Ashkii

Ashkii (literally Cherokee for "boy") was a Cherokee outcast, frontiersman, shaman, healer, and a member of the First Playthrough Party.

## Early life

Ashkii was born the firstborn of a Cherokee leader and a Navajo woman, who was believed to be infertile. His birth was regarded as a miracle, and his teacher and the village's shaman, Unaduti, named him Notah Degataga, which means "We are almost there, all men will soon stand together". Unaduti believed Ashkii's miracle birth to be a sign that the end times were coming and all the First Nations would soon be united.

Ashkii was personally tutored by Unaduti until the elder's death in 1879, when Ashkii was 14. The boy, who had learned to read and write in English, began studying voodoo magic, even going so far as to raid graves to find necessary ingredients for his practice. At the age of 15, he was discovered, and his father disowned him in shame. The village elders excommunicated him and stripped him of his name, condemning him to wander the countryside homeless and nameless. From this point forwards, Notah was called Ashkii, which simply means "Boy". Ashkii's father is commonly said to have died of shame, as he passed away shortly thereafter in 1881.

## Exile and life in the wilderness

Ashkii lived off the land for a while, building himself a small sodden cabin near Lubbock, Texas and living there for a number of years. He would travel with the seasons, and occasionally picked up work as a cattle driver. While returning from one such cattle drive via the Rocky Mountains in 1899, Ashkii was bit by a venomous snake, probably a rattlesnake, and passed out from heat exhaustion while fighting the injury. Ashkii likely would've died, but a curious brown bear cub came to investigate. The beast woke Ashkii from his sleep, and he was able to treat his injury appropriately and survived because of such. He was even able to coax the cub to assist him in carrying his stuff to cover, and attributes his survival to the cub. He named the cub Bidziil, Navajo for "strong one", and decided to care for it.

Once recovered from his injuries, Ashkii and Bidziil returned to Texas to seek more work.

## Arrest and conscription

In June of 1901, Ashkii was arrested following a shootout in a saloon in Austin, Texas, during which one person was killed. He and the other people involved in the shootout were handed to the Texas Rangers, who conscripted them in to the 112th Volunteer Infantry and sent them to Laredo to reinforce the American troops in a border conflict with Mexico.

After being involved in the arrest of Nat John Jephson and the murder of most of his gang during an attempted bank heist in Laredo, and being involved in a brief standoff with Mexican forces on the US-Mexico Border, Ashkii was sent to Galveston to help with hurricane cleanup. Before departing from Laredo, Ashkii was involved in an altercation with two Mexican Federales in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, which resulted in the death of one such Federale. A warrant was placed for Ashkii's arrest.

## Life As An Outlaw

Traveling to Galveston, Ashkii was present for the 1901 Independence Day Bombing and attempt on US President William McKinley's life. Ashkii was also reportedly involved in a skirmish with the Dixie Mafia which left seven men dead in Galveston, as well as further attacks against the DM.

Ashkii was last seen in Kansas City, Missouri, where he was involved in a shootout with members of the Pendergast gang at a hidden distillery. According to members of his traveling party, he was abducted and mutilated by a big cat of some kind, probably a mountain lion, near Topeka, Kansas on Wednesday, August 7, 1901.