiyana. She spent four years with Mr. Hartford and he always introduced Aiyana as his daughter to people in town. Eventually he would pass of old age and Aiyana was to fend for herself again. Thankfully Mr. Hartford had taught her how to speak to others making things much easier to survive on her own.

Aiyana soon fell back on the ways she knew before that kept her alive. She used everything she knew from her past with her Tribe and mother along with the things Mr. Hartford taught her. She knew how to blend in when she had to go to town. She talked with an accent to blend in with all the other people there acting very much like a chameleon. Outside of town it was back to herself on high alert and looking for the next opportunity. She’d do whatever she had to to survive even taking questionable jobs, robbing, stealing, killing, tracking, bounties, information, deception. Whatever it took.