RJ basics:  5'9", dark hair, blue/green eyes

RJ Jackson is one of four children from the marriage of a Danish immigrant mother and an Irish Cherokee father.  The Cherokee culture is matriarchal in the sense that a nonCherokee man who marries a Cherokee woman becomes part of the tribe.  RJ’s father, whose mother was Cherokee, was raised in the tribe and retained close ties therein.

The Cherokees of Georgia and surrounding areas were one of the most assimilated of all the Indian tribes.  They adopted many European ways including education, religion, housing and some even keeping slaves in the 1820's and 30's.  They were generally a very economically successful tribe with rich land holdings which created envy among white neighbors.  This envy eventually culminated in the infamous “Trail of Tears” during which many of the Cherokee were forcibly and brutally relocated to Arkansas and Oklahoma. [Because her Cherokee background is an important part of RJ’s persona, we are putting together a few pages on Cherokee history in the early 1800's.]

RJ has a fraternal twin sister, an older sister (by one year) and a younger brother (by five years).   She's separated from them when she is ten and her parents are murdered by a man obsessed with RJ’s mother.  The mother is killed when she throws herself in front of her husband and takes a bullet meant for him.  RJ’s older sister Gena is introduced in the Lawman/Laramie story “The Posse".  Her fraternal twin sister Sonja is introduced in “Cold Ambush” which takes place eleven years later, about a year after the first Griff stories.  Her brother is introduced in a yet-to-be-titled story which takes place a year or so prior to the first Griff stories.

 RJ is away from home when her parents are killed and ends up separated from her siblings for reasons explained in her story.  She ends up in an orphanage at ten and at twelve is forced into a whore house just across the Mexican border.  The place is destroyed and those inside rescued by a group of men led by Aaron Culhane, a friend of a local priest.  The group included Ed Parmalee, a year away from becoming Texas Ranger Captain in Laredo; Dan Troop, a year or so away from being Marshal in Abilene, the job he had prior to being hired in Laramie; and young Ranger Joe Riley. [Some of this is discussed in “RJ in Laredo”, more in “RJ in Laramie”.]   Aaron becomes RJ’s unofficial guardian before she turns fourteen.  She is determined never to be vulnerable again and gets Joe Riley to teach her to shoot, fight and throw a knife.

When RJ approaches her 18th birthday, Aaron thinks she needs to be in college.  Through circumstances to be explained in the future story “RJ in Virginia City” she meets Joe Cartwright, helps save his life and ends up spending considerable time there while Joe recovers from debilitating injuries.

Aaron is a character talked about but probably not seen in the story after the beginning chapters.  He has no fixed residence but does have houses in Laredo, Laramie, Boston and Sacramento which are used as something like hostels by his friends.