Character Profile

Character Profile

Ashley Marie Kendricks

Backstory Overview:

Ashley is the heroine of this story. She landed her dream job when she became employed by the SFPD as a Police Detective. She stayed in this position for 10 years. 2 months ago, she and Chief Manzetti argued over a piece of crime evidence that was still in her possession. Losing her self-control, Chief Manzetti fired her.

Ashley was next in line to be Chief Investigator until she disclosed, to her then partner, Tom Stone, about finding the evidence that could implicate 3 Supreme Court Judges. Her world fell apart when she refused to turn it over to Tom and The Chief. Her 12 yr. old daughter went missing, which was compounded by the ripping open of old wounds.

Ashley began avoiding her former friends and co-workers because she felt she could no longer trust or confide in them. She became over cautious almost to the point of paranoia. While reading hidden meanings into people's normal behavior, she was defensive, hostile, secretive, and vindictive at work and in her personal life. She began avoiding the places that she and her friends would go, cop bars and restaurants. Smoking and drinking became her new way of passing the time.

She started dating sexually aggressive men but would cut things off before they became serious. Her mood swings were volatile when she focused on her old squad.

She also began to doubt her judgment, feeling that it was her fault that Carissa was missing and possibly dead. She felt that if she had listened and turned over the evidence, Carissa would be home and safe, but at the time being a good cop was her priority.

Her appearance went from conservative to extreme preferring tight black leathers. She had both her upper arms tattooed. The left with a Black Widow and the Right with a Sioux armband.

She began keeping company with The Hells Angles in Oakland by trading in her candy-apple-red, 1965 Mustang for a Harley-Davidson Motorcycle.

Being from a family of five and raised On The Qualla Reservation, NC, and in The Pico Union District in LA, CA made Ashley a tough gal. It taught her life on the streets, The Street Code, and the art of survival.

She was not a stranger to a hard life or violent death. Her mother was murdered when she was 12 years old by members of the Mara-18 gang over a purse, which turned her father into an alcoholic. Her youngest brother, mixed up with drugs, overdosed and her oldest brother became a Priest.

Saving Carissa was foremost on her mind. After being fired, she established herself as a PI. That didn't flourish like she thought it would because of her attitude and dress, forcing her to reach into her past, and seek the help of a mysterious, half-breed Bounty Hunter, Chris Shields, also known as Black Elk.

IN-DEPTH CHARACTER PROFILE

BASIC INFORMATION:

Role in Story:
Protagonist

Full Name:
Ashley Marie Kendricks

Gender:
Female

Species:
Human

Ethnic Background:
One-half Caucasian
One-half Freed Cherokee Indian

The term Freed Cherokee came post-civil war. The Cherokee people did own slaves like their counterparts in the South. Post-war, the slaves who stayed were known as Freed Cherokees

The history of the Cherokee Freedmen is an example of just how complex and layered issues of race, inequality and marginalization are in the US.

Many Native Americans were enslaved alongside African Americans during the colonial period – Brown University historian Linford D. Fisher estimates that 2 million to 5.5 million Native people were enslaved from the time of Christopher Columbus to around 1880.

But some wealthier tribal citizens, particularly in tribes in the Southeast that had adopted certain norms of White settlers, also practiced slavery themselves. That includes the Cherokee people, some of whom in the early 1800s had started to enslave African Americans.

Pain of 'Trail of Tears' shared by Blacks as well as Native Americans
Then in the late 1830s, the US government forcibly expelled the Cherokee from their homeland and ordered them to relocate to present-day Oklahoma – an exodus known as the Trail of Tears. What’s not as widely known, though, is that enslaved African Americans made the journey along with the Cherokee citizens who enslaved them.

About 4,000 enslaved Black people were living among the Cherokee people by 1861, according to the National Museum of the American Indian.

The tribe abolished slavery in 1863. And shortly after the Civil War ended, the Cherokee Nation signed a treaty with the US government that granted full citizenship rights to those formerly enslaved by Cherokee citizens.

But in practice, Freedmen were often denied those rights and excluded from the tribe, wrote Lolita Buckner Inniss in a 2015 article published in the Columbia Journal of Race and Law. Over the past several decades, Cherokee Freedmen have fought to protect those rights through various legal proceedings.

Freedmen have long been fighting to protect their rights
In 2007, the Cherokee Nation amended its constitution to restrict tribal citizenship to those with “Indian blood.” That expelled about 2,800 descendants of Cherokee Freedmen from the tribe, the website for the National Museum of the American Indian states.

Chad Smith, the principal chief of the Cherokee Nation at the time, argued that the tribe was a sovereign nation and should therefore have the right to determine who qualifies for tribal citizenship. But the Freedmen pushed back, resulting in a series of legal battles over the next decade.

In 2017, a federal district court ruled in favor of the Freedmen – a decision that the Cherokee Nation Supreme Court has now reaffirmed.

“The ‘by blood’ language found within the Cherokee Nation Constitution, and any laws which flow from that language, is illegal, obsolete, and repugnant to the ideal of liberty,” Baker wrote in the recent opinion. “These words insult and degrade the descendants of the Freedman much like the Jim Crow laws found lingering on the books in Southern states some fifty-seven years after the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.”

Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. commended the decision.

“Cherokee Nation is stronger when we move forward as citizens together and on an equal basis under the law,” he said in a statement on Monday. “…The court has acknowledged, in the strongest terms, our ancestors’ commitment to equality 155 years ago in the Treaty of 1866. My hope is that we all share in that same commitment going forward.”

About 8,500 descendants of Freedmen are currently enrolled as citizens of the Cherokee Nation, according to a news release from the tribe.

Birth Date:
October 10, 1995

Birth Sign:
Libra

Birthplace:
Cherokee Indian Hospital
1 Hospital Road
Cherokee, NC 28719

(*PIH Health Good Samaritan General Hospital
Los Angles, California*) - Maybe

Age:
29

Height:
5 feet 6 inches

Weight:
130 lbs

Address:
(current)
412 Taraval Street
San Francisco, California

{i|Phone Number (or mode of communication):
[phone] - cell
[phone] - Office

PERSONAL INFORMATION:

Location of story:
San Francisco, California

Nickname:
None in her old circle of friends
Ash - her family only
Lee from her biker friends to appear tough

Marital Status:
Single

Children (If so, how many, ages, gender)
One female child.
12 years
B.D. June 3, 2011
Birth Sign - Gemini
Name- Carissa Ann Kendricks

Pets (If so, how many, what kind, purebred?):
Ashley owns a 3 yr old, purebred, black and tan Rottweiler
Name - Sam

Political Affiliation:
Republican

Type of residence:
Ashley and Carissa live in a comfortably sized 2 bedroom apartment facing Ocean Beach. It is upstairs with a balcony overlooking the beach.

Describe furnishings:
Coming through the front door: the large kitchen is on the right. A wall and the breakfast bar separate it from the living room. The balcony with French glass doors is off the living room to the right. Straight ahead of the living room are two large bedrooms. Off the living room to the left is a formal dining room.

Ashley is into French Provincial furniture which makes her living room chairs, sofa, coffee table, beds, nightstands, dressers, and dining room tables and chairs.

City/Country background:
City, On Ocean Beach

History. At one time, a vast sand-dune wilderness (now the Sunset and Richmond districts) separated Ocean Beach from the rest of San Francisco. The development came in the late 19th century when a steam railroad was put in place to bring people to a fashionable resort on the outskirts of town.
Aerial view of the Ocean Beach Municipal Pier, one of the most visited landmarks in San Diego County. It was officially christened and introduced to San Diegans on July 2, 1966. It is the longest concrete pier on the West Coast at 1,971 feet.
Snowy Plover Look for the small, shy Western Snowy Plover (Charadrius alexandrinus nivosus)—a threatened species that rest here in the winter. In California, there has been a significant decline in breeding locations as a result of various forms of human disturbance. The species is being strictly monitored and protected by the National Park Service.



Does he/she smoke or drink:
Yes
Drink: prefers Corona Beer
Cigarettes: prefers Shield

Personal possessions/Toys:
Ashley has a fetish for stuffed Dragons and Teddy Bears. She has a medium-sized, multicolored Dragon and a pink and white Teddy Bear on her bed.