Jude Star
A young Cheyenne boy taken captive during the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864 and later sent to the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. Jude’s story opens the novel, showing the violent rupture of Native life in the 19th century. His experiences reveal the trauma of forced assimilation, loss of culture, and the beginnings of generational wounds that echo through his descendants.
Charles Star
Jude’s son, born into a world already marked by displacement and cultural erasure. Charles grows up in a boarding school system that aims to strip him of his heritage, but he carries fragments of his father’s stories and pain. His struggles embody the lingering consequences of colonization and cultural suppression.
Lony Star
A descendant of Jude and Charles living in present-day Oakland. Lony is a teenager wrestling with questions of identity, belonging, and the weight of history. His life connects the past to the present, revealing how ancestral trauma persists in modern urban Native communities.
Orvil Red Feather
First introduced in There There, Orvil reappears as a central figure in Wandering Stars. He is a young Cheyenne boy trying to understand his place in the world after surviving a shooting at the Oakland powwow. Orvil’s journey explores resilience, healing, and the possibility of reconnecting with Native traditions despite inherited wounds.
Victoria Star
A key maternal figure in the Star family line, Victoria bridges generations. Her character highlights the often overlooked roles of women in sustaining cultural memory and protecting family bonds, even in the face of loss and systemic violence.
The Red Feather Brothers (Lony’s cousins)
Part of the extended family network that links Wandering Stars to There There. These cousins share in the legacies of displacement and marginalization but also represent the enduring presence of kinship, community, and shared survival.
