Lone Barbarian Wanderer

My latest plotbunny (actually one that has been biting me for over a year) features a Native American warrior who's visiting ancient Nubia and wants to earn some money so he can buy himself a prostitute's services. The whole thing is meant to be a pastiche of Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian stories, but I'm having trouble justifying why my Native American is exploring the world all by himself. Were there ever really guys who wandered the ancient world by themselves in search of adventure ala Conan?

I'm no expert, but that sounds a bit... culturally insensitive? Just Native American, you can't be any more specific than that?

I'm thinking Ojibwe in particular.

Plenty of idiots did wander alone back in the day. Some even survived and left records.

If your "barbarian" understands the concept of Money and Prostitution, I don't think he can be considered a barbarian.

He's more of an ancient Frat Boy on an Epic Solo Road Trip.

Your biggest problem is not the wandering (all sorts of reasons for that) but how did he get across the freaking Atlantic!

A friend of mine once pointed out you can't have prostitution (as we understand it) until you have currency: "Okay, what will you do for 3 chickens then?"

DC did a comic in the early 80's called Arak:Son of Thunder, about a Native American shaman who ended up at the court of Charlemagne and had all manner of sword/sorcery type adventurers.

I'm pretty sure Conan understood currency and prostitution, and he was still "the Barbarian." "Barbarian" is something other people call you, sometimes for no greater reason than what you eat or the way you bury your dead.

Your guy could be on a spirit quest in which he has to "walk the Earth." He could have been kidnapped by slavers. The Japanese fished the waters off the Pacific Northwest for centuries before Europeans landed, so perhaps your guy hitched a ride with them and made his way across Asia. Really, the possibilities are endless.

The nice thing about a Conan style would be that you don't have to stick strictly to actual history, and there are a bunch of pre-Columbian contact theories, that while totally lacking in actual evidence, should work fine in your story. I would go with the Phoenicians, they were famous for seafaring so it at least seems a little plausible.