When the farmer from the Cheyenne nation Johnny Wakely loses his biological and adoptive parents, he inherits the mantle of Red Wolf, an historic hero and his ancestor. He becomes a hero himself, opposing those that would take advantage of neighboring tribes.
An Historic Heritage
The boy who would become Johnny Wakely was born in the mid-1800s to a Cheyenne tribe on a Cheyenne reserve in New Mexico. The shaman Many Moons teaches the youth about his heritage, revealing to him that he was a descendant of the legendary Cheyenne hero Wildrun, AKA Red Wolf, champion of the hunting god and wolf spirit Owayodata. When the United States Cavalry attacks the boy’s tribe unprovoked, they kill his parents. As one of the only survivors, the boy ends up in the care of Martin and Emma Wakely, a pair of white settlers who were traveling west. They name him Johnny Wakely and raise him as an adopted son in the North Platte river country, teaching him farming, equality, and the white man’s ways. Although Johnny hates the Cavalry for killing his family, he loves the Wakelys as though they were blood relatives. While a young man, renegade Natives kill his adopted parents. Johnny resolves to keep the family farm and carry on, but a wealthy white man who wanted the property drives him out by burning his house down.
Homeless, Johnny travels to the Dakotas and becomes a scout at Fort Rango, serving under Colonel Brett Sabre, but Fort Rango’s prejudiced soldiers kept Johnny at arm’s length. When the local Cheyenne led by medicine man Burning Tree went on a warpath over the theft of their sacred white buffalo hide, they attacked the Brennan family and killed his friend Molly Brennan’s parents. Hearing what had happened from Molly, Johnny set out to find the hide. While spying on Burning Tree, Johnny was discovered and knocked off a cliff by the Cheyenne. He fell into the long-lost tomb of the Red Wolf, where he found a wounded wolf whose injuries he treated. Suddenly, Owayodata appeared before Johnny and declared that he was to become the new Red Wolf. Johnny received Owayodata’s coup stick and donned the Red Wolf’s garments. Alongside the wolf, which he named Lobo, he found that Burning Tree had conspired with two white men; Red Wolf recaptured the hide from them and returned it to the Cheyenne. From then on, Johnny Wakely divides his time between serving as Fort Rango’s scout and battling injustice as Red Wolf.
Experienced Hunter and Combatant
Red Wolf is an accomplished tracker, proficient rifleman, horse rider, and master of armed and unarmed combat. His chief weapon, the versatile coup stick, can be used as a bo or javelin. He also wields tomahawks, a hunting knife, and bow and arrows. He is typically accompanied by the wolf Lobo whom he can understand and communicate with.
Connections and Contenders
Raised by adoptive parents, Johnny discovers his lineage includes the first Red Wolf known as Wildrun. Some of his descendants are thought to be Thomas Thunderhead and William Talltrees, who also take up the Red Wolf mantle.
As Red Wolf, he intercedes on behalf of the Sioux, trying to expose Clint and Nate Simpson’s unjust slaughter of a tribe. Other battles are fought against Ursa the Man-Bear, a renegade Cheyenne raised in the wild by bears; John Darby, who tries to poison the Cheyenne’s water to drive them off their land; Alvah Bradley, who hires “Fast” John Silver to kill Red Wolf in a plot to steal Cheyenne land; and Devil Rider, a renegade Cheyenne garbed in phosphorescent dye similar to that of the Phantom Rider. He also encounters the outlaw Blaine Colt, AKA Kid Colt.
Johnny is attracted to Molly Brennan, although she only has affections for him as Red Wolf. The Cheyenne woman Fawn is also attracted to Red Wolf.
A Protector’s History
By 1885, having come to the conclusion that white men didn’t want peace, Wakely was dedicated to opposing the U.S. Cavalry and had fought alongside Hinmaton-Yalakit and his Nez Perce tribe. The Comanche Flaming Star and his granddaughter Ghost Wind Rider sought his assistance in defending the town of Wonderment, Montana against the Nightriders sent by Clay Riley to drive them out. Red Wolf now had little love for white men, but sided with his fellow Native Americans and the various outlaw heroes who defended Wonderment. After the Nightriders were defeated and Riley was killed, Red Wolf began a romance with Ghost Wind Rider and took a respite from fighting. Subsequently, a man garbed as Red Wolf died in battle and another Native American assumed the identity, but it is unrevealed whether the Red Wolf who died was Wakely.
Later still, Wakely’s evident descendants Thomas Thunderhead and William Talltrees would each assume the mantle of Red Wolf.
