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Anne Hillerman does justice to her father’s creation
Book Review
By Derryll White
Hillerman, Anne (2024) Lost Birds.
Tony Hillerman created the character Joe Leaphorn, a Navajo Tribal Police Lieutenant, in ‘The Blessing Way,’ 1970. This was Hillerman’s first published novel and set the tone for a wonderful series that has captured the beauty and majesty of the Navajo Nation reserve. At 71,000 square kilometres it is the largest land area held by a Native American tribe, taking in portions of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.
Anne Hillerman is Tony’s daughter, and upon his death she continued the Leaphorn, Chee and Manuelito series with an additional nine volumes so far. She has made her father’s literary legacy her own, continuing a sensitive exploration of Navajo traditional ways in a changing world.
‘Lost Birds’ is an appellation for Diné children that have been removed by adoption from their tribal homeland and their cultural traditions. In 1978 Congress created the Indian Child Welfare Act to protect children from their possible removal from tribal communities. Anne Hillerman’s character Stella Brown is insistent in exploring the possibility that she was a Navajo child removed from her homeland just before the ICWA was passed.
The author is careful in exploring the emotionally complex issues of adoption and culture loss. This is a moving story, set in the context of a Supreme Court battle to dismiss the ICWA (which was upheld in 2023 by a 7-2 vote). Stella Brown tugs at the reader’s heartstrings as she resolutely attempts to discover if she is Diné or not.
There are other stories that the author weaves into this pressing issue – boarding schools and colonialism as well as rampant wild dogs and federal funding of education. All combine to give a wonderful sense of the wide sweeping vistas and lonely appeal of the Navajo heartland. The author is also careful to point out that, while there are hardships involved in living in remote hogans with no running water or inside plumbing, there are cultural values and traditions to be maintained and some are happy to pay the price. Food for thought for sure!
Anne Hillerman does justice to her father’s creation, and justice to the Navajo Nation as it moves ahead, separate but synonymous with the larger world. This is definitely a good read.
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Excerpts from the novel:
WOMEN – “Of course, he wanted to know about missing and murdered indigenous women and if it’s a problem there.”
“Is it?”
“Yes. Almost everywhere, and throughout history, women have been exploited and subjugated. Women with fewer resources take more than their share of abuse. Native Hawaiians….” Lisa paused. “Don’t get me started.”
MISSING PEOPLE – As Leaphorn walked to his truck, he thought of the many families of missing people he’d worked with over the years. The problem had grown worse recently. He attributed some of it to the expansion of the internet, which made it easier for native or desperate people to be lured into dangerous situations.
PLACE NAMES – …Darlene suggested that they surprise Mama with a trip to Chinle to see Mr. Natachi, her old neighbor. The drive from Toadlena would take them through the beautiful landscape of Red Rock, Lukachukai and Tsaile. They could treat the two elders to a picnic lunch at Canyon de Chelly.
VANISHED WOMEN – “You know, people act like this missing Native woman issue is something new, but it really isn’t. It’s been a problem for decades, but I hear it is worse now than it’s ever been. I hate to say this, but I assume alcohol and a bunch of bad choices killed Starla.”
Leaphorn’s mind turned to the calls he had dealt with in his years in active law enforcement and how many of the crimes he’d worked, from family violence to vehicle crashes, involved alcohol. Easily accessible, booze was a tragic curse delivered along with the gifts that came from interaction with mainstream America. Bootleggers and trips to border towns worked to counteract the Navajo Nation’s prohibition of alcohol sales.
– Derryll White once wrote books but now chooses to read and write about them. When not reading he writes history for the web at www.basininstitute.org.
