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The Wounded Knee Massacre: The Forgotten History of the Native American Gun Confiscation

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The Battle at Wounded Knee is a significant battle in American history, as it put an end to the Indian Wars and is marked as the last official defeat of the Native Americans. But what’s not taught in history lessons is that Wounded Knee was one of the first federally backed gun confiscations in the history of the United States, and it ended in the massacre of nearly 300 unarmed people.
During the late 19th century, American Indians were allowed to purchase and carry firearms, just as white men were. The colonial gun laws did not bar Native Americans from possessing firearms, yet that natural right was violated by government forces at Wounded Knee. And once the guns were confiscated, the battle ensued.
When we look at the issues surrounding gun confiscation, Wounded Knee gives us an example of the devastation that an unarmed people can experience at the hands of their own government. This battle serves as a reminder to fight against gun confiscation and the gun control legislation that can lead to it.

Leading Up to Wounded Knee

At the beginning of the 19th century, it’s estimated that 600,000 American Indians lived on the land that is now the United States. By the end of the century, the people diminished to less than 150,000.
Throughout the 1800s, these nomadic tribes were pushed from the open plains and forests into “Indian Territories,” places determined by the U.S. government. It started during the Creek Indian War (1813-1815), when American soldiers, led by Andrew Jackson, won nearly 20 million acres of land from the defeated Creek Indians.
Unlike George Washington, who believed in “civilizing” the Native Americans, Jackson favored an “Indian Removal,” and when president in 1830, he signed the Indian Removal Act, which was the first of many U.S. legislations that did not grant the Native Americans the same rights as colonial European-Americans. Davy Crockett was the only delegate from Tennessee to vote against the act.
The Plains Indians, who lived in the plains between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains, weren’t as impacted by the U.S. government until later in the century, as U.S. expansion pushed into the “Wild West.” As people moved passed the Mississippi and into the Frontier, conflicts again arose between the Indians and Americans.
In an attempt at peace in 1851, the first Fort Laramie Treaty was signed, which granted the Plain Indians about 150 million acres of land for their own use as the Great Sioux Reservation. Then, 13 years later, the size was greatly reduced to about 60 million acres in the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, which recreated the Great Sioux Reservation boundaries and proclaimed all of South Dakota west of the Missouri river, including the Black Hills, solely for the Sioux Nation.
As part of the treaty, no unauthorized non-Indian was to come into the reservation and the Sioux were allowed to hunt in unceded Indian territory beyond the reservation that stretched into North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, and Colorado. If any non-Indian wanted to settle on this unceded land, they could only do it with the permission of the Sioux.
That was until 1874, when gold was discovered in South Dakota’s Black Hills. The treaties that were signed between the Native Americans and the U.S. government were ignored as gold rushers invaded Indian Territory and issues arose, such as the Battle of the Little Bighorn.
As time went on, the American Indians continued to be pushed into smaller territories and their lives began to diminish. In 1889, the U.S. government issued the Dawes Act, which took the Black Hills from the Indians, broke up the Great Sioux Reservation into five separate reservations, and took nine million acres and opened it up for public purchase by non-Indians for homesteading and settlements.
The Native Americans were squeezed into these smaller territories and didn’t have enough game to support them. The bison that had been a staple to their way of life were gone. Their ancestral lands that sustained them were no longer theirs. The resistance was over. They were no longer free people, living amongst themselves, but “Redskins” confined by the “white man” in reservations they had been forced to, many against their will.
With all of the Sioux Nation inhabiting less than nine million acres, divided up throughout South Dakota, the Indians were encouraged by the U.S. government to develop small farms. But they were faced with poor, arid soil and a bad growing season, which led to a severely limited food supply in the year following the Dawes Act. A miscalculation in the census complicated matters even more when the population on the reservation was undercounted, leading to less supplies sent from the U.S. government.
The situation was beyond bleak and the Sioux people were starving. That winter, an influenza epidemic broke out and caused a disproportionate number of Sioux children to die. And then in the summer of 1890, a drought hit, destroying yet another season of crops and the people of Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation were in dire condition.

The Ghost Dance

Perhaps it was these desolate circumstances that led to the spread of what is known as the Ghost Dance. Based on a vision experienced by a Sioux religious leader, the Ghost Dance was a spiritual ritual that was supposed to call the coming messiah, who would be an American Indian. This messiah would force the white man off of Indian lands, return the bison to the plains, and resurrect both their deceased and the life the Native Americans had once enjoyed.
Although this was not a war dance, it was feared by those who believed the Indians were savages. One such man was Daniel Royer, who arrived as the new agent on the Pine Ridge Reservation in October of 1890. He believed it to be a war dance and requested troops from President Benjamin Harrison on November 15th of that same year. His telegram read: “Indians are dancing in the snow and are wild and crazy. We need protection and we need it now.”
Harrison granted the request and part of the 7th Cavalry arrived on November 20th, with orders to arrest several Sioux leaders. Commander James Forsyth led the troops.
On December 15th, the 7th Cavalry attempted to arrest Sitting Bull, the Sioux chief who annihilated Commander George Custer in the Battle of the Little Bighorn (he also toured with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show and was a dear friend to Annie Oakley), because he didn’t attempt to stop the Ghost Dance amongst his people. During the incident, Sitting Bull was shot and killed.
The Lakota at Pine Ridge began to get nervous and the tribe’s leader, Big Foot, practiced the Ghost Dance and had caught the attention of the federal agents. After hearing of Sitting Bull’s death, he and his tribe fled to the Badlands.
They were pursued by the 7th Cavalry for five days. But Big Foot had come down with pneumonia and they were peacefully intercepted at Wounded Knee Creek on December 28th.

December 29, 1890: The Wounded Knee Massacre

The next morning, Col. Forsyth demanded that the tribe surrender their firearms. Rifles were being turned over without issue until some of the Sioux men started a Ghost Dance and began throwing dirt into the air, as was customary to the dance.
Tensions among the soldiers increased.
A few moments later, a Sioux man named Black Coyote refused to give up his rifle. It’s been reported that the Indian was deaf, had recently purchased the rifle, and was most likely unaware of why the soldier was demanding it. Regardless, the two began to skuffle and the gun discharged.
The 7th Cavalry, who was the reconstructed regiment of Custer, opened fire on the Lakota. Along with their own weapons, they used four Hotchkiss guns, a revolving barrel machine gun that could fire 68 rounds per minute, devastating the entire tribe, which had just peacefully handed over their weapons.
The Sioux men, women, and children scattered, and the Cavalry pursued them. Dead bodies were later found three miles from camp.
Once the firing ended, some two hours later, an estimated 300 Native Americans lay dead in the snow, at least half of them women and children. Those that didn’t die immediately froze to death during the oncoming blizzard.
Nearly a week later, on January 3, 1891, the Cavalry escorted a burial party to the banks of the Wounded Knee River and they buried 146 Lakota Indians in a single mass grave. Other bodies were found in the surrounding areas, and the estimated body count is between 250 and 300 Sioux.
The 7th Cavalry lost 25 men.

After the Massacre

The Massacre at Wounded Knee brought an end to the Indian Wars. There was no more resistance. The Ghost Dancing stopped.
The Native Americans had been beaten. But the Cavalry’s attack was recognized as butchery, with Forsyth’s commanding officer, General Nelson Miles, calling it a “criminal military blunder and a horrible massacre of women and children.”
However, President Harrison had an election around the corner and wasn’t in a position to look bad. Miles’ report was dismissed. Instead, the Cavalry men were made out as heroes against the Indian “savages.” And in the Spring of 1891, the president awarded the first of 20 Medals of Honor to the soldiers who disarmed then slaughtered the Sioux at Wounded Knee.
It’s been speculated that the 7th Cavalry, which again was regrouped after it was destroyed by Sitting Bull at Little Bighorn, was looking for a fight and deliberately sought revenge on the Native Americans.
Black Elk, one of the few Lakota survivors of the Wounded Knee Massacre, recalled in 1931: “I can still see the butchered women and children lying heaped and scattered all along the crooked gulch as plain as when I saw with eyes still young. And I can see that something else died there in the bloody mud, and was buried in the blizzard. A people’s dream died there.”
The Wounded Knee Massacre: The Forgotten History of the Native American Gun Confiscation originally appeared in The Resistance Library at Ammo.com.
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A who’s who of the Aprils in Abaddon universe

It’s been a while since I’ve posted, but I hope this is worth the wait. Essentially, this is a biographical encyclopedia of every major character I’ve introduced to the Aprils in Abaddon lore, plus a few new ones to round it out.
I’ve split this into four sections for easier navigation (which it sorely needs—clocking in at 17 pages on google docs, this is the longest thing I’ve ever posted, no question). The first consists of five long-form biographies of characters I thought were particularly interesting. They aren’t necessarily the most significant characters from the lore, but I felt they were the ones with the most interesting stories to tell. The second is a list of shorter entries formatted in bulleted lists. Everyone here is reasonably important, but I didn’t feel there was enough there to warrant writing out a longer biography just yet. The third is filled with the characters which are, at least for now, the least significant on the list; those I mostly introduced as filler names and haven’t elaborated on since. They get about a line of context each. Finally, there’s a section dedicated to real-life individuals who have played a role in the story so far, using the same bulleted list format as section two to briefly explain how their lives have been different in Aprils in Abaddon compared to our own timeline. I had to split this fourth section from the rest for length reasons, so it’ll be pinned at the top of the comment section.
(Note: I tried to keep the first three categories in order of appearance, and the fourth in approximately chronological order. There may be some errors, if so, my apologies.)
Characters from the lower categories may one day graduate to the first one. As I further explore the events in France, for example, Hugo Bachelot, Adeline Brodeur and company may be given the long-form biography treatment, and as I flesh out the situation in India, Amoli Malhotra may move from a filler name in the third section to a fully realized character in the first. But that’s for another time and another post. For now, I’ve restricted myself to a few in-depth stories focused on the American left.
By the way, I recently edited A brief history of the Fifth International to expand the guest lists, which is where some of the characters below came from. If you're not sick of this setting after reading this behemoth of a post, you might want to check that out too.

OCs

Liam Sutton
Born: 12 June 1979, Waukegan, Illinois
Affiliation(s): The United States Army (renounced), the Blue Movement (renounced), the AFL-CIO, the Fifth International, the American Worker’s Army, the Eastern American Worker’s Army
First Appearance: Here
Liam Sutton, supreme commander of the Eastern American Worker’s Army and Chairman of the American Labor Congress, was born into a working-class family in northeastern Illinois on the twelfth of June, 1979. His father was a mechanic, his mother a waitress, neither had attended college, and both were the children of Irish immigrants. He graduated from high school in May of 1997 and, being unable to afford college, went to work in his father’s shop. When the September 11th attacks occurred, he enlisted in the Army and was shipped off to Saudi Arabia later that year.
Sutton’s time in the military irreversibly changed him. While on tour with local militia forces near Wadi ad-Dawasir, he grew acquainted with an Arab man named Ahmad Nazari, a schoolteacher-turned militant who introduced him to the writings of Marx. Over the course of his deployment, he was gradually radicalized, first by his interactions with Nazari, and then by critically examining his own experiences in the Middle East. He was honorably discharged from the military in 2004 after losing a finger and the use of his left ear to an IED, by which point he was a dedicated communist.
Sutton’s family had lost the auto shop to foreclosure while he was away, leaving them at the mercy of the minimum wage, his mother working her old job as a waitress and his father taking a position as a custodian at a local school. Sutton moved to Chicago to work the line at a factory outside the city, and spent nearly six months sleeping in his car, showering at a local public gym, and sending most of his paycheck back to his parents to pay off their growing debts. It was during this period of time he became active as a union organizer, participating in strikes in 2005 and again in 2006, both of which failed to secure higher wages. Once he managed to secure an apartment and had enough in his bank account to stay alive between paychecks, he began taking night classes at a nearby college with the help of the GI bill. Though removed from the standard campus environment, he eventually fell into circles of younger anti-war students, some of whom were equally radical in their beliefs, and began making a name for himself in the city’s youth political scene as someone in the unusual position of being a vocally anti-war, anti-capitalist veteran.
His involvement in anti-war student organizations and union activities led him to further political activity in and around the 2008 election. He briefly drifted into the orbit of Mike Gravel’s Green Party campaign, though he never officially joined the party. In the aftermath of Cheney’s victory, his union participated in the Blue Movement, trying to elect social democrats and labor activists to local offices and Congress with the Democratic Party as a vessel, and because of the reputation he had cultivated since returning from the Army, he ended up on the Illinois Organizing Committee. Several years later, as the organization disintegrated, he found himself one of the ranking members of the movement’s national leadership, which is what eventually got him into the Fifth International. In the intervening years, he used his various positions within the organization as a platform from which to voice more radical ideas, sending young progressive Democrats down the social democrat-to-communist pipeline.
Prior to his career in the AWA, Sutton was most famous for his coining of the term “preventative weaponization,” a practice which would eventually be used by groups affiliated with the Fifth International in the years leading up to the war. The idea held that leftists organizations should engage in mass buyouts of guns and ammunition in the weeks immediately preceding planned demonstrations, for the dual purpose of decreasing the chance of right-wing attacks and creating a large communal stockpile of firepower to better arm the left. While its success in achieving the first objective is questionable (if anything, the far right simply began hoarding ammunition in greater quantities and for longer), it certainly hit the mark on the second one. The guns and ammunition bought during mass buyouts from 2013-2016 were all put to good use in the February Revolt and beyond, and the gun clubs created to give leftists basic firearm training would eventually form the backbone of the AWA.
By 2016, Liam was one of the most well-known leftists in America. He was active in the Fifth International as an unaffiliated delegate and a close confidant of Richard Trumka, whom he radicalized over the course of a long correspondence after the two met in 2013. He often drew hostility from the mainstream media with brash public statements which occasionally brought him within inches of serving jail time. He once infamously suggested that “perhaps the good men and women of Congress would have a greater sense of urgency about all this”—referring to the government shutdown of 2014-2015—“if they found themselves up against a wall.” Amidst the unrest following the fatal shooting of Jeff Bezos, Trumka asked him to begin clandestinely organizing a militia of revolutionary leftists. Months later, operating under the title of the American Worker’s Army, this militia mobilized, and the rest is history.
Sutton assumed command of the AWA as leading Liberator-General, a rank intended for up to eight individuals across the country, but, owing to the February Revolt’s relative successes and failures by region, only conveyed to two—himself and Salvador Gutierrez. Though the two cooperated for some time, by early 2018 their ideological and personal disagreements grew too great, and the AWA split in two. Today, Sutton holds nearly complete martial and political command over the Eastern AWA, which he is gradually reshaping to fit his vision of an ideal Marxist-Leninist state.
Salvador Gutierrez
Born: 5 September 1974, San Jose, California
Affiliation(s): The Industrial Workers of the World, the Fifth International, the American Worker’s Army, the Western American Worker’s Army
First Appearance: Here
Before he was a Liberator-General in the American Worker’s Army, and before he was a revolutionary of any kind, Salvador Gutierrez was a boy from San Jose. His childhood was not a conventional one. His father was a deadbeat and his mother died in childbirth, so he spent his adolescence with his aunt and uncle. Although he was not yet explicitly an anarchist, he started down the anti-establishment path early, beginning with his family’s eviction from their home in 1988, forcing them into months of unstable housing arrangements. He went to college on a robust scholarship after a strong academic performance in high school despite working nearly full-time from the age of 14 on, and while there, he began experimenting with leftist ideas, first becoming a social democrat and then an outright socialist. Unfortunately, he lost his scholarship and was expelled as a sophomore over a minor drug charge, but rather than move back home, he moved in with Alan Wheeler, a recent graduate and minor acquaintance of his who had drifted through the same circles as Salvador during his experimentation with leftism. In the ten months they spent as roommates, Alan introduced Gutierrez to anarchist theory, converting him into a lifelong anarcho-communist.
The mid-to-late 90s were rough for Gutierrez. In early 1995, he was arrested on another drug charge, and this time it landed him in court facing a five-year prison sentence. He was found guilty and served all five years, denied parole due to a handful of physical altercations with white supremacist inmates. When he got out in 2000, Alan, who now lived in Seattle, invited him back to live with him again until he got back on his feet. He took him up on the offer and began working with the growing number of leftists in Seattle during the early days of the Gore administration. Naturally, he flung himself into the anti-war movement after the invasion of Saudi Arabia, and became involved in labor unionism around the same time, helping to organize his fellow retail workers to demand better hours and wages.
Salvador’s first big move in the labor world happened in 2003, around the time of the collapse of the Saudi government and the rise of Al-Wartha. He was one of the major Pacific Northwest-area organizers of the Strike for Peace movement, a socialist-lead strike against the wars in Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan that demanded a withdrawal of troops from abroad, along with a number of systemic changes, like outlawing military recruitment on college and high school campuses, dissolving the ROTC, and cutting the military budget by 25%. The strike was ultimately a failure; while radical unionists and small numbers of wildcat strikers supported it, big unions like the AFL-CIO voted against it, and their workers ended up acting as strikebreakers, ending the movement before it really got off the ground. In an interview some time after the strike, the defeated Gutierrez, angry at the liberal unions for their role in defending the establishment, coined a phrase that would become something of a rallying cry for socialists in the 2000s and early 2010s: “Before there can be a revolution by the unions, there must be a revolution among the unions.”
Following this maxim, Gutierrez became increasingly radical in his assessment of revolutionary tactics, to match the radical positions on politics he had assumed years earlier. He joined the IWW, which helped to boost the union’s profile, and then set out on a path of convincing unionized workers to abandon their moderate, trade-specific unions and join up as well, starting with the local retail union he had helped form back in his early activist days. Over the 2000s, the IWW’s membership ballooned, a trend that would later continue and even accelerate under the Cheney administration, and as it grew, so too did his renown as an organizer and aspiring revolutionary. Aside from his activities in the IWW, he was also instrumental in the formation of the Farm & Field Labor Alliance, a leftist federation of farm workers’ unions and associations of small farm owners that aimed to fight the corporatization of the agriculture industry. With his support, the Alliance grew into a real threat to liberal agricultural unions like the UFW, eventually even supplanting it as the dominant organizer of labor in that sector. The mass resignation of UFW members, causing some locals to dissolve entirely, is widely considered the “spark” which incited the AFL-CIO’s sudden leftwards slide as it scrambled to accommodate the shifting winds of public opinion. The Federation eventually moved so far left that it ejected police unions from its ranks and began electing outspoken socialists to high posts—in a sense, the “revolution among the unions” was brought to fruition.
Gutierrez represented the IWW in the Fifth International when it first convened in 2013. By this point he was, like Sutton, one of the most famous leftists in America, and increasingly famous around the world. With his guidance, the IWW had led the way in the Great Transport Strike of 2011, and his role in the foundation of the F&FLA, and subsequently in pushing the AFL-CIO from its position of liberalism to something approximating socialism, was well-acknowledged in leftist circles. So it was no great surprise when he was elected Chairman of the International in its second congress, nor was it, to those who were privy to such information, when Sutton tapped him to be one of the Liberator-Generals under his command during the formation of the AWA. In fact, it was assumed he would be Sutton’s de facto second-in-command, an assumption which, for a time, proved to be correct, if only because he was the only person left to fill such a position come March 2017.
Following the schism of the AWA, Gutierrez took sole command of the army’s western forces and began to reorganize them in a way more in tune with his anarchist ideals. The rigid chain of command was somewhat relaxed, and the army as a whole was segmented into a more locally-organized, cell-like structure. Today, he continues to command the Western AWA when such direct leadership is necessary, and perhaps more importantly, he provides moral and ideological guidance for it and like-minded leftists everywhere.
Nariah Harris
Born: 19 January 1984, New York, New York
Affiliation(s): The New York Homeless & Unemployed Committees of Correspondence, the American Worker’s Army (renounced), the Bronx Commune
First Appearance: Here
As has often happened throughout history, when the critical hour arrived for the Bronx Commune, it was regular people who stepped up to do what had to be done. By all accounts, Nariah Harris was such a person. She lived a relatively normal life up until the outbreak of the war; she was born in a working-class household in the Bronx, went to school a few miles away, and attended a community college a few miles further when she graduated, majoring in business (which her future comrades would note was a bit ironic). When she lost her job in the crash of 2008, she helped organize councils of the unemployed in the Bronx to fight for better unemployment benefits. The councils grew into something of a phenomenon in 2008 and 2009, expanding to the other boroughs to become the New York Homeless & Unemployed Committees of Correspondence, but although there was some socialist agitation, the organization itself was not especially radical, and neither was Nariah at this point. Nor was she a high-profile figure: when more than 7,000 unemployed people marched from Times Square to Wall Street in November of 2009, arguably the NYHUCC’s crowning achievement, she wasn’t even mentioned by name as one of the event’s organizers by news outlets covering it. By mid-2010, the fervor surrounding the Committees had faded, and by the end of the year the constituent councils had gone their separate ways. It seemed that Nariah would remain in the footnotes of history, if that.
On the eve of the Second American Civil War, Harris was doing nothing of note. She had not been active in any organizations affiliated with the Fifth International, or, for that matter, in any political organizations since 2010, so she had no connections to the infant AWA, and no foreknowledge of what was just around the corner. As far as she was concerned, the sixth of February, 2017 was simply another day of unrest in a long series of days of unrest, notable only for the crisis in Texas happening at the same time. The seemingly spontaneous mobilization of the AWA caught her, as it did many others, by surprise.
Though she was by no means a trained radical, Nariah had lived through the failure of the American economy firsthand. Not only had she been unemployed for almost a year during the last financial crash, but she had also worked a dead-end job in the service industry for more than eight years since then, struggling to pay for basic amenities without falling behind on rent. So perhaps it had something to do with the spontaneity of it all, or perhaps it was the result of anger that had been brewing for almost a decade, but when AWA rebels laid attacked police stations and banks in the Bronx, she took to the streets with them, and when they put a gun in her hands and asked her to mount a barricade, she did so without hesitation.
Nariah stumbled into the role of a revolutionary fighter, but as it turned out, she was quite good at it, and purely by being in the right place at the right time, she stumbled further into the role of captain of a neighborhood company, and then, as the AWA’s grip on New York slipped, commander-elect of the newly independent Bronx Commune.
As often as the more experienced veterans of the AWA complained that they had been passed over in the process of selecting a leader in favor of a newcomer to the cause, Harris took on the burden of leadership about as well as anyone could be expected to, under the circumstances. She oversaw the transformation of the Bronx into an urban garden, and managed the defense of the borough against a far larger, better-armed, and more well-supplied enemy. Ultimately, of course, the Commune did not last. Already on its last legs by the 27th of April, it was dealt a death blow when Nariah was captured by government forces in the basement of a bombed-out high school.
Nariah spent the next several months being moved from one holding facility to another in anticipation of her trial, where she was brought up on charges of treason, conspiracy against the United States, sedition, and accessory to murder. The first jury, whose members were sympathetic to the Bronx Commune, refused to convict her with the knowledge she would be executed, and had to be dismissed. After much deliberation, the judge moved to have her sentence reduced to life without the possibility of parole to accelerate the process and prevent the trial from becoming the focal point of further unrest, and with reluctance from some of its members, the second jury went through with the sentencing. For the past three years, Nariah has been held at the Bedford Hills maximum security prison, where she will remain for the rest of her life, barring an unexpected change in circumstances. In her absence, she has become a sort of mythic figure for the American left. Murals in her honor have been painted, scrubbed off by the authorities, and painted again all across New York. Both AWAs, no longer at odds with her or the late Commune, hold annual vigils in her honor. Once not even considered worth mentioning, her name alone now conjures up revolutionary spirit in the hearts and minds of millions.
Joshua Washington
Born: 7 October 1991, Jackson, Mississippi
Affiliation(s): The New Black Panther Party, the Fifth International, the African People’s Guard
First Appearance: Here
Joshua Washington hails from a long tradition of radicalism. His parents met as members of the Communist Party USA, remaining active members throughout the 80s and 90s. His grandfather on his mother’s side, who was involved with the original Black Panthers in the 60s, lived the latter half of his life under an assumed identity to avoid prison after defying his draft notice in ‘67. In diametric opposition to Liam Sutton, who was raised a conservative and grew to be a revolutionary, Joshua was raised to be a revolutionary, and did not disappoint as he grew older.
His first foray into revolutionary activism was in 2009, the year he turned eighteen. On the heels of Louis Farrakhan’s death and the ensuing unrest, Joshua was one of thousands of left-wing youths who joined the New Black Panther Party in search of solidarity, an influx of new membership which would eventually push the reactionary elements out of the party’s ranks and transform it into a leftist organization. Eschewing traditional higher education, he instead flung himself into organizing full-time, guiding himself through the works of Marx along the way, as well as those of Lenin, Mao, Fanon, DuBois, and a host of others.
By the time it entered the Fifth International in 2014, the NBPP was a thoroughly communist organization, the established right-wing currents having splintered off to form their own groups while the Marxist newcomers came to dominate. Among these newcomers was Joshua. At a mere twenty-three years old, he was the face of the Party’s first delegation to the International, and the following year, he was made Chairperson.
Through his Fifth International connections, Washington began moving in the same circles as people like Sutton, Gutierrez, and Trumka. Under his leadership, the NBPP worked closely with the Socialist Rifle Association and smaller leftist gun clubs like the Friends of John Brown to coordinate buyouts and train leftists en masse. Like Gutierrez, he was intended to be one of the Liberator-Generals of the infant AWA, responsible for managing the revolution in the southeastern US, but he was arrested in Atlanta shortly after the Bezos riots for violating a number of firearms laws and allegedly inciting violence, and thus was unable to take command. He remained in jail without trial until rebels freed him during the February Revolt. Rather than flee to the countryside like many others did as federal forces retook control of Atlanta, he chose to remain in the city in hiding, and miraculously, managed to stay a step ahead of law enforcement until the next major wave of unrest struck the south in 2018.
During the southern insurrections of mid-2018, the southern chapters of the NBPP mobilized against both the government and the right-wing separatists who had initiated the conflict. Joshua chose to come out of hiding at this point, and publicly take command of the Party. Though it met with early successes in urban areas, it was outmatched by reactionary forces, the increasingly powerful Sons of the South being the most pressing concern, and was eventually forced to merge with the right-wing groups it had parted ways with years ago for the sake of survival. The synthesis of the socialist and racial separatist currents of the black militant movement produced the African People’s Guard, which still exists today, having managed to weather the Sons’ assaults and held control of Atlanta throughout. Joshua Washington remains its leading general, holding the line against the forces of white supremacy even with the enemy at the gates.
Edna Heel
Born: 22 March 1969, Glenville, North Carolina
Affiliation(s): The Farm & Field Labor Alliance, the Friends of John Brown, the American Worker’s Army (renounced), the National Revolutionary Guard
First Appearance: Here
For generations, the Heel family has been intimately aware of the realities of life below the poverty line. Edna Heel’s ancestors were tenant farmers, textile mill workers, railway men, miners, and about as often as they were any of those things, they were unemployed. She was raised in a trailer park in the western hinterlands of North Carolina, her parents having lost the meager land they had accumulated with years of scraped-together savings and shaky loans to the clutches of the banks and the growing class of corporate farmers. The anger at the system that would one day express itself in her formation and leadership of the National Revolutionary Guard was always there, even in her childhood, merely unrefined, unnamed.
By the turn of the 21st century, Edna already had a bitter decade and a half in an industrial poultry farm behind her, but thus far no political experience whatsoever. Her first glimpse into that world came in the form of Saul Burke, a tractor mechanic from Iowa and the founder of the fledgling Farm & Field Labor Alliance. The two met in 2005 while Saul was touring the south with a small band of socialists and trade unionists, hoping to drum up interest for the FFLA outside of the Midwest. He succeeded with Edna, and then some. She thrust herself into organizational roles in the Alliance, helping to cultivate a strong, radical labor movement in Appalachia. When labor unrest swept the nation in the 2010s, her voice was among the loudest, using every platform available to call for the redistribution of land and wealth, the destruction of the banking system, and, as plainly as she could say it without being imprisoned, the overthrow of capitalism.
As she became more politically active, her politics became more developed. On her journey through the canons of Marxist and anarchist literature, she drifted more towards the Marxist camp, specifically the Marxist-Leninist current, and then even more specifically towards the Maoist subset of that current. With neither a college degree nor a high school diploma, it was painstaking work, but in 2010 she released her first contribution to leftist theory, and, according to most, her defining work. Titled Peasants: Class in the Country, it delved into what Heel saw as the position of the rural poor not just in American capitalism, but in global capitalist imperialism (she had lost friends to the wars in the Middle East, and to the opioid crisis as well—something she connected to the US interests in the opium industry in Afghanistan). It also outlined what she called “Rational Maoism,” her take on the teachings of Mao and Gonzalo, which included a more critical approach to past Maoist movements like the Shining Path, tentative support for modern China, and a rejection of J. Sakai’s white labor aristocracy theory.
Edna was one of the dominant leftist figures in the south by late 2016, so when Joshua Washington was arrested, the mantle of being the region’s Liberator-General passed to her. The task of leading a successful revolution in an area as traditionally conservative as the southeast was a daunting one, and when the dust settled, it was one she failed to accomplish. But this failure was temporary. When order broke down in 2018, like Washington and the NBPP, Heel and her loose network of revolutionaries in the FFLA, the Friends of John Brown, and the remnants of the regional AWA seized the opportunity to take a second chance at revolution. The result was the National Revolutionary Guard, a rural-based Maoist army which managed to capture a strip of territory from northwest Georgia to northeast Tenneseee before being beaten back to two separate bases of power centered around Chattanooga and Newport. The NRG has withstood the assaults of the Sons of the South and other right-wing organizations since then, and inspired a similar uprising in Florida, forming the organization’s southern branch with the help of foreign socialist powers. At the moment, Heel is the supreme political and military leader of the NRG, chairing the People’s Congress, the National Standing Committee, and the Central Military Committee. Though smaller than either branch of the AWA, the Guard plays a major role in the martial situation in the south and in modern leftist politics as a whole.

Minor OCs

Hugo Bachelot
Born: 31 May 1968, Clermont-Ferrand, France
Affiliation(s): The Socialist Party (France), the Party of European Socialists, the Fifth International, the Socialist Republic of France
First Appearance: Here
Points of Interest:
Amy Jacobs
Born: 20 November 1989, Waterbury, Connecticut
Affiliation(s): Students for a Democratic Society in the 21st Century, the Communist Party USA, the United American Reds, the Fifth International, the American Worker’s Army, the Eastern American Worker’s Army
First Appearance: Here
Points of Interest:
Saul Burke
Born: 20 December 1955, Grinnell, Iowa
Affiliation(s): The United Auto Workers, The Farm & Field Labor Alliance
First Appearance: Here
Points of Interest:
Adeline Brodeur
Born: 14 July 1994, Paris, France
Affiliation(s): The New Communards, the Fifth International, the Socialist Republic of France
First Appearance: Here
Points of Interest:
Ezekiel Bowman
Born: 29 February 1988, Detroit, Michigan
Affiliation(s): The Socialist Rifle Association, the American Worker’s Army, the Eastern American Worker’s Army
First Appearance: Here
Points of Interest:
Jorge Carreón
Born: 11 May 1974, Phoenix, Arizona
Affiliation(s): The AFL-CIO, the American Worker’s Army, the Eastern American Worker’s Army
First Appearance: Here
Points of Interest:
Lilian Solomon
Born: 7 November 1990, New York City, New York
Affiliation(s): The Communist Party USA, the Fifth International, the American Worker’s Army, the Eastern American Worker’s Army, the Vanguard Caucus
First Appearance: Here
Points of Interest:
Daniel Lindsey
Born: 3 April 1982, Fort Myers, Florida
Affiliation(s): The National Revolutionary Guard
First Appearance: N/A
Points of Interest:
Nathaniel Hammond Greene
Born: 27 August 1957, Cadwell, Georgia
Affiliation(s): The Sons of the South
First Appearance: N/A
Points of Interest:
Wyatt Lee
Born: 2 November 1981, Luverne, Alabama
Affiliation(s): The Copperheads, the Sons of the South
First Appearance: N/A
Points of Interest:
Frank Nielson
Born: 13 March 1985, Decker, Montana
Affiliation(s): The Patriot Pride Gun Club, the Gadsden Militia
First Appearance: N/A
Points of Interest:
Matthew Robles
Born: 16 September 1990, San Antonio, Texas
Affiliation(s): The Knights of Columbus
First Appearance: N/A
Points of Interest:
Mary Running Hawk
Born: 26 June 1976, Pine Ridge, South Dakota
Affiliations: The Native Guardian League
First Appearance: N/A
Points of Interest:

Very minor OCs

Mariana Cabrera Represented the SRA in the Fifth International
Eduardo Hernandez Represented the Mexican PRD in the Fifth International
Manuel Simon Represented the Blue Movement Organizing Committee in the Fifth International
Gavin Chung Represented the International Pride Alliance in the Fifth International
Nikolai Sidorov Represented the New Russian Communist Party in the Fifth International
Elijah Mutebi Founded the Human Horizon Foundation and represented it in the Fifth International
May Le Founded Students for a Democratic Society in the 21st Century and represented it in the Fifth International
Timothy Gauthier Represented the United Socialists of Canada in the Fifth International
Amoli Malhotra Co-founded the Combined Indian Communist Parliamentary Front and represented it in the Fifth International
Anthony Clements Was smuggled out of the US to represent the NRG in the Eighth Congress of the Fifth International
Maduenu Adeyemi Co-founded the Pan-African Vanguard League and represented it in the Fifth International
Robert Yates Runs a large snuggling operation out of Alaska
Adrienne Durand Organized for the IWW and led French revolutionary forces during the Red Spring
Ines Voclain Agitated with the French Communist Party and led French revolutionary forces during the Red Spring
———
Cont.
submitted by jellyfishdenovo to AprilsInAbaddon [link] [comments]

The /r/books Best Books of the Decade - Results

Hello everyone,
First off we would like to thank everyone who participated, by either nominating and/or voting, in our Best of the Decade Vote. Below you will find the top 3 voted on books in every category. I would, however, recommend you also check out the nomination threads as quite a few great books are mentioned in there.
Best Science Fiction of the Decade - Nomination Thread
1st place: The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin - nominated by Speaker4theRest
Set against the backdrop of China's Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens. An alien civilization on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps start forming, planning to either welcome the superior beings and help them take over a world seen as corrupt, or to fight against the invasion. The result is a science fiction masterpiece of enormous scope and vision.
2nd place: The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin - nominated by sSlipperyPickle
This is the way the world ends. Again.
Three terrible things happen in a single day. Essun, a woman living an ordinary life in a small town, comes home to find that her husband has brutally murdered their son and kidnapped their daughter. Meanwhile, mighty Sanze -- the world-spanning empire whose innovations have been civilization's bedrock for a thousand years -- collapses as most of its citizens are murdered to serve a madman's vengeance. And worst of all, across the heart of the vast continent known as the Stillness, a great red rift has been been torn into the heart of the earth, spewing ash enough to darken the sky for years. Or centuries.
Now Essun must pursue the wreckage of her family through a deadly, dying land. Without sunlight, clean water, or arable land, and with limited stockpiles of supplies, there will be war all across the Stillness: a battle royale of nations not for power or territory, but simply for the basic resources necessary to get through the long dark night. Essun does not care if the world falls apart around her. She'll break it herself, if she must, to save her daughter.
3rd place: The Martian by Andy Weir - nominated by Aglance
Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars.
Now, he’s sure he’ll be the first person to die there.
After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive—and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive.Chances are, though, he won’t have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain-old “human error” are much more likely to kill him first.But Mark isn’t ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills — and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit — he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?
Best Debut of the Decade - Nomination Thread
1st place: Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi - nominated by okiegirl22
Two half-sisters, Effia and Esi, are born into different villages in eighteenth-century Ghana. Effia is married off to an Englishman and lives in comfort in the palatial rooms of Cape Coast Castle. Unbeknownst to Effia, her sister, Esi, is imprisoned beneath her in the castle's dungeons, sold with thousands of others into the Gold Coast's booming slave trade, and shipped off to America, where her children and grandchildren will be raised in slavery. One thread of Homegoing follows Effia's descendants through centuries of warfare in Ghana, as the Fante and Asante nations wrestle with the slave trade and British colonization. The other thread follows Esi and her children into America. From the plantations of the South to the Civil War and the Great Migration, from the coal mines of Pratt City, Alabama, to the jazz clubs and dope houses of twentieth-century Harlem, right up through the present day, Homegoing makes history visceral, and captures, with singular and stunning immediacy, how the memory of captivity came to be inscribed in the soul of a nation.
2nd place: The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller - nominated by baddspellar
Greece in the age of heroes. Patroclus, an awkward young prince, has been exiled to the court of King Peleus and his perfect son Achilles. By all rights their paths should never cross, but Achilles takes the shamed prince as his friend, and as they grow into young men skilled in the arts of war and medicine their bond blossoms into something deeper - despite the displeasure of Achilles' mother Thetis, a cruel sea goddess. But then word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped. Torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus journeys with Achilles to Troy, little knowing that the years that follow will test everything they hold dear.
Profoundly moving and breathtakingly original, this rendering of the epic Trojan War is a dazzling feat of the imagination, a devastating love story, and an almighty battle between gods and kings, peace and glory, immortal fame and the human heart.
3rd place: The Martian by Andy Weir - nominated by TheItalianDream
Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars.
Now, he’s sure he’ll be the first person to die there.
After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive—and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive.Chances are, though, he won’t have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain-old “human error” are much more likely to kill him first.But Mark isn’t ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills — and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit — he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?
Best Literary and General Fiction of the Decade - Nomination Thread
1st place: Circe by Madeline Miller - nominated by honeyiamsorry
In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child—not powerful, like her father, nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power—the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves.
Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus.
But there is danger, too, for a woman who stands alone, and Circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians. To protect what she loves most, Circe must summon all her strength and choose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from, or the mortals she has come to love.
2nd place: My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante - nominated by SinoJesuitConspiracy
My Brilliant Friend is a rich, intense and generous hearted story about two friends, Elena and Lila. Ferrante's inimitable style lends itself perfectly to a meticulous portrait of these two women that is also the story of a nation and a touching meditation on the nature of friendship. Through the lives of these two women, Ferrante tells the story of a neighbourhood, a city and a country as it is transformed in ways that, in turn, also transform the relationship between her two protagonists.
3rd place: A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara - nominated by Scurvy_Dogwood
When four classmates from a small Massachusetts college move to New York to make their way, they're broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition. There is kind, handsome Willem, an aspiring actor; JB, a quick-witted, sometimes cruel Brooklyn-born painter seeking entry to the art world; Malcolm, a frustrated architect at a prominent firm; and withdrawn, brilliant, enigmatic Jude, who serves as their center of gravity.
Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success, and pride. Yet their greatest challenge, each comes to realize, is Jude himself, by midlife a terrifyingly talented litigator yet an increasingly broken man, his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable childhood, and haunted by what he fears is a degree of trauma that he’ll not only be unable to overcome—but that will define his life forever.
Best Mystery or Thriller of the Decade - Nomination Thread
1st place: Gone Girl by Gillain Flynn - nominated by johnnywash1
Marriage can be a real killer.On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears from their rented McMansion on the Mississippi River. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn’t doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife’s head, but passages from Amy's diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media—as well as Amy’s fiercely doting parents—the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he’s definitely bitter—but is he really a killer?As the cops close in, every couple in town is soon wondering how well they know the one that they love. With his twin sister, Margo, at his side, Nick stands by his innocence. Trouble is, if Nick didn’t do it, where is that beautiful wife? And what was in that silvery gift box hidden in the back of her bedroom closet?
2nd place: 11/22/63 by Stephen King - nominated by thatgirl21
Jake Epping is a thirty-five-year-old high school English teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine, who makes extra money teaching adults in the GED program. He receives an essay from one of the students—a gruesome, harrowing first person story about the night 50 years ago when Harry Dunning’s father came home and killed his mother, his sister, and his brother with a hammer. Harry escaped with a smashed leg, as evidenced by his crooked walk.Not much later, Jake’s friend Al, who runs the local diner, divulges a secret: his storeroom is a portal to 1958. He enlists Jake on an insane—and insanely possible—mission to try to prevent the Kennedy assassination. So begins Jake’s new life as George Amberson and his new world of Elvis and JFK, of big American cars and sock hops, of a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald and a beautiful high school librarian named Sadie Dunhill, who becomes the love of Jake’s life—a life that transgresses all the normal rules of time.
3rd place: The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton - nominated by mercutio_died
At a gala party thrown by her parents, Evelyn Hardcastle will be killed--again. She's been murdered hundreds of times, and each day, Aiden Bishop is too late to save her. Doomed to repeat the same day over and over, Aiden's only escape is to solve Evelyn Hardcastle's murder and conquer the shadows of an enemy he struggles to even comprehend--but nothing and no one are quite what they seem.
Best Short Story Collection of the Decade - Nomination Thread
1st place: Tenth of December by George Saunders - nominated by rjbman
In the taut opening, "Victory Lap," a boy witnesses the attempted abduction of the girl next door and is faced with a harrowing choice: Does he ignore what he sees, or override years of smothering advice from his parents and act? In "Home," a combat-damaged soldier moves back in with his mother and struggles to reconcile the world he left with the one to which he has returned. And in the title story, a stunning meditation on imagination, memory, and loss, a middle-aged cancer patient walks into the woods to commit suicide, only to encounter a troubled young boy who, over the course of a fateful morning, gives the dying man a final chance to recall who he really is. A hapless, deluded owner of an antique store; two mothers struggling to do the right thing; a teenage girl whose idealism is challenged by a brutal brush with reality; a man tormented by a series of pharmaceutical experiments that force him to lust, to love, to kill—the unforgettable characters that populate the pages of Tenth of December are vividly and lovingly infused with Saunders' signature blend of exuberant prose, deep humanity, and stylistic innovation.
2nd place: Exhalation: Stories by Ted Chiang - nominated by amyousness
This much-anticipated second collection of stories is signature Ted Chiang, full of revelatory ideas and deeply sympathetic characters. In "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate," a portal through time forces a fabric seller in ancient Baghdad to grapple with past mistakes and the temptation of second chances. In the epistolary "Exhalation," an alien scientist makes a shocking discovery with ramifications not just for his own people, but for all of reality. And in "The Lifecycle of Software Objects," a woman cares for an artificial intelligence over twenty years, elevating a faddish digital pet into what might be a true living being. Also included are two brand-new stories: "Omphalos" and "Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom."
In this fantastical and elegant collection, Ted Chiang wrestles with the oldest questions on earth—What is the nature of the universe? What does it mean to be human?—and ones that no one else has even imagined. And, each in its own way, the stories prove that complex and thoughtful science fiction can rise to new heights of beauty, meaning, and compassion.
3rd place: Homesick for Another World by Ottessa Moshfegh - nominated by ApollosCrow
There's something eerily unsettling about Ottessa Moshfegh's stories, something almost dangerous, while also being delightful, and even laugh-out-loud funny. Her characters are all unsteady on their feet in one way or another; they all yearn for connection and betterment, though each in very different ways, but they are often tripped up by their own baser impulses and existential insecurities. Homesick for Another World is a master class in the varieties of self-deception across the gamut of individuals representing the human condition. But part of the unique quality of her voice, the echt Moshfeghian experience, is the way the grotesque and the outrageous are infused with tenderness and compassion. Moshfegh is our Flannery O'Connor, and Homesick for Another World is her Everything That Rises Must Converge or A Good Man is Hard to Find. The flesh is weak; the timber is crooked; people are cruel to each other, and stupid, and hurtful. But beauty comes from strange sources, and the dark energy surging through these stories is powerfully invigorating. We're in the hands of an author with a big mind, a big heart, blazing chops, and a political acuity that is needle-sharp. The needle hits the vein before we even feel the prick.
Best Horror of the Decade - Nomination Thread
1st place: Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer - nominated by Bennings463
Area X has been cut off from the rest of the world for decades. Nature has reclaimed the last vestiges of human civilization. The first expedition returned with reports of a pristine, Edenic landscape; the second expedition ended in mass suicide, the third in a hail of gunfire as its members turned on one another. The members of the eleventh expedition returned as shadows of their former selves, and within weeks, all had died of cancer. In Annihilation, the first volume of Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach Trilogy, we join the twelfth expedition.
The group is made up of four women: an anthropologist; a surveyor; a psychologist, the de facto leader; and our narrator, a biologist. Their mission is to map the terrain, record all observations of their surroundings and of one another, and, above all, avoid being contaminated by Area X itself.They arrive expecting the unexpected, and Area X delivers—but it’s the surprises that came across the border with them and the secrets the expedition members are keeping from one another that change everything.
2nd place: The Fisherman by John Langan - nominated by ifthisisausername
In upstate New York, in the woods around Woodstock, Dutchman's Creek flows out of the Ashokan Reservoir. Steep-banked, fast-moving, it offers the promise of fine fishing, and of something more, a possibility too fantastic to be true. When Abe and Dan, two widowers who have found solace in each other's company and a shared passion for fishing, hear rumors of the Creek, and what might be found there, the remedy to both their losses, they dismiss it as just another fish story. Soon, though, the men find themselves drawn into a tale as deep and old as the Reservoir. It's a tale of dark pacts, of long-buried secrets, and of a mysterious figure known as Der Fisher: the Fisherman. It will bring Abe and Dan face to face with all that they have lost, and with the price they must pay to regain it.
3rd place: My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix - nominated by leowr
Abby and Gretchen have been best friends since fifth grade, when they bonded over a shared love of E.T., roller-skating parties, and scratch-and-sniff stickers. But when they arrive at high school, things change. Gretchen begins to act….different. And as the strange coincidences and bizarre behavior start to pile up, Abby realizes there’s only one possible explanation: Gretchen, her favorite person in the world, has a demon living inside her. And Abby is not about to let anyone or anything come between her and her best friend. With help from some unlikely allies, Abby embarks on a quest to save Gretchen. But is their friendship powerful enough to beat the devil?
Best Graphic Novel of the Decade - Nomination Thread
1st place: Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples - nominated by improveyourfuture
When two soldiers from opposite sides of a never-ending galactic war fall in love, they risk everything to bring a fragile new life into a dangerous old universe.
2nd place: Daytripper by Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon - nominated by RanAWholeMile
What are the most important days of your life?
Meet Brás de Oliva Domingos. The miracle child of a world-famous Brazilian writer, Brás spends his days penning other people's obituaries and his nights dreaming of becoming a successful author himself—writing the end of other people's stories, while his own has barely begun.
But on the day that life begins, would he even notice? Does it start at 21 when he meets the girl of his dreams? Or at 11, when he has his first kiss? Is it later in his life when his first son is born? Or earlier when he might have found his voice as a writer?
Each day in Brás's life is like a page from a book. Each one reveals the people and things who have made him who he is: his mother and father, his child and his best friend, his first love and the love of his life. And like all great stories, each day has a twist he'll never see coming...
3rd place: My Favorite Thing is Monsters by Emil Ferris - nominated by zedshouse
Set against the tumultuous political backdrop of late ’60s Chicago, My Favorite Thing Is Monsters is the fictional graphic diary of 10-year-old Karen Reyes, filled with B-movie horror and pulp monster magazines iconography. Karen Reyes tries to solve the murder of her enigmatic upstairs neighbor, Anka Silverberg, a holocaust survivor, while the interconnected stories of those around her unfold. When Karen’s investigation takes us back to Anka’s life in Nazi Germany, the reader discovers how the personal, the political, the past, and the present converge.
Best Fantasy of the Decade - Nomination Thread
1st place: Brandon Sanderson - nominated by holden147, AHerosJourneyPod & spaldingmatters
Brandon Sanderson is a well-liked and prolific author. This past decade he has published over a dozen books, novellas, short stories and graphic novels. The books that were nominated for this vote in particular were The Way of Kings, Oathbringer, Words of Radiance & A Memory of Light with Robert Jordan.
2nd place: The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin - nominated by cheesechimp
This is the way the world ends. Again.
Three terrible things happen in a single day. Essun, a woman living an ordinary life in a small town, comes home to find that her husband has brutally murdered their son and kidnapped their daughter. Meanwhile, mighty Sanze -- the world-spanning empire whose innovations have been civilization's bedrock for a thousand years -- collapses as most of its citizens are murdered to serve a madman's vengeance. And worst of all, across the heart of the vast continent known as the Stillness, a great red rift has been been torn into the heart of the earth, spewing ash enough to darken the sky for years. Or centuries.
Now Essun must pursue the wreckage of her family through a deadly, dying land. Without sunlight, clean water, or arable land, and with limited stockpiles of supplies, there will be war all across the Stillness: a battle royale of nations not for power or territory, but simply for the basic resources necessary to get through the long dark night. Essun does not care if the world falls apart around her. She'll break it herself, if she must, to save her daughter.
3rd place: Senlin Ascends by Josiah Bancroft - nominated by ullsi
The Tower of Babel is the greatest marvel in the world. Immense as a mountain, the ancient Tower holds unnumbered ringdoms, warring and peaceful, stacked one on the other like the layers of a cake. It is a world of geniuses and tyrants, of airships and steam engines, of unusual animals and mysterious machines.
Soon after arriving for his honeymoon at the Tower, the mild-mannered headmaster of a small village school, Thomas Senlin, gets separated from his wife, Marya, in the overwhelming swarm of tourists, residents, and miscreants.
Senlin is determined to find Marya, but to do so he'll have to navigate madhouses, ballrooms, and burlesque theaters. He must survive betrayal, assassins, and the long guns of a flying fortress. But if he hopes to find his wife, he will have to do more than just endure.
This quiet man of letters must become a man of action.
Best Poetry Collection of the Decade - Nomination Thread
Not enough nominations for an award in this category.
Best Young Adult Novel of the Decade - Nomination Thread
1st place: The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas - nominated by okiegirl22
Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.
Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.
But what Starr does—or does not—say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.
2nd place: Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo - nominated by Suzune-Chan
Ketterdam: a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right price—and no one knows that better than criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker. Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can’t pull it off alone. . . .
A convict with a thirst for revenge
A sharpshooter who can’t walk away from a wager
A runaway with a privileged past
A spy known as the Wraith
A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums
A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes
Kaz’s crew is the only thing that might stand between the world and destruction—if they don’t kill each other first.
3rd place: One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus - nominated by AnokataX
Pay close attention and you might solve this.
On Monday afternoon, five students at Bayview High walk into detention.Bronwyn, the brain, is Yale-bound and never breaks a rule.Addy, the beauty, is the picture-perfect homecoming princess.Nate, the criminal, is already on probation for dealing.Cooper, the athlete, is the all-star baseball pitcher.And Simon, the outcast, is the creator of Bayview High's notorious gossip app.
Only, Simon never makes it out of that classroom. Before the end of detention, Simon's dead. And according to investigators, his death wasn't an accident. On Monday, he died. But on Tuesday, he'd planned to post juicy reveals about all four of his high-profile classmates, which makes all four of them suspects in his murder. Or are they the perfect patsies for a killer who's still on the loose?Everyone has secrets, right? What really matters is how far you would go to protect them.
Best Non-Fiction of the Decade - Nomination Thread
1st place: Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman - nominated by TriangleTingles
In the highly anticipated Thinking, Fast and Slow, Kahneman takes us on a groundbreaking tour of the mind and explains the two systems that drive the way we think. System 1 is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System 2 is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. Kahneman exposes the extraordinary capabilities—and also the faults and biases—of fast thinking, and reveals the pervasive influence of intuitive impressions on our thoughts and behavior. The impact of loss aversion and overconfidence on corporate strategies, the difficulties of predicting what will make us happy in the future, the challenges of properly framing risks at work and at home, the profound effect of cognitive biases on everything from playing the stock market to planning the next vacation—each of these can be understood only by knowing how the two systems work together to shape our judgments and decisions.
Engaging the reader in a lively conversation about how we think, Kahneman reveals where we can and cannot trust our intuitions and how we can tap into the benefits of slow thinking. He offers practical and enlightening insights into how choices are made in both our business and our personal lives—and how we can use different techniques to guard against the mental glitches that often get us into trouble. Thinking, Fast and Slow will transform the way you think about thinking.
2nd place: Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann - nominated by GanymedeBlu35
In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Indian Nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, the Osage rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions, and sent their children to study in Europe.
Then, one by one, they began to be killed off. One Osage woman, Mollie Burkhart, watched as her family was murdered. Her older sister was shot. Her mother was then slowly poisoned. And it was just the beginning, as more Osage began to die under mysterious circumstances.
In this last remnant of the Wild West—where oilmen like J. P. Getty made their fortunes and where desperadoes such as Al Spencer, “the Phantom Terror,” roamed – virtually anyone who dared to investigate the killings were themselves murdered. As the death toll surpassed more than twenty-four Osage, the newly created F.B.I. took up the case, in what became one of the organization’s first major homicide investigations. But the bureau was then notoriously corrupt and initially bungled the case. Eventually the young director, J. Edgar Hoover, turned to a former Texas Ranger named Tom White to try to unravel the mystery. White put together an undercover team, including one of the only Native American agents in the bureau. They infiltrated the region, struggling to adopt the latest modern techniques of detection. Together with the Osage they began to expose one of the most sinister conspiracies in American history.
A true-life murder mystery about one of the most monstrous crimes in American history.
3rd place: Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou - nominated by Flashy-Band
The full inside story of the breathtaking rise and shocking collapse of a multibillion-dollar startup, by the prize-winning journalist who first broke the story and pursued it to the end in the face of pressure and threats from the CEO and her lawyers.
In 2014, Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes was widely seen as the female Steve Jobs: a brilliant Stanford dropout whose startup "unicorn" promised to revolutionize the medical industry with a machine that would make blood tests significantly faster and easier. Backed by investors such as Larry Ellison and Tim Draper, Theranos sold shares in a fundraising round that valued the company at $9 billion, putting Holmes's worth at an estimated $4.7 billion. There was just one problem: The technology didn't work.
For years, Holmes had been misleading investors, FDA officials, and her own employees. When Carreyrou, working at The Wall Street Journal, got a tip from a former Theranos employee and started asking questions, both Carreyrou and the Journal were threatened with lawsuits. Undaunted, the newspaper ran the first of dozens of Theranos articles in late 2015. By early 2017, the company's value was zero and Holmes faced potential legal action from the government and her investors. Here is the riveting story of the biggest corporate fraud since Enron, a disturbing cautionary tale set amid the bold promises and gold-rush frenzy of Silicon Valley.
Again, thank you to everyone who participated.
Happy reading!
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[Spoilers] The United States and Westward Expansion - Common Setting Discussions

A common trait Assassin’s Creed groups have is the constant theorizing about future settings, because historical tourism is one of the best parts of the series. This series of posts will act as a counter to my Mildly Obscure setting discussions, but rather than looking at a single point, I will be taking a broad setting that is popular and looking at several potential settings to explore within it. Today’s setting is the United States. I want to say that I personally am not a huge fan of the setting, and like WW2, worry about whether or not Ubisoft could actually tactfully do these settings, but due to the lore potential, I’m willing to discuss them. Most of these settings would suffer from issues that plagued Syndicate such as proximity to the modern-day causing fake events and characters to be made to avoid lawsuits, parkour issues from wide streets and small buildings, or painfully tall buildings, and poor weapon variety due to legal carrying restrictions.
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Shays’ Rebellion
The American Revolution had a heavy toll on thousands of soldiers. Besides the loss of life and injuries, many men never received their full pay. In the early 1780s, this started to become a major issue, as men returning home from warlike Daniel Shay were being asked to pay large debts and taxes that they couldn’t afford because of the lack of pay. Many protests were held in Massachusetts from 1782 to 1785 against these taxes and to get the pay the veterans had earned. In August 1786, protestors organized to begin forcefully shutting down the courts. Government officials denounced the mob mentality but did nothing to stop it. Daniel Shays would start to organize more of these shutdowns and lead about 300 men to the Springfield Courts, which were then protected by William Shepard who held about 800 men at his command. After a day of demonstrations with no violence, Shepard led his men to the Springfield Armory due to rumors of the mob planning to attack it. By October of 1786 more protests had successfully shut down courts in Taunton, Great Barrington, and Concord. State officials now feared the violence and the potential for civil war and Samuel Adams worked with the state officials to draft a riot act to suspend habeas corpus and imprison the rioters without a trial while advocating for the execution of anyone who tried to rebel against the republic. With the new legislation in place, several of the movement’s leaders were arrested in eastern Massachusetts, causing 4,000 men to form an open rebellion against the “tyrannical state”.
The open rebellion caused Benjamin Lincoln to be granted money to form a militia and march west on January 19th. By that point, Shepard had amassed a local militia of 1200 men at the Springfield Federal Armory (a place he was not technically legally allowed to defend as a local militia)and Daniel Shays had coordinated with Luke Day to advance on the federal armory. Due to correspondence being stopped by Shepard’s men, Shays didn’t know Day was running late by a day and arrived at the armory on January 25th with no support from the west. Shepard had 2 cannons fired as a warning shot which scattered Shays forces. General Lincoln managed to track the army down to Pelham on the 4th of February during a snowstorm and capture about 150 men. Shay went into hiding as Lincoln’s army melted away from lack of funding. By the end of February, the 3000 man army dwindled to less than 200, and during that time a force of 200 men regrouped to attack Stockbridge on early February 27th. The remaining army eventually caught up with them in the night at Sheffield leading to the bloodiest battle of the rebellion with over 30 men killed, and 150 captured. Shays’ Rebellion was ultimately a failure, but it had a large impact on the creation of the modern US constitution and the creation of a standing army. I also think it may be interesting if Shay Cormac had taken the name Daniel Shays during the Revolutionary War to act as a Templar mole searching for the Piece of Eden George Washington would find and that the “little revolution” he referenced at the end of Rogue was not the French Revolution, but him orchestrating Shays’ Rebellion against the new republic that the Templars largely fought against. Daniel Shays would eventually die in 1825, and while Shay would be very old by that point, it would make sense to be that late due to Shay’s relationship with his grandson Cudgel.
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War of 1812
America’s relationship with Britain continued to strain during the years following the Revolutionary War. Britain used its colonies in Canada to give supplies and aid to Native American tribes with the intent of those tribes attacking American settlers. By 1805 a confederation of Native Americans formed in the great lakes and would actively kill any European-American settlers. Leading this was Tecumseh who was the brother of the original mastermind of the confederation. This conflict would lead the American government to lead the Battle of Tippecanoe against Tecumseh in 1811, and hostilities only increased from there. During the Napoleonic Wars, Britain set up large blockades of ports to stop Americans from trading with the French. While enforcing this, British ships had killed dozens of Americans and impressed even more into service. On June 1st, 1812, President James Madison sent Congress a list of grievances the United States had with Britain, and 4 days later, Congress voted to declare war for the first time.
The first stage of the war primarily took place in the North East US and Canada. I’d personally say that this should be the bulk of the main map with cities like Baltimore, Detroit, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Montreal, Toronto, and Quebec. And then we could see the other primary theatres as smaller self-contained maps. William Hull initially led the charge into Canada in early July of 1812, only to be chased back out by Shawnee natives combined with forces of the British Major General Isaac Brock who then laid siege to Detroit in August. Following Hull’s defeat, General William Henry Harrison took control of the American Armies and led them to victory in several battles around the Great Lakes, primarily against the Tecumseh Confederacy. On October 5th, 1813, Tecumseh was killed at the Battle of the Thames. The next year was a constant back and forth between Americans and British fighting over forts along the Canada-US border with several notable sieges at York (Toronto), Niagra, Fort Erie, and Plattsburgh. To the west, a series of battles were fought from 1812 to 1814 along the Mississippi River reaching down to St Louis.
The east coast of the US saw a lot of action during the war. Starting in 1812, the British set up a series of blockades around the US. The blockade ended up serving as a large way for Black Refugees to escape slavery and get to Canada where they’d be freed. It also gave partial control of the Chesapeake Bay, and despite attempts to fortify the Potomac River in 1813, by 1814 the British freed of the Napoleonic Wars sent more ships to the war in America, breaking through the fortifications. Their first major attack was the Burning of Washington DC in response to the Battle of York (Toronto) a year prior. The British then went north and led a land and naval battle at Baltimore (the naval bombardment of Baltimore was partially what inspired the lyrics of the Star-Spangled Banner). During the battle, the British General Ross was killed, leaving command to Colonel Arthur Brooke who after finishing the battle, commanded his troops and ships to New Orleans.
The Creek War was the southernmost war partially influenced by Tecumseh’s Confederacy. The Lower Creeks in Alabama had been trading partners for the US and Settlers, adopting many of their cultural practices, while the Upper Creeks controlled the rivers and were concerned about the loss of the culture and lifestyle to encroaching US settlers. Over the course of 2 years, General Andrew Jackson would lead US and Lower Creek troops against the Upper Creeks and ultimately gained 21 million acres for the US in what is now Alabama and Georgia. During this American General James Wilkinson took the city of Mobile and part of western Spanish Florida. At the end of 1814 and January of 1815, the British would lead multiple offenses against New Orleans and Mobile, losing each time. By that point, both the Americans and the British had sent delegates to Ghent to negotiate a stalemate. On December 24th the Treaty of Ghent was signed, but it wouldn’t be until February that the news reached America and the fighting ceased. The most lore we have is that every presidency was contested between Assassins and Templars and the first Templar President was Franklin D. Roosevelt. I do really like this period for opening up the capability of expanding Connor’s Story, tying up Shay, maybe meet Shay’s son. There’s a ton of lore possibilities here. We also know that the apple Connor dropped in the ocean was retrieved by the 20th century, so it’s possible that part of the heavy naval portion of this war and blockade was a British effort to search for the apple.
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Mexican-American War
In 1836 the Texas Revolution saw Texas freed from Mexico to the chagrin of Santa Anna, the sitting Mexican President. 9 years later, the Texas Republic continued to face threats from Mexico which did not view them as sovereign; the United States, as a result, annexed Texas. Texas, however, still claimed more land than it owned, and Mexico refused to recognize this, leading to American President James K. Polk to send an emissary to Mexico City to negotiate to buy land on good faith while also sending American troops over the border with the intention of provoking an armed military response. It did, and after American troops were fired upon at Palo Alto, America declared the Mexican-American War on May 13th, 1846. The war itself was largely controversial, including Abraham Lincoln; and many northern abolitionists saw it as a way to strengthen slavery in the south.
The first campaign of the war was to capture what became New Mexico. Santa Fe was captured by August of 1846 but rebels in the area led small assaults and raids for another year until the Battle of Cienega Creek. Following this, General Kearny marched his troops across the Sonoran Desert to California. It took 3 months for news of the war to originally reach California, and when it did, American troops planted flags in San Francisco. American armies would lead several battles just outside San Diego and Los Angeles, with small rebels popping up near San Francisco, but California was largely conquered by January of 1847.
Throughout 1846 troops marched from San Antonio and Corpus Christi to be met with battles in Monterrey and Buena Vista. By March 9th, 1847 General Scott was ordered to bring the war to a close by President Polk by capturing Mexico City. Commodore Matthew C Perry arrived at Veracruz on March 24th and opened it up with a naval bombardment. Despite several soldiers coming down with Yellow Fever during the 12-day siege, General Scott pushed on to Puebla and then Mexico City with Santa Anna expecting the diseases to wipe out the army. After a stop at Puebla due to the sick, Scott marched on to the Battle for Mexico City, a week-long series of battles that left Scott the military governor of the city on September 15th, 1847. Santa Anna then attempted to besiege Puebla but failed due to the Battle of Huamantla lifting the siege in early October. Following the defeat, a new Mexican Government led by Manuel de la Pena y Pena ceded over military control from Santa Anna to General Jose Joaquin de Herrera. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed on February 2nd, 1848, with nearly 339 million acres of land given to the United States while the US paid $15 million dollars (approximately 5 cents per acre). Once again there’s next to no lore in this area, and we could see Shay’s son or Grandson be active during the war. That said, the United States was extremely aggressive during the war, and making assassins allied with either the US or Mexico could feel somewhat forced, as this was ultimately two countries fighting over land.
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The Civil War
I personally don’t wish to discuss this setting too much, as I don’t believe Ubisoft could actually do this setting well, especially with the current lore. First of all, is the reasoning for the war. States' rights were ultimately the reason for southern secession; and slavery was the biggest of those concerns, and many smaller concerns revolved around slavery. Northern abolitionists had been sending over voters to commit voting fraud and try to force states below the Mason-Dixon line to not allow slavery. The Northern states refused to follow the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, multiple states were displeased with high federal spending, they had issues with the regulation of the banks which hurt southern states more than northern, Northern States ruled congress due to population density, and there were many questions about how the south would survive economically if slavery was abolished. While we all agree in the modern-day that slavery is wrong (and our assassin character should agree), people did not historically hold that view. And to be fair to their fears, following the civil war the southern economy did crash, affecting more than the 1% of land-owning slave owners. Even the now freed blacks had nowhere to go or anything to do because they spent their entire lives on plantations. This resulted in many blacks essentially becoming serfs for their former masters. Segregation and Jim Crow laws only increased after the civil war due to racism, and despite freed black men legally being able to vote, they rarely could because of new racist restrictions. The south wasn’t alone in enacting racist legislation though, as New York has been called the capital of Jim Crow. Northerners may have been against slavery, but that doesn’t mean they cared what came next. Templars were primarily behind the south and secession, while assassins backed the north and abolitionists. Abraham Lincoln’s election is what ultimately set off the secession despite not even being an abolitionist. He, despite being against slavery, agreed that it was sanctioned by the US constitution under the 10th amendment. He cared more about keeping the union together, and still, the south seceded. Lincoln couldn’t let that stand and put northern troops in Fort Sumter, squarely in southern territory. He loaded the fort with arms and rations enough to last a long siege. The newly forming Confederacy of the United States saw this as a threat and fired upon the fort. Just like with the Mexican American War, Lincoln could now claim that not only did he want to keep the Union whole, but the south fired first. Lincoln then (illegally) declared Martial Law in Maryland in order to make sure the capital (Washington DC) wasn’t surrounded by enemies.
Despite the Assassins backing the north, we know from the movie that Assassins also supported the south. Perhaps this was similar to how General Lee was a general for the confederacy because of his family ties despite being against slavery? Perhaps Assassins and templars in the South agreed about very real potential issues with civil rights in the wake of slavery’s abolition and felt the solution could be worked out more diplomatically. We also know Templars controlled major parts of the North. William “Boss” Tweed was the boss of Tammany Hall and played a major part in the Democratic Party’s organization and the corruption in New York City. He was also a Templar master who worked with Cudgel Cormac (the grandson of Shay), to orchestrate the New York City Draft Riots in 1863. An assassin, Varius, worked for the Union and delivered a PoE to General Ulysses S Grant. John Wilkes Booth, a templar affiliate, assassinated Abraham Lincoln and then was killed by assassins 12 days later. Lincoln’s successor, Andrew Johnson, would go on to ratify the 13th through 15th amendments. His presidency was also about when the gilded age began, a period of 30 years marred by mass corruption and monopoly overreach during intense industrialization. Personally, I don’t think Ubisoft should attempt this setting. The rampant racism, the debate over what was a state right, the rise of organizations like the KKK, the bloody battles, and intense politics all still heavily impact the united states. Some men and women today can still say that their grandparents were freed from slavery between 1863-1865. The racism and corruption that poured forth in the aftermath can still be felt by many within the United States, even if such institutions have been since criminalized. The Civil War can be a very sensitive topic to people all across the United States, and it should be handled sensitively. I think there can be some very nuanced lore about the assassins and templars' roles during the war and why they chose certain sides. But ultimately I do not trust Ubisoft to handle this setting well. Unity nor Syndicate maturely handled themes of extremism or marxism well, and Origins and Odyssey have just blatantly ignored a lot of historical sexism and slavery. Freedom Cry was about freeing slaves and yet the slave ship you board shows a handful of men all chained separately and sitting up rather than the barbaric and cruel reality of the transatlantic slave trade that intended to spread disease and filth to break the body and mind of the slaves. Ignoring Injustices does not respect them or what millions of people went through.
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Cowboys, Outlaws, and Indians in the West
The United States is incredibly beautiful, and the current games in this series have barely scratched the surface. Luckily, the westward expansion and wars America waged against the Native Americans are not only full of potential for fantastic (and tragic) stories but also can showcase a lot of America’s landscapes.
Founded in 1850 by Allan Pinkerton in 1850 the Pinkerton Detective Agency was a private security force that rose to prominence during and after the civil war. They’re well known for investigating and causing the collapse of several unions, investigating murders, serving as bodyguards for Abraham Lincoln, and infiltrating the Molly Maguires (a secret Irish organization in Pennsylvania). They famously were hired to hunt down Jesse James, the Reno Gang, and Butch Cassidy’s Wild Bunch. Outlaws were common in the south around Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. Some like Jesse James and Black Bart were from farther North. Outlaws would generally prey on stagecoaches, trains, and banks, easy targets for quick money. Local sheriffs would then form posses to track down and bring the outlaws to justice. In cases of more notorious outlaws, detective agencies like the Pinkertons may be involved. Recently, however, the Pinkerton Agency has sued Rockstar for their portrayal in Red Dead Redemption 2; so it may not be possible to use them and we may see another Syndicate situation with Ubisoft making up fake gangs and agencies. Some towns and settlements began to pop up that supported outlaws. And these old west towns weren’t just down south in Texas and Arizona but stretched all the way north to the Dakotas, most famously including Deadwood where Wild Bill Hickock and Calamity Jane died. Some other famous towns include Tombstone Arizona and Cody Wyoming. Arizona was home to a number of towns like Phoenix, Tucson, and Flagstaff which was close to the Grand Canyon. Las Vegas existed as a small settlement in what is now Nevada, only a little to the west of the Grand Canyon, but wasn’t founded officially until 1905. California is home to Death Valley and part of the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts while also holding massive mountains and rolling hills covered in redwoods. To the east were cities like Albuquerque and John Cross ranch (now Truth or Consequences) in New Mexico, Amarillo, El Paso, Austin, Houston, and Dallas in Texas. North of Arizona is Utah, home of the Mormons and Salt Lake City, containing Arches National Park. Right next door is the rocky mountains and Denver that was founded during the gold rush. Wyoming contains Grand Teton, Devil’s Tower, and Yellowstone. Montana and the Dakotas are filled with forests and stunning hills and landmarks like the Badlands. Kansas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Iowa are largely flat open plains, home of large cattle ranches and cowboys, and easy targets for the outlaws while Louisiana is just a flat swamp. East of the Mississippi are still some plains until you reach the Appalachians which border the east Coast. The only place I’d say we should go that’s east of the Mississippi is Detroit, which was called the Paris of the West and home to the Pinkertons.
Despite the fun lawlessness found commonly throughout the frontier as explored by Red Dead Redemption, America also had a much darker side. The westward expansion that exploded into the west following the Mexican-American War and the Gold Rush meant violently pushing Native Americans out of their land into reservations. This led to dozens of wars and battles in a series called the Indian Wars. I don’t have enough space to go into details about the wars, but between 1850 and 1900 there were well over 50 wars just west of the Mississippi between Native American tribes and the United States military. This is even ignoring the trail of tears in the southeast. Some of the more famous wars are the Sioux Wars and the bulk of these lasted from 1854-1890. They included some of the most famous American Generals and Native American leaders including George Cook, George Custer, Little Crow, Crazy Horse, and Sitting Bull. During the Great Sioux War Lieutenant Colonel George Custer and over 300 of his men were killed at the Battle of Little Bighorn. Years later in 1890, one of the most famous incidents occurred where Kicking Bull and Sitting Bull led to their deaths. The natives entered into Ghost Dance War, and during it, the US Army entered the native camp at Wounded Knee and after hearing a gunshot, massacred 350 native men, women, and children. Those are just 2 famous events, the map linked above under Indian Wars shows the locations of dozens more battles and forts. Once again, this setting would need a lot of care and respect to do it right and is something I’d be very concerned about Ubisoft doing well.
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What everyone has wrong about Ridgway. EXTENSIVE write up on the crimes of Gary Ridgway, misconceptions about him and his crimes, a few comparisons to Bundy, and profiles of women murdered, still missing, and unidentified. Part 2 of 2.

Hello everyone. A few months ago, I posted an extensive write up on the DeOrr Kunz case and later the Asha Degree case with several other missing people’s cases sprinkled in between, which many readers seemed to enjoy. Those can be found here: https://www.reddit.com/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/fcmvmz/extensive_summary_regarding_the_disappearance_of/
Today, I wanted to do a similar long form write up but this time, I wanted to switch gears and talk about Ridgway and his victims. This is part 2 of 2. Please read part 1 first: https://www.reddit.com/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/gpbcll/what_everyone_has_wrong_about_ridgway_extensive/
Carol Ann Christensen was the 22-year-old single mother of a five-year-old girl. She lived with her daughter in a mobile home park near the SeaTac strip. Carol Ann was happy because she had finally landed a new job after a few months of searching. She got a job as a waitress at a bar and grill only three blocks from her house. Because she had no car, she was happy to have a job she could walk to. Carol dropped off her daughter with her parents. She disappeared after her shift walking home on the SeaTac strip. Carol Ann had no none connections to the scene. No criminal record, no addiction, no hitchhiking. Gary Ridgway later confessed that he abducted and killed Carol Ann to confuse investigators. Carrie Ann Rois who used the street name Silver Champagne came from a broken home full of abuse and negativity. She became a chronic runaway with a criminal record. She ran away, bounced from relative to relative and began working on the Strip even though she was still attending high school. Carrie was musical and played the flute in the marching band. After a few years of estrangement, Carrie reconciled with her mother once her mother left her abusive husband. The mother and daughter spent Christmas ’82 together and her mother told her she loved her no matter what. It was their last Christmas together; Carrie vanished six months later in June 1983. Martina T. Authorlee came from a West German family who had moved to the United States several years earlier. She dreamed of joining the military like her father, but was discharged from basic training for medical reasons. She moved to the Portland area after that but called home to Tacoma several times a month and always on holidays. Her parents didn’t know what her job was and had no idea she had a record for prostitution; they were just happy she was still coming home and in contact with them regularly. When Christmas 1983 rolled around with no call from Martina she was reported missing. No one knew she was working in Seattle at the time. Cheryl Lee Wims grew up in the Central district of Seattle not too far from the strip, but not near it either. At 18 her only “problem” was that she often skipped her classes at school but she was successfully holding down a job as a busser at a restaurant. She wasn’t known to prostitute but she did struggle with addiction. She vanished in May ’83. Years later it would be revealed that the man Cheryl was seeing at the time was actually a pimp. Yvonne Shelly Antosh was a Canadian girl with thick Auburn hair, who came to Seattle hearing the money was better in the USA. She was last seen by a friend at the end of May 1983 on the Pacific high way south. Constance Naon was 20 and worked two jobs, one at a sausage factory and one walking the streets. She made lots of money from both jobs but drug addiction ate away her cash. She called her boyfriend to say she was going to pick up her paycheck and would come over in twenty minutes but she never made it. In June detectives found her abandoned car, but there was no trace of Connie. Kelly Ware’s parents remember her as a happy girl. She was last seen in Seattle’s central district in the same area Cheryl Wims disappeared. She was only 22 or 23 when she was last seen. Little information is available. April Buttram was a 17-year-old girl from Spokane. As a teenager her parents described her as a party girl who loved being social but unfortunately had a taste for drugs and alcohol. One day April and some girlfriends headed to Seattle for a weekend to let loose. April was planning on coming back to Spokane because she was due to inherit $10,000 on her 18th birthday from a relative. April was last seen in the Rainier valley area of Seattle, after her friends left her. They never saw her again and she never return to Spokane to collect her money. Debora May Abernathy, her boyfriend, and their three-year-old son, had moved to Seattle from Texas, hoping to get a fresh start. They rented a room in a house owned by an old lady near the Seattle airport. Debora left one night to run an errand but never returned home. The young mother was 26.
Tina Marie Thompson disappeared in July 1983, but was not reported missing until much later. She was 22. Very little information is available in her case. Tracy Winston was close to her family and was known to be athletic. She was the first girl allowed on the boys’ little league team at her school. Her dad remembers her as a great pitcher with a good arm. Tracy liked baseball but when she was in high school, she played on basketball for the school instead. Tracy moved away from home as a young teen. At 19 she was arrested for the first time for loitering, (something prostitution was often lowered to). The jailers described her as a “scared rabbit.” She called her parents from jail crying and told them she was going to turn her life around, get her GED, and change her ways. Tracy called a cab driver she knew in Seattle who worked near the jail. The cab driver drove by and talked to Tracy outside. He told her he had a passenger to pick up near the airport but would be back for her in 45 minutes. When he returned, Tracy was gone, like she had been swallowed by the streets of downtown Seattle. (The cab driver called the police and has been cleared in Tracy’s case.) Maureen Sue Feeney at age 19 had never had a boyfriend or even been on a date. She got a job working as a secretary at a Christian school and moved out of her parents place for the first time in her life. A few months later she moved to the central district of Seattle lured by the cheap rent and got a job nearby as a daycare worker. Maureen’s friends reported that Maureen had a history of depression so they called her often to check up on her. Her friends were surprised to learn that Maureen once shy, conservative, and careful seemed to be drinking heavily. Soon Maureen had her first boyfriend, a man she met at the bus stop. She told her friends that her boyfriend had “lots of ways to make money” but her friends were worried about this new man in her life. A week before she turned 20, Maureen left the house and vanished. Pammy Avent street name Annette, spent her time in Portland and Seattle. She was known to be good friends with another girl named Keli Kay McGinnis. Because she moved around, it took a while for friends to realize she was missing. Pammy was last seen in the Rainier valley area of Seattle in late October 1983. Mary Sue Bello at 26 had been in the scene for a long time. Her family remembers her to be streetwise and funny. You could never be mad at Mary Sue very long because she could always make you laugh. Mary was a great cook who loved the holidays because of all the delicious treats she could make. After a few years estranged from her mother and grandparents, Mary Sue had come back in to their lives and was trying to straighten out. She told her mom that she had no intentions of getting a “straight” job because she liked the money but did want to get clean. Mary Sue signed up for a methadone program and called her mother every other day to keep on track with her sobriety. At one point she called the green river task force to report a weird John. Although the man did not seem dangerous to her, she apparently saw a knife collection in his house. He drove an older station wagon and lived off military road. In October 1983 Mary Sue Bello left her mother’s trailer south of Seattle never to be seen again. Delise Louise Plager went by the name Missy and life was sad from the start. Born dead she was resuscitated but had health problems for the rest of her life. Missy and her twin brother left the hospital and arrived home with their birth mother who drank heavily and disregarded her children. The twins were taken away and were soon placed with different families. Missy briefly lived with her adoptive parents on a ranch where it soon became obvious that she suffered from several disabilities. She was then placed with a family who had more experience with special needs children although she saw her initial adoptive parents regularly. According to Barbara, Missy’s second house mom, Missy loved deeply but struggled in school. As an adult Missy tracked down her birth family who wanted nothing to do with her, breaking her heart further. Missy had two children but she began using drugs and walking the streets to make money. She placed her children into the care of an older woman, and old friend named Maia and walked into the night. Maia reported her missing when Missy did not return. Kimberly Nelson used so many aliases that the task force thought that three women had gone missing when it was actually just one. Born Kimberly Nelson she worked the streets as Star and told others still her name was Tina Tomson. Her parents reported Kim Nelson missing, her boyfriend/pimp reported Tina Tomson missing, and some friends reported that a working girl named Star had gone missing; at first no one realized they were the same person. The twenty-year-old was six feet tall, so many people remembered her. She was working with her friend Paige on Pacific highway south when she disappeared. The next day a man in a red truck with a white canopy pulled up to Paige and asked where her tall friend was. The man unnerved Paige for some reason. She reported her friend missing and reported the tip of the man in the red truck. Kim Nelson was four months pregnant when she disappeared on Halloween 1983. Lisa L. Yates grew up living with her much older sister and her sister’s family in the Seattle area. Lisa loved her niece who was only ten years her junior. Her niece always thought of her as a cool, pretty, sophisticated, streetwise older sister. The last thing Lisa did was promise her niece they would go on a picnic and maybe go shopping at the mall. Lisa never picked up her niece and vanished at age 19 two days before Christmas 1983. Mary Exzetta West was a high school student at 16 years old. She lived with her aunt in the Rainier neighborhood of Seattle. Mary was a shy girl with a quick smile who always made it home by curfew or called if she would be late. She was six months pregnant but not yet showing. Mary left the house one Monday during the mid-morning and disappeared early in 1984. Cindy Ann Smith had left her home in South Seattle as a teenager and moved to sunny California. Her mom always worried about her and how she was making money, so it was a great surprise when Cindy called saying she was moving back to Seattle. Her mom sent her money and she traveled north. After getting home she decided to walk to visit her brother at his work. Cindy was last seen on Pacific Highway south in 1984. She disappeared before she could spend even one night with her family. She was only 17. Patricia Barczak at 19 was an excellent cook and baker who lived in Bellevue, Washington. In 1986 she was enrolled in a culinary class and hoped to get a job someday as a wedding cake decorator. Patricia had a lousy boyfriend who bummed off of her and often slept on the couch at her place. Patricia disappeared one day and when her mother found out she never picked up her last paycheck from the doughnut shop, she reported her missing. Patricia was not initially considered a Green River victim because her boyfriend was always the prime suspect as he continued to live in her apartment and did not report her missing. Her skull was found in a cluster with other victims and later interviews would reveal that Patricia was last seen on Pacific Highway south, near the airport. Roberta Hays Bobby Jo to her family, was a free spirit who at age 20 traveled and worked up and down the west coast. She loved her family and made sure she was always around for the holidays. She was also known as a faithful friend. Even the cops who had arrested Bobby Jo remembered her as polite and bubbly. She disappeared from Aurora Avenue north in 1987.
Marta Reeves mother of four but estranged from her husband and their children, was 36 years old in 1990. Marta’s last few years had been plagued with cocaine addiction. Her life and family disintegrated and a desperate Marta was soon working on the streets. She was last heard from when she called her ex-husband looking for money. She disappeared from Seattle’s central district. Patricia Yellow Robe’s grew up on the Rocky Boys’ Indian reservation in Montana with 9 siblings. Her younger siblings loved their sister who they described as ‘always a lot of fun’. Trish moved around a lot as an adult but would swoop back in to see her family unexpectedly. Tragically, Trish struggled with addiction to drugs and alcohol and was thus unpredictable. In the summer before her death, Trish was visiting her family home when she told her sister she was planning on getting help with her addiction and wanted to go to rehab or something similar. Trish never got the chance to get clean. She died in 1998 at 38 years old.
And often forgotten as victims 50, 51, 52- The unborn babies of Mary Exzetta West, Mary Bridgett Meehan, and Kimberly Nelson whose lives were stolen when Ridgway killed their mothers.
Links
The following 3 women have been linked to Ridgway almost conclusively but are technically still missing. I believe Ridgway has confessed to the following three women’s cases but without corroborating evidence or bodies he has not been charged.
Kase Anne Lee was a petite red headed 16-year-old who lived in the same building as Terry Milligan. She was originally from Spokane and worked a few hours weekly at a photo shop. Her husband often beat her up and she worked the streets near the airport. Her husband, Anthony “Pretty Tony” Lee, was even briefly looked at as the killer. She left one evening at 11:30 pm to buy groceries and vanished into the night. Tragically, the only available photos of Kase (pronounced like Casey sometimes written Kasee) are her mugshots. Her body has never been found.
Patricia Osborn left her home on Aurora Avenue in extreme north Seattle to meet a date. Earlier she had been heard arranging the date on the phone. Patricia’s family lived in Oregon. She had three arrests all in 1983 that they had no idea about. When she didn’t call home during the holidays, she was reported missing by her family. By that time, she had not been seen in over three months.
Keli Kay McGinnis had a life one could call peculiar. She was born to a young mother who worked as a musician and the pair lived in apartments in the Seattle area. When Keli was a few years old her mother married a millionaire business man, and the three lived in a two-million-dollar mansion on Queen Anne Hill. Keli and her parents owned horses, yachts, and nice cars. The took lavish trips and Keli loved her father, who was actually her step dad. A few years down the road her mother and step father split and the pair went back to living in apartments with her mom working long hours as a singer. It was a weird life for the now aged eleven-year-old McGinnis. Years later at age 15 Keli fell in love with a boy at school and became pregnant. Keli’s family did not approve of her African American boyfriend so the couple moved in together. Keli and her boyfriend traveled the west coast with Keli working the streets. Keli usually worked with her best friend; a young teenager named Pammy Advent whose street name was Annette. Keli’s background gave her an edge in the business and she worked at fancy hotels and attracted wealthier johns. According to some of the women who worked with Keli, McGinnis was able to pull in 2-3x what they did on a typical night. Keli left her home one night in South Seattle to work but never came home. Her boyfriend called the police to report her missing. He was adamant Keli would never abandon their toddler daughter, who was later adopted out to a family when McGinnis never returned home. Her body has never been found, but Ridgway believes he killed her.
The following three women are Jane Does who were arrested under false names before disappearing in Seattle, and are still not identified today. It is possible some or all of them women are Green River Victims. (this is a very confusing section so please bear with me.)
Linda Louise Jackson was arrested in King County in the early 1980s using the alias Wylynda L. Wells. In 2012, King County authorities tried to contact Wylynda who they learned was actually Linda, to testify in a trial. When her family was tracked down, they reported they had not heard from Linda in “well over 10 years.” As it turns out Jackson has not been seen in King County (or anywhere else) since early 1983 but was never reported missing. If you know her whereabouts or associates please contact King county authorities. She is a native American female with brownish-black hair and brown eyes. A photo is provided below.
Michelle has not been seen King County since December 1980. She went by the first name Michelle but this may not be her legal name. She also had ties to the New York area. She appears to be African American with light to medium skin tone, shortish brown-black hair and brown eyes. If you know her whereabouts, legal name, or associates please contact King county authorities.
Both women’s photos can be seen here: https://www.kingcounty.gov/depts/sheriff/about-us/enforcement/investigations/green-river.aspx
Angie is a young woman who has possibly been missing since Summer 1983. She is only known as Angie, and she was a friend Green River Victim Tammie Lilies. Angie was from the Marysville area and is described as a white female, 17 to 18 years of age at the time of contact, 5' 4" in height, 110 pounds, with curly shoulder length light brown hair and greenish-blue eyes. She's been described as "very pretty" and "a Barbie doll." She was wearing blue jeans when she was last seen. No photo is available. If you know her whereabouts, legal name, or associates please contact King county authorities. (I have wondered if she is Angie Girdner down below but descriptions don’t match up perfectly and authorities seem to doubt this. She is also possibly Angela Meeker from Tacoma)
More information can be found hereà https://www.kingcounty.gov/depts/sheriff/about-us/enforcement/investigations/green-river.aspx
The following women have been linked to Ridgway pretty conclusively and are known to be deceased but he has not been charged with their murders. In fact, he specifically denies killing the following three women.
Amina Agisheff was a 36-year-old immigrant from Russia and a working mother of several children. She left her home and was waiting for the bus when she disappeared going to either visit her mother or coming home from visiting with her mother. She disappeared July 7th 1982. Agisheff’s body was found near North Bend in an area very close to other victims of Ridgway. Agisheff was found clothed or partially clothed, and her cause of death was a possible gunshot wound although this could not be conclusively proven. It is unknown if she was sexually assaulted. For years, Agisheff was considered to be the first Green River Victim due to where she was found even though she had no ties to the “scene” and was not known to use drugs or hitchhike. Ridgway always denies killing Agisheff, but as demonstrated above not all women killed by Ridgeway were part of the scene. However, Amina’s death varies significantly from Ridgway’s typical pattern.
Theories:
It is a coincidence that Amina’s body was found near other victims and she was the victim of another killer.
She differed from the pattern because she was Ridgway’s first victim and this his method was substantially different.
She was not Ridgway’s first victim and varied from the typical because Ridgeway’s victims were more varied than initially thought. Some have speculated that Ridgway offered Amina a ride somewhere and she took it because she knew him, however tangentially. This has never been proved.
Tammie Liles was the from the Everett/ Snohomish area north of Seattle. Tammie’s family last heard from her in 1982 and she was reporting missing in 1983. Friends or family believed that had contact with Tammie in May 1984 when she called and said she was living in Tacoma and was going to get married. The police think it is possible the girl on the phone wasn’t actually Tammie, or that her family was confused on the date of the call. Tammie was removed from the missing persons list only to be reported missing again, this time for good in 1988. At this point, Tammie who was known to work as a prostitute in Seattle was linked to the GRK but her body was not identified until 1998. She was not known to work anywhere in Oregon and it has been suggested she was killed in King county and transported to Oregon after death. (Her body was found in Oregon.) Tammie is listed on some lists as an official or unofficial/ unproven Green River Victim, on some lists as a possible victim while she is left off of other lists entirely.
Angela Girdner went by the name Angie and was a straight A student at a private high school. As a teen, Angela fell in with the wrong crowd and ran away from home. She was reported missing in 1982 and died sometime that year or in early 1983. Her remains were found with Tammie Liles’ remains. Both girls were found close (within a mile) to the bodies of Denise Bush and Shirley Sherrill near Portland Oregon. Police do not believe Angela ever traveled to Washington state making Angela the only victim who may have been both abducted and killed outside of the state of Washington. This may be why Ridgway denies involvement as his plea deal states he is eligible for death penalty if he committed crimes outside of King County.
Theories: There is a theory that Tammie and Angela were killed by someone else and the placement of their bodies was a coincidence.
The following women are missing or were found dead and may be Green River Victims but are not on the official list.
Angela Mae Meeker was almost 14 when she disappeared in 1979. She was planning on going to the mall in Tacoma and then going to a birthday party when she vanished. Angela was seen later that evening at a party but never surfaced again. Angela ran away from home regularly and often hitchhiked around the Tacoma area. Angela’s parents believe she met with foul play when someone she hitched a ride with killed her. Angela Meeker is not Jane Doe B-10. Little information is available in the case.
Andria Bailey was 15 or 16 when she went missing sometime in 1978 or 1979. The exact date of her disappearance is unknown. Andria lived with her grandmother in Spanaway, south of Seattle. Andria’s parents were in the military and lived in Germany. Andria was reported missing in 1989 when her mom called the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children saying that Andria had been missing for over 10 years. NCMEC called law enforcement. In 1995, someone (possibly NCMEC) called the Green River task force and gave them Andria’s name to compare to does in the case. No one knows if Andria was involved in drugs, prostitution, or running away. Her grandmother cannot remember the last time she saw Andria or what she was doing. Apparently after Andria went missing her grandmother called her parents and Andria’s father flew to Washington state to look for her in the local area but she was never officially reported missing. Andria’s mother and grandmother have since passed away. In the one article available about this case, Andria’s relative submitted a DNA sample to match potential does. Little information is available.
Louise Sanders was last heard from in February 1981. She called a friend to make lunch plans but then canceled those plans because she was meeting a “date.” She disappeared from downtown Seattle in 1981. Louise was 35 years old at the time but a hormonal disorder made her look like a teenager still. She worked as a prostitute in downtown Seattle at the time. Little information is available in her case.
Diana Munyon ran away from home in Mississippi in 1981. Her family last heard from her in May 1982 when she called from Fontana, California. She was only 16 years old at the time. Her family contacted the Green River Task force years later, both due to her background and because Diana bears a resemblance to one of the Jane Does Ridgway plead guilty to murdering. Her case is being investigated by Seattle authorities. Little information is available.
Kristi Vorak left her foster home in Tacoma, Washington in October 1982 age 13. After leaving home she may have been seen at a bus depot in downtown Seattle. Kristi did not have a history of running away or prostitution but she did frequent areas of Seattle and Tacoma known to be part of the scene. Kristi’s mom thinks it is possible Kristi is a transient in the Seattle area or left to start a new life but law enforcement believes she met with foul play and is a possible Green River victim according to some articles. Little information is available in her case.
Patricia Ann LeBlanc was 15 when she ran away in 1983. Patti had a record for prostitution and in August 1983 was arrested and sent to a youth shelter. Four days later the youth shelter took a field trip to the Seattle Center (a museum where the Space Needle is at) and she ran away and disappeared. Patti’s foster mom said that Patti ran away from whatever living situation she was put in, but Patti still called her foster mom often. Those phone calls stopped in August 1983. Patti may have an unspecified medical condition. Little information is available in her case.
Pollyanne Jean Carter last seen leaving a friend’s home in Graham, Washington near Tacoma. She had called her parents and said she was headed home, but Pollyanne ran away often and frequented the city of Tacoma. After her disappearance her sister told law enforcement that Pollyanne worked as a prostitute in Tacoma, something her parents did not know. She was last seen in 1984 at age 15.
Diane Nguyen Robbins left her home in the Eastern Washington town of Kennewick to travel to Seattle in Summer 1985 at age 13. Diane had no history of prostitution but had recently began hanging out with an older woman named Molly A. Purdin, aged 21. Molly and Diane went to Seattle and Diane was reported as a runaway when she did not return home. Molly and Diane were last seen in Seattle or Bellevue on June 18th. Molly was found murdered a month later in North King County but there was no sign of Diane. Law enforcement believes Diane and Molly’s disappearances were due to a serial killer but have not specified Ridgway. Snohomish PD is handling the case and says both cases are considered cold.
Molly A. Purdin sometimes went by Molly Purdin-Clary. She lived in Kennewick, Washington before going missing. Read Diana Robbins summary above for more information. Little information is available.
Virginia Rambus was a Seattle woman who went missing at age 19 from south Seattle, Washington in 1985. Virginia left her apartment to visit a coworker who lived in the same complex. They were planning on going to a party together in the Rainier neighborhood, but Virginia never made to her friend’s unit. At the time of her disappearance, serial killer Jesse Pratt also lived in her apartment complex. He is the prime suspect in her disappearance. Virginia had no links to prostitution or drugs and held down a steady professional job. Her case is included in this piece only because of where she lived and the time period she disappeared.
Doris Mulhern went missing from the SeaTac strip in 1987 when she was 21 years old. She and her boyfriend traveled all around the country; they were originally from Michigan. Both lived transient, high-risk lifestyles. Mulhern’s boyfriend took her to the mall and he never saw her again. The last time she was seen, she was walking down the SeaTac strip.
Margaret Diaz was 31 when she was last seen in Tacoma in 1988. Margaret had a high-risk lifestyle and frequently worked in the Hilltop area of Tacoma. She moved around a lot but tried to keep in contact with her three kids regularly. That contact stopped in 1988 and she has been missing ever since.
Deborah Yvonne Wims sister of Cheryl Wims was last seen shopping on the SeaTac strip in 1990. She worked the strip in 1990 and disappeared when she was 31 years old. Her car was found parked on Pacific Highway south but there was no Deborah. Little information is available in her case.
Darci Warde was 16 years old in 1990. She was located by police in Seattle who returned to her parents- she had been reported missing previously. She immediately ran away again and vanished. Darci had links to prostitution. Law enforcement believes Darci’s disappearance was due to a serial killer but have not specified Ridgway. Little information is available in her case.
Cora McGuirk was 22 in July 1991. She was the young mother of three who worked at a gift shop and was an enrolled student at the University of Washington. Cora went from being a typical working mother and student to suddenly dropping out of sight at for one-two days at a time. Cora asked her aunt to look after her children in case anything bad happened to her, something that worried her aunt. The pieces fell into place when Cora brought home a new boyfriend who was using hard drugs. It is unknown if Cora was using but her aunt thought it was a likely explanation for her behavior. Cora left her children with her aunt and said she would be gone for a bit. She never returned and her abandoned car was found parked on Aurora Avenue north. Cora’s first priority was always her children even in those last few chaotic months of her life she made sure her kids had a safe place to be. Her family does not think she disappeared of her own accord. Cora’s aunt adopted and raised her three children the oldest of which, Martell Webster grew up to play professional basketball for the Portland Trailblazers. He was 4 when he last saw his mother.
Cases with loose or former links to the Green River Killer. Some of these women are mentioned in one book or one source only. Some women’s names are believed to be aliases which is why information is sparse. My researched has yielded little information on several of the women below.
Leann Virginia Wilcox died in late 1981. She fits the Ridgway profile to a tee, and was found near other dump sites but DNA on her body belongs to an unknown man, not Ridgway. GRK is not the prime suspect in her murder but it is a possibility. Initially on the Green River list, Wilcox’s case is no longer considered a Ridgway murder.
Theresa Kline died in 1982. She was in her 20s at the time and was known to hitchhike. Initially on the Green River list, Kline’s case is no longer considered a Green River homicide. Little information is available. My research has yielded little information on Theresa’s case, her death may not be a murder and her name may be an alias.
Debra Kay King disappeared from Tacoma in July 1982 when she was only 24. Little information is available in her case but foul play is suspected. My research has yielded little information on Debra’s case, her name may be an alias.
Laronda Marie Bronson disappeared November 19, 1982 from Portland, Oregon. The 18-year-old was last seen at a bus stop. Laronda had ties to prostitution and the King County Sherriff’s office is the investigating agency in her case.
Trina Deanne Hunter died in 1982. Initially on the Green River list. Hunter’s case is no longer considered a Green River murder. Little information is available.
Kimberly Ann Reames Larson disappeared from the SeaTac strip in 1983. Her body was found the next day. (This info is available in only on book on Ridgway- no other information is available.) My research has yielded little information on Kimberly’s case, her name may be an alias.
Tonya Lee Clemmons disappeared from the SeaTac area in 1983 but was not reported missing for a year. Tonya’s aunt said that Tonya always called, especially on holidays but the phone calls stopped in 1983. Tonya did not have a record for prostitution but frequented areas known for sex work such as the SeaTac strip.
Kimberly Yvette Hill of Portland was last seen getting into a hatchback car with Washington license plates[SC1] . Kimberly was a sex worker and was only 19 years old. Her body was found the dumped the next day. Her 1984 murder is still unsolved.
Kathleen Arita was a 38-year-old computer operator at Boeing. She was last seen in May 1984, leaving her home in Renton. She was later found near the Star Lake road Green River dump site. She had been strangled. In general, she is not considered a green River Victim but the placement of her body is suspicious.
Jacqueline L. Sexton a Portland woman who worked as a prostitute disappeared in December 1984. Her body was found 3 days later. (This info is available in only one book on Ridgway- no other information is available.) My research has yielded little information on Sexton’s case, her name may be an alias.
Rose Marie Kurran was a 16-year-old from the Bellingham area. Rose was known to hitchhike. She was last seen on Pacific Highway south in 1987. Her body was later found near SeaTac airport. She had been strangled. Her family described her as an animal lover and a free spirit.
Kimberly Delange was last seen at a Puyallup shopping center in 1988. Her body was later found in Enumclaw, near the body of later victim Anna Chebetnoy. Little information is available in her case.
Kerry Anne Walker of Renton, disappeared in 1988 after walking away from her home on Rainier avenue. Her body was found in later in South King county She was 15 years old. Little information is available. My research has yielded little information on Walker’s case, her name may be an alias.
Shannon L. Pease, 15 was found dead in the Lakewood area of Tacoma in 1988. She was last seen in an area known for prostitution. Little information is available. My research has yielded little information on Shannon’s case, her name may be an alias.
Robyn Kenworthy, 20 called her mom from Aurora Avenue one night and said she was coming home and was going to try to kick heroin for good. Robyn who worked as a dancer, never made it home. Robyn was found dead from an undetermined cause later in a wooded area. Robyn was found in Snohomish county in 1988. Ridgway is a suspect in her case.
Jennifer Burnetto, 32 had also fallen prey to addiction. Jennifer worked the streets of Tacoma in 1988. She was found dead from stab wounds in Snohomish county near the body of Robyn Kenworthy. Ridgway is a suspect in her case.
Tracey Wooten washed up on a beach in Tacoma at age 26 in 1990. Tracey had a history of drug use and prostitution. Tragically, Law Enforcement has been unable to find any friends or family. My research has yielded little information on Tracey’s case, her name may be an alias.
Anna Lee Chebetnoy was last seen at a Puyallup shopping center in 1990, the same one Kim Delange disappeared from. Her body was later found in Enumclaw, only 100 feet from Kim Delange’s body. Ridgway was known to leave bodies in Enumclaw in the past. Little information is available in her case.
Tia Hicks was a 20-year-old who struggled with addiction and worked as a prostitute on Aurora Avenue North in Seattle. Tia was found dead from an undetermined cause in a car in 1991. There is a suspect in her murder, if she was murdered. Her death is a still a mystery.
Heather Marie Kinchen disappeared in 1991. She was living in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood when she disappeared at age 14. The Florida girl’s remains were found in July 1991 in North Bend, Washington. Little information is available.
Sarah Marshlene Habakangas disappeared in 1991. She was working on the Pacific Highway south when she was last seen at age 17. Her remains were found in July 1991 in North Bend, Washington. Little information is available.
Nicole French aged 19 disappeared in 1992. She was good friends with Sarah Habakangas. Her remains were found in North Bend, Washington near the remains of Heather Kinchen and Sarah Habakangas. Little information is available.
Anitra Renee Mulwee was last seen at a New Year’s Eve party in 2000/2001, but she never made it home to Tacoma. Anitra’s body was found a few weeks later near a former dump spot of the Green River Killer. Despite the location of the body, there is no evidence that a crime occurred or that Anitra’s death was a homicide. Anitra did have ties to the scene as she had several drug and alcohol related offenses in her background. That particular dumping spot had been discovered by investigators years earlier, meaning that if Anitra was a victim of Ridgway, he would have dumped her body in place regularly surveilled by law enforcement, something he was not known to do. Little information is available in her case.
Were some of these women victims of Gary Ridgway?
Sources- these sources are a good place to start
Green River Running Red by Ann Rule
The Riverman: Ted Bundy and I hunt for the Green River Killer by Bob Keppel and William Birnes
The Search for the Green River Killer: The True Story of America's Most Prolific Serial Killer by Carlton Smith and Tomas Guillen
https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=19920727&slug=1504298
http://charleyproject.org/case/keli-kay-mcginness
https://unidentified.wikia.org/wiki/Green_River_victims
https://www.kingcounty.gov/depts/sheriff/about-us/enforcement/investigations/green-river.aspx
http://www.seattlemag.com/article/remembering-victims-green-river-killer
https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=19911121&slug=1318612
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are there any indian reservations in mississippi video

5 WORST Executions in History - YouTube

One may also ask, are there any Indian reservations in Mississippi? Today, the Choctaw Indian Reservation covers 35,000 acres of tribal lands in ten Mississippi counties, and Choctaw is still the first language learned in the home. And, while maintaining such proud traditions, the Mississippi Choctaws have stepped into the future with their own tribal-owned industries. Mississippi and Illinois border the Mississippi River on the east side. Tennessee, Kentucky, and Wisconsin are also located east of the Mississippi River. Most of the tribal land base in the United States was set aside by the federal government as Native American Reservations. In California, about half of its reservations are called rancherías. In New Mexico, most reservations are called Pueblos. In some western states, notably Nevada, there are Native American areas called Indian colonies. There are approximately 326 Indian reservations in the United States, according to the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, each deemed a sovereign nation with the inherent power of self-government At US Indian Reservations Map page, view political map of United States, physical maps, USA states map, satellite images photos and where is United States location in World map. While there are 326 federally recognized Indian reservations, there are nearly 700 tribal areas. For this reason, we did not limit our review to just reservations, but rather found the states with Mississippi legalizes sports betting. June 22, 2018. Steps are being made quickly to move forward with allowing sports betting to be operated in the state of Mississippi. On Thursday rules were proposed by the state gaming commission on how to regulate the sport books in Mississippi. There are currently 28 licensed casinos in the state. Mississippi Indian Tribes CHICKASAW TERRITORY The soil of what is now known as the State of Mississippi was occupied in whole or in part by the Chickasaws, Choctaws, Natchez, Chokchoomas, Yazoos, Koroas, Tunicas, Pascagoulas, Biloxis, and other less known tribes. According to the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, there are 574 federally recognized Native American and Alaska Native tribes and villages across the country. The U.S. government has signed treaties I believe it’s my great great grandmother Maggie Campbell was Cherokee Indian from Mississippi. DOB 1856. Had a son in 1886 named John Henry Campbell that married Harriet Savanah Cagle and had three children: Erdine Campbell DOB 1907, Roy Campbell DOB 1905 and Lorene Campbell DOB 1909. Lorene Campbell was my grandma on my dad’s side.

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are there any indian reservations in mississippi

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