Willard Whitebelly
Overview
It is rare for Garou to give their Kinfolk a place of honor, but that is precisely what Willard Whitebelly received. Born in 1965, the son of activists in the American Indian Movement, he was raised in as traditional a way as could be found among the Sioux in the twentieth century. His mother died while trying to liberate one of the last herds of buffalo in the United States from the ranch that kept them. Her death was ruled a suicide, though the American authorities spent little effort explaining how she'd shot herself in the back of the head with a shotgun. He and his father went underground shortly afterward, moving from reservation to reservation.
Willard's education was spotty, reservation schools and frequent relocation making it difficult for the boy to keep up with his academics, but his father spared no effort to educate him in the ways of his people. In 1974, at the tender age of nine years old, Willard had his first vision. His grandfather, one of a long line of holy men and medicine workers, took the boy under his wing and trained him in the ways of the Miniconjou Sioux. Over the next eight years Willard, then known as Little Prophet, became something of a legend among the people of the reservations of North and South Dakota. Tales of his songs healing the sick, of visions and portents covered the plains as the buffalo once did.
The stories reached the ears of an old, old man. Grandson to Kicking Bull - one of Wovoka's first Ghost Dancers. He came in the summer of 1982 to the reservation where Willard and his grandfather lived and led the Sun Dance for the tribe's young men. Willard, though he was young for the Sun Dance at seventeen, participated in the ritual eagerly. Of all those that hung themselves from the pole that day, Willard was the last to fall. When day turned to night and the elders came to cut him down he refused. Through the night and into the next morning he hung there, until the old man came to the edge of the arena and called to the spirits to set him free. Willard fell and as the tales would have it, his wounds healed before the struck the ground. Weary but whole, Willard went to the old man and before all the elders assembled spoke quiet words with him. It is said the old man smiled and bowed his head, but all that is known for certain is that he died that very moment at Willard Whitebelly's side.
Willard cut his hair the next day. Within the year he had passed the GED and enrolled at the University of Michigan - pre-law. Six years later he graduated summa cum laude, passed the bar and began a career that continues to this day to be legendary. He is known throughout the Indian nations as the man to have at your side when arguing land rights cases. He has consulted on countless disputes between Indian nations and state and federal governments and was vital to the negotiations that made Nunavut possible. It's hardly surprising that he has enemies among the whites. What might be surprising, however, is that he has made many an enemy among his own people as well. The whites don't like him for what he's done. Many among the elder Wendigo don't like him for the way he's done it.
Law has been fruitful calling for Willard as well. His practice is large, employing a diverse staff of thirty attorneys, many of whom grew up as he did on reservations around the country, and another one hundred support staff. He has also come to rely upon the services of two small packs of Wendigo as 'troubleshooters.' Many of the young Ghost Dancers reshaping the camp today are the recipients of Whitebelly scholarships. Often, his firm comes to the aid of Garou that have run afoul of the law. And though he has never once raised a hand in anger, many Wendigo revere him as one of their most potent warriors.
To this day, no one knows what passed between Willard the boy and the old man at the Sun Dance. Speculation abounds. The young Ghost Dancers say he is Wovoka reborn - come back to teach a new Dance. Others say he is a Wyrm-spirit wearing the skin of Little Prophet and leading the Wendigo and their Kin to doom. Willard himself will not speak a word about it.
References
- WTA: Tribebook: Wendigo, p. 95-96