Sandman

Sandman stands at average to slightly above-average height on an athletic frame. He keeps his pale hair in a pair of long braids that fall across his face, wears very little, and shows a scattering of tattoos across his skin.

A Native American with a bleak, cynical read on the world, Sandman stays fiercely loyal to his tribe even as his open mind sets him apart, keeping settler books his people forbid and inventing a running style that flouts tradition. He tells his sister their claims to ancestral land are outdated in an age ruled by money, yet he will still risk a cross-country race to win those lands back. He nonetheless regards white society as a money-driven enemy, which is why he allies with Funny Valentine for the funds to reclaim his ancestors' ground, treating the Corpse only as leverage. Bold and stubborn since childhood, by his sister's account, he is ruthless enough to fight Johnny and Gyro to the death, but flashes of honor remain: he helps Pocoloco scale a cliff, warns Gyro of an approaching storm, and is the sole foe to request the Corpse Parts directly. His sister is the one person he holds close.

Born around 1872 into an Arizona desert tribe and named Soundman, he drifts apart from his people as he grows, shunned for taking to settler culture and learning to read their books. When the tribe uncovers the books in his teepee and comes to scalp him, he escapes through cunning and his Stand, having secretly built a running method that lets him cover vast distances without rest. In the hills he finds his sister and shares his intention to run the Steel Ball Run for the money to save their land, also noting where Gyro had been studying the Spin. His Stand hardens the sounds he produces into solid, striking matter, while his rare gift for running lets him keep pace with a horse by letting his heels barely graze the ground so his legs stay fresh.

Entering the race, he ranks among the leaders across several stages. Somewhere along the way he cuts a bargain with Funny Valentine: kill Gyro and Johnny and hand over their Corpse Parts in return for the deed to his tribe's territory. Teaming with Diego Brando on the Michigan Lakeline, he uses In a Silent Way to conjure sound-carrying dinosaurs and attacks the two riders. He badly wounds Gyro, but his certainty that he can finish Johnny proves fatal, as Johnny's newly grasped Golden Rectangle technique deals him a mortal blow. His last thoughts are of his sister and her happiness. A later reveal notes that outsiders coined the name Sandman, since in his own tongue he is the one who creates sound.