NATIVE AMERICAN DETECTIVES - A Chronological Checklist compiled by Steve Lewis

    This list of Native American detectives was motivated by the discovery of the private eye character who is presently at the top of the list, presented in chronological order.  That detective is named Eagels, an Iroquois living in England in the early1930s, and he appears in only one book, The Disappearance of Archibald Forsyth (Hutchinson, 1933).  My review of the novel appears here.  In terms of being first, no other Native American who is known to have appeared  in a sleuthing role in a work of crime fiction even comes close to challenging Eagels, who is known by only the one name. 

    Of course there is always the possibility that Eagels will be replaced by another, but given the fact that of the various people who have making lists similar to this one in recent years, few of them have included anyone who qualifies going back much further than the early 1970s. 

    There are always the dime novels of the late 19th century.  One could find almost anyone working as a detective in some obscure edition, and almost no one would know about it.

    To be truthful, this list contains more than detectives.  There are lawyers, spies, occasional villains, hit men perhaps, and subsidiary characters in novels in which the primary detective is not Native American, which also includes Canada and Mexico as well as points further south.  I also include protagonists in thriller novels in which the leading character is caught up in crime-related events of one sort or another and has to figure his or her way out.  A fairly elastic definition, you might say, and I might say that you are correct.

    In each case, only the detective’s first appearance is listed.  Putting them in chronological order will give you a sense of history.  Through the 1960s, there are at the present time only seven entries.  In the 1970s, beginning (of course) with Tony Hillerman, more and more begin to appear.  By the late 1990s and into the present century, there has been a veritable flood of Native American detectives, some of them well known, but most of them not.  They all have a place here.

    There are many, many gaps in these entries.  Please fill in any information that you might have.  Listings include: Author, Character, Tribe, First Appearance (book or story), and year.  When an author has created more than one Native American detective, both are listed under the author’s name, regardless of the charcater’s first appearance.  Tribal affiliations have proven the most difficult to determine.  In particular, Marvin Lachman pointed to me, after seeing a preliminary version of this list, that in a few cases I mention that the character is a Pueblo Indian. “In New Mexico,” he points out, “there may as many as a dozen different pueblos. It is the equivalent of a tribe. Therefore, if you have the name of the pueblo, you should add it.”

    Good advice, but while I will eventually follow through on it, I haven’t yet had the time to do so.  Help me out if you can.  After I posted a request there earlier this year, a large number of individuals on DorothyL gave me names of authors or detectives for possible entries.  They also suggested various places elsewhere on the Internet where I should go to look.

    Sadly, I have lost the list of names of everyone who gave me assistance.  Besides Marv Lachman, however, I know both Andi Schecter and Enid Schantz sent me several emails.  Others I can mention – and if your name is not here, and it should be, just let me know – are:

    Jeannette Cezanne, Joan Miller, Victoria Kemp, Mary Jo Eyth [a long list!], Susan Robinette, Toni L. P. Kelner, Kim Malo, and Ken Seeman.

    Sites I was pointed to include:


    There are other places to look.  Most of the large bookselling sites (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, et al.) allow you the possibility of searching by category.  I stopped doing this when the same most recent entries kept coming up, but a more “exhaustive” approach may have gained one or two possibilities that I’ve missed.  There are no entries from 2005, for example, and there is no reason to think there should not be.

    At the moment, however, as of November 27, 2005, this is where I am.  Thanks to everyone who assisted, whether your name is here or not.  Someone else can take over Stage Two, which consists of annotating all of these entries, if they wish.

IAN ALEXANDER
    Eagels, Iroquois, The Disappearance of Archibald Forsyth, 1933.
“JOHN GRANGE,” pseudonym of ROBERT LESLIE BELLEM & W.T. BALLARD [and others?]
    Jim Anthony [pulp hero]; half-Comanche, half-Irish; “Dealer in Death,” Super-Detective, October 1940. 
MANLY WADE WELLMAN
    David Return, Tsichah (a fictional tribe combining aspects of the Cheyenne and the Pawnee), “A Star for a Warrior,” EQMM short story, April 1946.  [The story won the first of the annual EQMM contests begun that year.]
OLIVER LA FARGE
    Spotted Shield, ‘Golquain’ Apache (also a fictional tribe), “Woman Hunt No Good,” EQMM short story, 1951.  [The story won Third Prize in that year’s EQMM contest.]
NOEL CLAD
    John Running Tree, “full-blooded Indian,” The Savage, 1958.  [The leading character is a hit man for the syndicate who unacountably goes soft.]
BILL S. BALLINGER
    Joaquin Hawks, “American Indian,” The Chinese Mask, 1965.  [More information on Hawks is needed.]
JAMES MOFFATT
    Johnny Canuck, quarter-Sioux, Time for Sleeping, 1965.   Note: Most sources list the four Johnny Canuck books that came out in 1965 in alphabetical order.  Using the numbering on the British paperback series published by Compact, the correct order should be: Time for Sleeping (F264), Blue Line Murder (F265), Time for Sleeping (F264), and The Eighth Veil (F283).  Four more appeared in 1966.
TONY HILLERMAN
    Joe Leaphorn, Navaho, The Blessing Way, 1970.
    Jim Chee, Navaho, People of Darkness, 1980.
RICHARD MARTIN STERN
    Johnny Ortiz, part Apache, Murder in the Walls, 1971.
BRIAN GARFIELD
    Sam Watchman, Navaho, Relentless, 1972.
M. K. WREN
    Conan Flagg; half-Indian, half-Irish; Curiosity Didn’t Kill the Cat, 1973.
WARWICK DOWNING
    Joe Reddman, “American Indian,” The Player, 1974.  [Joe Reddman is the father of David Reddman, a prosecutor who appears in one large role in one of Downing’s books, plus (perhaps) several minor ones.]
L. V. ROPER
    Jerry “Renegade” Roe; half-Cherokee, half-Irish; The Red Horse Caper, 1975.
CHELSEA QUINN YARBRO
    Charley Spotted Moon, Ojibwa, Olgilvie, Tallant & Moon, 1976.
MARTIN CRUZ SMITH
    Youngman Duran, Hopi, Nightwing, 1977.
    Sergeant Joe Pena, Pueblo Indian, Stallion Gate, 1986.
RICHARD HOYT
    Willie Prettybird (a/k/a Willie Sees the Night), Cowlitz shaman, Fish Story, 1985.  [The first appearance located for Prettybird so far is this book, the fourth in the John Denson private eye series.]
DOUGLAS McBRIARTY
    Deputy Billy Birdsong, Cherokee, Whitewater VI, 1987.  [The primary detective is Sheriff Peter McPhee.]
WILLIAM BABULA
    Chief Moses Tamiami, Seminole, St. John’s Baptism, 1988.  [Private eye Jeremiah St. John is the primary detective.  Chief Moses is one of two other partners.]
CHRISTINE GENTRY
    Sam Featherock, Navaho, When Spirits Walk, 1988.  [supernatural]
    Ansel Phoenix, half-Blackfoot, The Mesozoic Murder, 2003.
JAMES W. KUNETKA
    Thomas Reyes, Pueblo Indian, Shadow Man, 1988. 
SCOTT YOUNG
    Matteesie Kitologitok, Intuit Eskimo, Murder in a Cold Climate, 1988.
JEAN HAGER
    Mitch Bushyhead, half-Cherokee, The Grandfather Medicine, 1989.
    Molly Bearpaw, Cherokee, Ravenmocker, 1992.
LINDA HOGAN
    Stace Red Hawk, Sioux, Mean Spirit, 1990.
AIMEE & DAVID THURLO
    Ella Clah, Navaho, Second Shadow, 1990.
    Lee Nez [part vampire] aka State Patrolman Leonard Hawk, Navaho, Second Sunrise, 2002.
MIRIAM GRACE MONFREDO 
    Jacques Sundown, half-Iroquois, Seneca Falls Inheritance, 1992.  [The primary detective is Glynis Tryon.]
LOUIS OWENS
    Professor Cole McCurtain, part Choctaw-Cherokee, The Sharpest Sight, 1992.  [The primary detective is Mexican-American sheriff Mundo Morales.]
    Jacob Nashoba, Choctaw, Nightland, 1996.
DANA STABENOW
    Kate Shugak, Aleut Eskimo, A Cold Day for Murder, 1992.
MARK A. BURLEY
    Sheriff Sam Keeyani, ??, “Night of the Coyote,” MURDER, SHE WROTE, Nov 22, 1992.  [Portrayed by actor Graham Greene, himself an Oneida Indian.  Since this is a TV program, I’m opening this up far more than I intended to.  This is the only TV character I’ve included, but you can write me about others, if you’d care to, and I’ll include them in a future issue along with any other corrections and additions.NOTE: My original information came from imdb.com.  Other sources suggest that the sheriff and Sam Keeyani were separate characters, the latter played by Floyd “Red Crow” Westerman.  Imdb states that Westerman played Uncle Ashie Nakai.  I’m somewhat inclined to believe Imdb.
JEROME CHARYN
    Joe Barbarossa, Nez Percé, Montezuma’s Man, 1993.  [The primary detective is NYPD Commissioner Isaac Sidel.  Does Barbabossa appear in earlier books in the series?]
CECIL DAWKINS
    Ginevra Prettifield, part Sioux, The Sante Fe Rembrandt, 1993. 
    Tina Martinez, Pueblo Indian?, Clay Dancers, 1994.  [Series sleuth Rueben Rubin is the primary detective.]
JAKE PAGE
    Connie Barnes (girl friend of blind sculptor Mo Bowdre), Hopi, The Stolen Gods, 1993.
WILLIAM SANDERS
    Taggert Roper, Cherokee, The Next Victim, 1993.
    Hosea Smoke, Cherokee, Smoke, 2000.
STEPHEN SOLOMITA
    Roland Mean, “Native American”, A Good Day to Die, 1993.
J. F. TRAINOR
    Angela Biwaban, Anishinabe, Target for Murder, 1993.
PETER BOWEN
    Gabriel Du Pre, Métis Indian (descendents of Native Americans and French fur traders), Coyote Wind, 1994.
ROBERT J. CONLEY
    Sheriff Go-Ahead Rider, Cherokee, Go-Ahead Rider, 1994.
JAMES D. DOSS
    Charley Moon, Ute, The Shaman Sings, 1994.
    Daisy Perika (Charley’s shaman aunt), Ute, The Shaman Sings, 1994.
MERCEDES LACKEY
    Jennifer Talldeer (Kestrel-Hunts Alone), Osage-Cherokee shaman, Sacred Ground, 1994.
MARGARET COEL
    Vicky Holden (with Father John O'Malley), Arapaho, The Eagle Catcher, 1995.
MICAH S. HACKLER
    Gabe Hanna (deputy to Sheriff Cliff Lansing), part Navaho, Legend of the Dead(?) 1995.  [Known to be in Coyote Returns, 1996, the second in the Lansing series.]
ADRIAN C. LOUIS
    Rudy Yellow Shirt, Oglala, Skins, 1995.
THOMAS PERRY
    Jane Whitefield, Seneca, Vanishing Act, 1995.
NAOMI STOKES
    Jordan Tidewater, Quinault tribal sheriff (female), The Tree People, 1995.  [supernatural]
LEONA GOM
    Vicki Bauer, “part American Indian (Canadian)”, After-Image, 1996.
CAROLE LaFAVOR
    Renee LaRoche, Ojibwa, Along the Journey River, 1996.
MARDI OAKLEY MEDAWAR
    Tay-bodal, Oklahoma Kiowa, Death at Rainy Mountain, 1996.
    Karen Charboneau, Chippewa, Murder on the Red Cliff Rez, 2002.
MARK T. SULLIVAN
    Diane Jackman, Micmac puoin, The Purification Ceremony, 1997.    [suspense thriller]
ROBERT W. WALKER
    Lucas Stonecoat, “Native American”, Cutting Edge, 1997.
WILLIAM KENT KRUEGER
    Corcoran “Cork” O’Connor, part-Ojibwe, Iron Lake, 1998.
CHRISTOPHER A. LANE
    Ray Attla, Inupiat Eskimo, Elements of a Kill, 1998.
ROBERT WESTBROOK
    Howie Moon Deer, Lakota, Ghost Dancer, 1998.
O’NEIL DE NOUX
    John Raven Beau, part Lakota, “Murder Most Sweet,” EQMM, June 1999.
KATHLEEN O'NEAL GEAR & W. MICHAEL GEAR
    War Chief Browser, 13th century Chaco Anasazi, The Visitant, 1999.
WAYNE JOHNSON
    Paul Two Persons, Chippewa, Don’t Think Twice, 1999.
STEPHEN LEWIS
    Massaqouit, a Pequot sachem, The Dumb Shall Sing, 1999.  [The primary detective is 1640s New England midwife Catherine Williams.]  NOTE: I am not the Stephen Lewis who wrote this book.
MARILYN MEREDITH
    Tempe Crabtree, of Yanduchi heritage, Deadly Omen, 1999.
KIRK MITCHELL
    Emmet Quanah Parker, Comanche, Cry Dance, 1999.
    Anna Turnipseed, Modoc, Cry Dance, 1999.
SUSAN SLATER
    Ben Pecos, Pueblo Indian, The Pumpkinseed Massacre, 1999.
    Tommy Spottedhorse, Hawikuh, Yellow Eyes, 2000.  [This is the second Ben Pecos book.  Did Spottedhorse also appear in The Pumpkinseed Massacre?]
S. D. TOOLEY
    Sam(antha) Casey, half-Sioux, When the Dead Speak, 1999.
S. D. TOOLEY as LEE DRIVER
    Sara Morningsky, “Native American” shape-shifter, The Good Die Twice, 1999.  [Sara is an assistant to private eye Chase Dagger.]
DAVID COLE
    Laura Winslow, half-Hopi, Butterfly Lost, 2000.
J. M. HAYES
    Mad Dog, quarter Cherokee, Mad Dog and Englishman, 2000.  [The primary detective is Mad Dog’s brother, Sheriff English.]
MARCIA MULLER
    Sharon McCone, full-blooded Shoshone, as she discovers in Listen to the Silence, 2000.
SALLIE BISSELL
    Mary Crow, half-Cherokee, In the Forest of Harm, 2001.
BETTY WEBB
    Jimmy Sisiwan, Pima Indian, Desert Noir, 2001.  [Jimmy is the partner of private eye Lena Jones.]
DAN WHIPPLE
    Lt. Oldman, Arapaho, Click, 2001.  [The primary detective is crime scene photographer Mick McClary.]
MARY ANNA EVANS
    Faye Longchamp, “a smidgen of Native American blood” and her sleuthing partner Joe Wolf Mantooth, “primarily of Creek (or Muskogee) descent,” Artifacts, 2003.   NOTE: The quotes were taken from a statement by the author on DorothyL.
HARTLEY GoodWEATHER  [THOMAS KING]
    Thumps DreadfulWater, Cherokee, DreadfulWater Shows Up, 2003.
SARA SUE HOKLOTUBBE
    Sadie Walela, half-Cherokee, Deception on All Accounts, 2003.
EDWARD WRIGHT
    Joseph Mad Crow, “Native American,” Clea’s Moon, 2003.  [The primary detective is John Ray Horn, who now works for his former sidekick in the movies.]
SIMON LEVACK
    Yaotl, Aztec slave in Mexico, 1517; Demon of the Air, 2004.  [Winner of the UK Debut Dagger Award.  Published in the US, Sept 2005.]
LORNA SCHULTZ NICHOLSON
    Intuko, Inuit minister, See Fox Run, 2004.
   

    Not confirmed or borderline possibilities:

GEOFFREY HOMES
    Humphrey Campbell, part Paiute??, There There Were Three, 1938.
REX STOUT
    Tecumseh Fox; despite the name, denies being part-Native American; Double for Death; 1939.
SUZANNE BLANC
    Inspector Miguel Menendes, Mexican-Aztec?, The Green Stone, 1961.
REX BURNS
    Gabriel Wager, mixed Anglo and Chicano roots, The Alvarez Journal, 1975.
MARGARET TRUMAN
    Christine Saksis, half-Indian?, Murder at the FBI, 1985.
WILLIAM F. NOLAN
    Nick Challis (half-brother of PI Bart Challis), half-Indian?, Helle on Wheels, 1992.
ARTHUR WILLIAMS  [JOHN MILES aka JACK BICKHAM]
    Johnelle “Johnny” Baker, Choctaw?, Missing at Tenoclock, 1994.

    Closely associated detectives:

LOUIS L’AMOUR
    Mike Raglan, The Haunted Mesa, 1987.  [Raglan is called in mystical fashion to investigate the unexplained sudden disappearance of the Anzazi, an enigmatic race of southwestern cliff dwellers in the 13th century.]
RICHARD PARRISH
    Joshua Rabb, The Dividing Line, 1993.  [Rabb is a Jewish lawyer from Brooklyn who moves with his two children to Tucson in 1946 to accept a position with the Bureau of Indian Affairs.]
LETHA ALBRIGHT
    Viv Powers, Tulsa Time, 2000.  [Powers is a reporter for the Tahlequah Daily Tribune in Cherokee County, Oklahoma, and her three cases on record deal with matters involving the Cherokee nation.]


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