Jobaker|Joe Baker

In "The Old People" and again in the chapter with that name in Go Down, Moses this man is "a full-blood Chickasaw" Indian (204, 163) and friend of Sam Fathers. He is called both Joe Baker (by the narrator of the story, 205) and Jobaker (by the narrator of the novel, 164, and by himself in both texts, 204, 163). His history is unknown. He "lived in a foul little shack at the fork of the creek" (204, 163). Living as a hermit, he hunted and fished for his livelihood. He would sometimes visit Fathers in the blacksmith shop, where the two old men spoke "a mixture of negroid English and flat hill dialect" with an occasional word or two in the old Chickasaw vocabulary (205, 163). The story suggests Sam plays a role, perhaps a traditional Chickasaw role, in Jobaker's death and the burning of his hut. According to the narrator, "nobody ever found Joe Baker's grave" (205, 164).