Old Chief Wood'nhead

Old Chief Wood'nhead

Old Chief Wood'nhead was a wooden statue, a cigar store Indian who stood vigilant guard outside of Ray Spruce's store in Dead River. Ray loved him and took care of him, and most of the local Indian tribe, including Benjamin Whitemoon, seemed to hold the old statue in deep respect. Following the murder of Ray and his with Martha at the hands of Benjamin's nephew Sam Whitemoon, as well as the theft of the tribe's sacred jewelry which Benjamin had given to Ray for safekeeping, Old Chief Wood'nhead inexplicably came alive in the night and unleashed a howl of unearthly rage at the crime.

Using the paint that Ray had intended to use to touch him up prior to his death as impromptu warpaint, Old Chief Wood'nhead set about hunting down the men responsible for murdering the Spruces and stealing the tribe's jewelry. "Fatso" Gibbens was shot full of arrows. Andy Cavanaugh was killed in his garage, and his corpse left on the hood of his Firebird. And finally Chief Wood'nhead tracked down Sam Whitemoon himself. Undeterred by the blasts from Sam's shotgun, Chief Wood'nhead relentlessly pursued the killer until Sam locked himself in the bathroom. Smashing his hands through the wall and grabbing the young Indian by his long hair, Chief Wood'nhead pulled the terrified man through the hole in the wall and promptly used his hatchet to scalp him.

The following morning, when Benjamin Whitemoon came to visit the Spruces, he found them murdered and the store ransacked. And Old Chief Wood'nhead once more standing guard over the store, the tribal jewelry recovered and lying at his feet, and Sam's bloody scalp held triumphantly in the wooden statue's hand.

Comments

• Old Chief Wood'nhead appeared in the story named for him, Old Chief Wood'nhead.