Natives and near-natives of the Southwest will mourn the loss of one of it's greatest voices.
Novelist Tony Hillerman, official friend of the Navajo (he received the "Special Friend of the Dine" award in 1987) and, far beyond a Louis L'Amour, a culturally and socially accurate, as well as geographically accurate, surveyor of the West -- but with Hillerman, the modern West, or a slice of it -- has died at 83.
Here's his take on the reasoning behind his murder mystery protagonists, Lt. Joe Leaphorn and Officer (later Sgt.) Jim Chee:
"I want Americans to stop thinking of Navajos as primitive persons, to understand that they are sophisticated and complicated."
You did a damn fine job, Tony. You're already missed.
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