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December 8, 1991

Cover photograph by Alexis Duclos Winter of discontent 14 Gamma-Liaison Euphoria turns to despair in the Soviet Union. By ELIZABETHNEUFFER

EDITOR ANnE ZELLMAN Arural awakening 16 ART DIRECTOR LUCY BARTHOLOMAY Facing bleak futures, teen-age mothers in

ASSISTANT EDITORS rural Massachusetts try to break their FIONA LUIS cycle of hopelessness. By Bi]. ROCHE JULIE MICHAELS

LAYOUT EDITOR DAVID COHEN West seller 18 COPY EDITORS Mystery writer Tony Hillerman remains MAUREEN BROWN VICKI HENGEN true to his readers and to American Indian culture. By NORMANBOUCHER STAFF WRITERS NATHAN COBB DANIEL GOLDEN EILEEN McNAMARA A dissident in Burma JOHN POWERS 20 Who is Aung San Suu Kyi? DESIGNER CATHERINE ALDRICH By MICHAELARIs

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PletJ3eMail To: Lady Grace P.O. Bo:r128 Malden,MA 02148 r-:---r:--r:-,...... ,r-::---.-:--,N . Style 0u.In. Color Size Prtce Street . cttllISt~ip ____ Advntising Sales I---+--+--I---i----i Method oj Paument, :. . Oliver H. P. Rodman 1--+--l--1f----l--I 0 VISAlMaJllercard # . Vice President/Advertising &0."""' . (617) 929·2103 o ChecklMotU!JI Order . Subtotal Robert). Manning DEPARTMENTS r.t4l HondlinB $3.50 0 Lad" Grtu:e C1uzTge# . Advertising Director Sf{1nalure •..•....•...•.....•.•.....•••,...... •.. (617-929-2035) George Harden LETTERS 7 1-800-922-0504 Display Advertising Manager (617) 929-2104 THE INTERVIEW 8 ANITA DIAMANT 10 Unsolicited manuscripts will be PRIMER returned only if accompanied by a 12 self-addressed envelope and ASK BETH adequate postage. 1M Bosl<>n Glcbt 42 ~ai, Mogoziru does not assume FOOD responsibility for unsolicited 43 The leading specialist in intimate apparel material. The magazine's name DESIGN 46 MASS.: Brookline - South Shore PIau _ Watertown Arsena! _ Ma!den (formerlyNtwE~isa HEALTH Hanover Mall_ Cape Cod Mall • lawrence - Greendale Mall, Worcester. Haverhill registered trademark of the Globe 48 Uberty Tree Mall - Emerald Square Mall • Westgate Mall_ New Bedford Newspaper Company. N H . Pheasant lane Mall - Mall at RockinRham Park • Fox Run Mall • Manchester Copyright «) 1991 Globe Newspaper THE GLOBE PUZZLE 61 •.. MAINE: Maine MaU, So. Portlana FLORIDA: Delray Beach Mall Company, Boston, MA 02107. HOT LINES 62 4 est e er Long before Dances with WOlves, mystery writer Tony Hillerman was

heralded for his sensitive treatment of American Indian culture. The

best-selling author's reputation will no doubt grow with the release

early next year of the first movie based on one of his novels.

BY NO RMAN B oue HER

"There's my hawk," Tony Hillerman says, then slowly I wondering what Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee, those two fic- I pushes his bulk up from the sofa and walks to the window. tional officers of the Navajo Tribal Police, would make of it. I You follow him, looking out into the dazzling light. Your The older and more laconic Leaphorn, a disbeliever in eyes adjust, taking iii the New Mexican scene: meadow, both spirits and coincidences, would find some rational ex- houses, cottonwood grove, and, in the distance, the blocky planation for the kestrel's presence - an abundance of ridge of the Sandia Mountains looming over the flat land- tasty grasshoppers, perhaps. At the .sarne time, the bird scape of Albuquerque. Hillerman watches a kestrel fly off in would remind Leaphorn of his wife, Emma, who, before her a straight line from a cottonwood branch. "That hawk will sudden death a few years ago, would have helped him sometimes sit just outside the window by my word proces- appreciate the grace behind this detail of the author and the sor when I'm working," he says. falcon. Jim Chee, on the other hand, would try to reconcile It's a colorful image, you think, this picture of an author the bird's natural history with its supernatural one, in the sitting before the winking cursor on his computer screen same way that he tries - not always successfully - to while a kestrel reads over his shoulder. A suggestive image. balance his identities as both police officer and Navajo Dutifully, you jot it down. Quite a coincidence, though, that "singer," or shaman. Yes, there would be a reasonable ex- the bird would show up just now, on the day of your visit. planation for the bird's presence, but Chee would also Probably no significance to that, unless ... Already you're search his memory for the role of CtmtinWid on Page 40

NORMAN BOUCHER IS A FREQUENT CONTRIBlITOR ms ARTICLE ABOUT MADAWASKA,MAINE. APPEARED IN THE SEPTEMBER 1 GLOBE MAGAZINE. I J

------~----- = providers in rural counties and, possibly, get jobs, sip punch, share cake, and joke dropped by 19 percent, accord- "We need more industry with the young women, There ing to the Alan Guttmacher In- and more skilled training pro- is a feeling of a future here, stitute, a family planning re- grams," says Callahan, the This fall Kathy M, enrolled at search organization, In Berk- coordinator of family services Berkshire Community College; e- shire County, for example, only for the Children's Health she hopes to become a social II_LaII,_ two doctors still perform abor- Program, "And then, we need worker, She has a new baby, _fII__ CloInII ...... Bolr ·._fII_· for tions' Most rural counties have to provide more affordable and work has picked up for her no identified abortion services housing," Callahan also thinks husband, who has brought her - 0IJII0I. at aiL that the schools can playa piv- to the center for the occasion. _1AII1o _ fII__.__ People in the right-to-life otal role, both in preventing Cathy's boyfriend jokes fori ",.....,...,_ ...... movement and others often teen-age pregnancy and in that, now that she has aGED, , , ...... _ _ L.. :=-,=-' suggest adoption as the best helping teen-age mothers to she'll really think she's smart solution to the problem of finish high school, Her tutor recalls having to ... C LI.,I, :b teen-age pregnancy, But if Both Callahan and Chil- push her to do the work, but 1dtIl $. " GI there's one trend that social dren's Health Program director Cathy says she's not surprised service workers around New Linda Small are fighters for that she made it, "I always _-- ..._a_ England have seen in the past young mothers, "I think, in knew I was smart," she says, -l.-Cut) decade, it's that teen-age some ways, that pregnant As for Kate, Callahan says, IlpinIPerm l.--I mothers want to keep their ba- teens take a bum rap," Small well. maybe next time, when RJ ... ··(QIp) bies, Neither Cathy, Kate, nor ... e (Pail) says, "I have seen some very she's ready, Four young moth- IIl!Irap ~ a AppIIo, $lIO Kathy M, ever considered giv- 'caring, responsible young ers getting their GEDs may ~TIat $1<& ing her baby up, "No way am I .,...... -.- $7 mothers coming out of the not make a dent in all the sta- going to go through nine program. The difficulty is that " $ e 8W tistics about teen-age pregnan- months to have a kid, and then they're coming into a culture cy, But Callahan knows the dif- - *" look at him and hand him over that doesn't value children and ference it will make in the lives - 811lCII to someone else," Kate says, women, and it doesn't support of these young women and jliOiel-r - (HftCeadlcaiea~ So it's a service such as the women having children." their families, Children's Health Program that Months later. on a steamy The Children's Health will make the difference for afternoon in July, Cathy and Program doesn't need to do ev- these families over the next Kathy M, are among a group of erything for young families, few years, When their children four mothers celebrating the Callahan says, "But we can 'FF _q/tItr are old enough to go to school, awarding of their GEDs, Dur- help them get through it. All SiIIoa~ 77N...-vSL. __ Cathy, Kate, and Kathy M, can 2lI2 _ . SrdP'loor ing a reception at the Chil- three of these girls are intelli- finish their own educations dren's Health Program, tutors gent, and they're survivors." •

stuck at a kachina dance at a will accommodate him - and pueblo," he says, "I've got four several weeks later resched- West seller characters up on a roof watch- CONTINUED FROM PAGE 18 ules the unfinished mystery for ing this kachina dance, and I 1993, Since 1970, HarperCol- don't quite know what they're lins (formerly Harper & Row) the kestrel in Navajo mythol- going to do next," has published 10 novels about ogy, Was it an omen of some He looks hemused as he Hillerman's Navajo cops, Joe kind? What message from the says this, his voice drawling Leaphorn and Jim Chee. Over spirit world did it bring, and over the syllables, betraying the same period, Hillerman's what would .this.in turn reveal .his rural Oklahoma boyhood. following has grown from a about a man sitting at a word Nothing 'in his demeanor sug- small cult to a mass audience, processor iu his Albuquerque gests that he is feeling the His last three novels have study? Just what did this bela- slightest pressure about finish- made The New York Times gaana, or white man, know of ing the book, At the same time, best-seller list Michael Dorris, traditional Navajo beliefs? his attitude suggests that he author of The Broken Cord and Finally, similar questions has complete confidence in his a professor of Native American would nag at both Leaphorn ability to solve the problem, It studies at Dartmouth, has com- and Chee. Curious men, they may require another trip or pared Hillerman's novels to would take it upon themselves two to the canyons and mesas "the best work of Ruth Ren- to find satisfying answers, an- -;::======::===:;1 on the Navajo and Hopi reser- dell, P, D, James, and Sir Ar- swers that would be in har- Furniture for your children ... and their children. vations west of his house but thur Conan Doyle," noting in a Solid hardwood furniture that's built to stand up 10 the toughest kids ... from the nursery to the many with both reason and the there is no 'place on earth he university and beyond. Maple. oak Of walnul furniture. available ready·to-finish or custom fin- N' I h h ' review of Hillerman's first best ished in a wide selectlon 01 sizes. All constructed with the unsuf1)8SS8d quality that Country avaJo way. S t e aut or lying Workshop has offered for four decades. Stop In soon to see the fu"!iture that we're proud to b t th k tr I? If h ? would rather be than out in seller, A Thief of Time, that his make and you'll be proud to awn ... and own ... and own. Slop In Of send $1.00 lor our a au e es e. so, w y. that country, which he de- 1I~".'ed~...... And why a kestrel? Who is this work "transcends the conven- scribes as "too dry, too broken, tions of the simple whodunit Tony Hillerman, anyway? too empty, too strong for any- Cbesr. Concern- .... -., Storage Bcd. Ilookcase, and plunges the reader into a porary styling, Big drawers. like owning Solid wood sup- one's comfort," In Hillerman fully realized world, populated tradinonal work- a extra chest! Shown: ports the weight- ony Hillerman, mystery u1tfry. a travel book pub- manship. Shown: Full.size. iest volumes. 0 by complex, fascinating charac- 5.Jrawer. 6...Jrawcr. Shown: writer, is stuck, His new lished last month, he writes 9lfzxJ6x71 ters." Tnovel is not yet finished, lovingly of this "high and dry" Hillerman's appeal prom- even though his publisher, place, a landscape "lacking the ises to spread even more in Harper Collins, has already rainfall that makes valleys been promoting it in Publishers January, when The Dark Wind, l1!een, cattle fat, and people the first movie to be made from Weekly and in its own spring rich." catalog, "At the moment, I'm any of his novels, is scheduled country Workshop Of course, his publisher for release. Directed by Errol From Mea code 508 caU: 1..s00.698-9663 2327 Mass. Ave., CambridF. ),fA 02140 (¥4 mile oorth of Porter Square) (617) 876-2262. TUC$.·5ac. l()..S. Thun. 'til 9 • Sun. 12-5 • Closed Moo. 40 Morris, known for his docu- to be accused of having no rela- mentary The Thin Blue Line, tives or of not caring for ones HolidaySroe! Save 20-40% and produced by Robert Red- they have. ford, who owns the movie Although such ethnography rights to all of Hillerman's Na- might seem preachy or boring, vajo police novels, the movie Hillerman's mysteries are nei- will star Fred Ward as Joe ther. He never forgets that, Leaphorn and Lou Diamond above all, he is telling a good Phillips as Jim Chee. story. The Navajo texture is "It used to be that I got two seldom decorative; it is integral kinds of readers," Hillerman to Hillerman's plots. Officer says, "mystery fans and desert Jim Chee and Lt. Joe Leapaom ces<:a/C:anl-d SC'"JI Fluh Flexls, F:dlriC Eames Lounge ChaIr with rats. Now I've got a few desert often succeed where the FBI Ann: List 590 Sale $62 Coruemporarv Italian import Execuuve. crgonomk conuon Onoman----tbc Original! Side: list 575 Sale $SZ l.i.~l5275 Sale $165 usr s';60 Sale $398 Li.'l S3100 Sale $z4S0 ·" rats and mystery readers and a fails because their knowledge lot of people who say, 'I don't of the Navajo way, absorbed usually read mysteries.''' No over a lifetime on the reserva- doubt, the Joe Leaphorn/lirn tion, highlights clues that the Chee books, steeped as they belagaana miss. For example, are in Navajo lore and ritual, in one novel, the FBI tries to appeal to the same audience hide a city-raised Navajo on the that made Dances with Wolves reservation as part of the Wit- such a successful movie. Hill- ness Protection Program; - the om« !I

life. One of the worst insults ably irritates both Leaphorn teamer Buttcrny Chair Arpa Sabrina Stool possible to Navajos, in fact - and Chee is the "Indian-lover.l' Ust $145 Sale $114 F:lhrk: l.L~tSlOO Sale $128 Hcechwood kildl ...n .'Slool 1.1!:lthcr:!.isl S.HS Sale $148 list S220 Sale $128 and, one suspects, the worst in the young white man or worn- Hillerman's eyes, as well - is Continued on Page 49

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Ride up and down safely. UNITS FO~ STRAIGHT OR CURVED STAIR$. Wbeekhait Lifts and Residence Lifts. FOR FREE BROCHURE McLAUTHLIN ELEVATOR CO. 380 Wuhlngton St., Open Mon.·':ri.11.7 P.O. 80s 19&-G Brighton Ctr., Mns. sat. 11-6 152 Sixth St., Cambridle, MA 02142 (617) 782·2523 Sun.12-S (fhc!los~ii'~Iobc (617)661<;797 .. 1-M0-356-8700 For hOlll~ ddlYc!ry. call 466.1818. THE BOSTON GLOBe MAGAZINE, DECEMBER 8, 1991 41 West seller CONTINUED FROM PAGE 41 an, usually dressed in denim jacket and head- band, who has decided to go Indian. As Hiller- man describes it, life on the Big Reservation, which occupies an area of New Mexico and Ari- zona that's larger than all of New England, is a lumpy mix of modem and traditional, white and native. Chee's trailer, for instance, contains both a battery-powered television and the ingredients necessary to perform a Blessing Way ritual. Such details provide the Hillerrnan books with much of their authenticity and wit. In them, Navajos examine the sky closely for signs of rain, but they also check their hunches against the forecasts of the TV weatherman. Leaphom hates whiskey not so much because it is. the white man's poison but because so much of a Navajo tribal policeman's time is taken up deal- ing with drunken Navajos. "There's so much ro- manticizing of Indians," Hillerman says, "and the Indians are very sensitive to it. They laugh at the antilitter commercial that was on televi- sion a few years ago, the one with the Indian standing in all that trash by the side of the road and shedding a tear over it. They know that the reservation is one of the worst places around That's what when it comes to littering." The Boston Globe Besides being enormously popular, Hiller- man's books have won most of the big mystery- Magazine gives its novel prizes, including the Edgar Allan Poe jewelry advertisers Award. He has also been invited to speak at var- ious gatherings of anthropologists and archeolo- every Sunday. We do it gists - even though members of these profes- with fine full-color sions are often the heavies in his mysteries. Perceived as an expert on Navajos, Hillerman rotogravure capabilities has been consulted by lawyers working on cases to make their important involving "skinwalkers," or Navajo witches, and when two members of the Navajo Tribal Police messages shine. And they were murdered near Arizona's Monument Val- ley a while back, reporters called Tony Hiller- find an audience of 2.1 man for quotes. million Globe readers, in- But Hillerman insists that most important to him, as an Anglo, has been the acclaim his books cluding 69% of Metro have received on reservations throughout the Bostonians with incomes Southwest. "Boy, was I sensitive to the Navajo reaction to my books at first," Hillerman says. "I exceeding $75,000, hard was very uneasy that I'd screw something up." to beat. He found, however, that the average Navajo do~s not know a great deal about the tribe's tra- Reserve your space today in The ditional beliefs. "The average Navajo," he says, "is like the average Catholic or Presbyterian. He Boston Globe Magazine and make calls himself a Presbyterian or a Catholic or your sales shimmer. whateve(,but he doesn't know anything about the religion'and sends you to a parish priest to find out about it." Still, Hillerman does not underestimate the influence of tnbal religious beliefs on most res- ervation Indians. In fact, his novels are used in a number of Indian schools to help kindle stu- dents' interest in just such beliefs. His popular- ity among Navajos has been so great that in 1987 he was asked to lead the parade at the Na- ~JJt §OtltOl. 810bt ~ttgtt-~il.t vaio Nation Fair, by far the biggest annual social event on the reservation. For advertising information please call (617) 929~2200 Other tribes have been more wary of Hiller- man's activities. A few of his plots have involved such Pueblo tribes as the Hopi and the Zuni, which discourage members from discussing their complicated religion with outsiders. "In .Source; Scarborough Repon:, CMSA, 1990.

THE BOSTON GLOBE MAGAZINE. DECEMBER 8, 1991 49 ------...... ------.,. Barney Hillerman Pompanoosuc Mills

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Tony Millermln on a retemItIon Ie New MexIco. In addition to preuatlnc a wealth of Informallon about Indian Resource for the Professional Designer opIrttuaJiV and __ .... his ...... raise Issues of cIau and politics. all wllhle the context of a pap turner. 1973," he says, "after Dance "The ad in the newspaper had chronicles of the struggle to- silk & dried flowers Hall of the Dead, the students a kachina carrying a tray of ward hohzho - a Navajo con- wedding decorations. at the Zuni high school asked beer. This is a highly offensive cept combining order, har- New England's leading vases & baskets me to be their commencement image to the Zunis, and one of mony, and beauty - in a con- distributor of quality silk gift & party goods speaker. Everything went fine them called me about it." Hill- fusing world of cultural chaos ficus trees until after I'd delivered my & & erman got the ad changed. and inexplicable violence. HiIl- dried flowers, holiday holiday decorations speech. I was informed that One reason for Hillerman's erman's novels are not who- decorative accessories. eucalyptus some of the tribal elders want- wide popularity is that he man- dunits as much as whydunits. designer ribbons ed to talk to me. I was led into ages to do so much without "There are still a lot of dried wreaths & roses the principal's office, where six violating the conventions of the mystery readers who read for old men were sitting with mystery genre. In addition to the puzzle, primarily," HiIler- CreativeDistnbutors.L.. copies of my book. They had a presenting a wealth of informa- man says in a long interview whole list of questions pre- tion about Indian spirituality with Ernie Bulow, his collabo- 600 Albanv Street at the Flower Market pared, most of them asking and customs, his novels raise rator in Talking Mysteries, a Boston, ~Ia 'i26·552; I ". 'l, J! vl" "II \ -out: ) \ ,1JnI'erect where did you get this informa- issues of class and politics - book just published by Univer- all within the context of a beau- sity of New Mexico Press. tion or that detail. Fortunately, ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;!9!;;;~;;;.-JI was able to cite an academic tifully written page turner . Yet "They want the whodunit, a source for each one. What they the murders in these books do series of clues and a story in were doing was trying to find have a moral point, no matter which they engage in this great out whether anyone in the vil- how cleverly disguised. Crimes game with the writer. ... Usually something beautiful lages had been talking to me" in a Hillerman mystery usually Frankly, I never liked to read isn't very practical. Or - and thus violating the tribe's result from dislocations be- that kind of stuff myself, and I something ptactical isn't very beautiful. Not so with religious secrecy. tween the white and Navajo can't write it. But I'd say more Gfassfyre. That's because a I Yet on occasion the Zunis worlds. Greed, for instance, than half the readers of mys- Glassfyre lets you dose the : I doors on your fireplace ~ ; have asked Hillerman for help and the different ways it is per- teries are looking for that, and before the fire is completely } .11 in dealing with the white ceived in the two cultures can it bothers them that I don't out. That means your homes . ,'.' expensively- heated warm air world. "Not long ago, a bar in be crucial to solving a crime. play that game." won't be drawn out the ~ I Albuquerque wanted to open "I think my books are as chimney and wasted, So the IGLASSFYRI; GlassfyTe does a practICalJob. , something called the Kachina much about love as they are ony Hillerman saw his first ~f::.:u;,~~'IrI,And • ooes ~,_.-'; •• WE MEASURE. WE INSTAU Lounge," he says. Among about crime," Hillerman has Navajos in the summer of Pueblo tribes, kachinas are the said, and, indeed, the highest T 1945. In Hillerman Coun- GOULD & SONS, FIREPLACE SHOP physical representations of good in a Hillerman novel try, a coffee-table book illus- A Division of Wrought Iron City specific religious spirits and so seems to be tolerance and re- trated with photographs by his 259 Worcester !«lad are treated with great respect. spect. His novels are above all (Rte. 9 West) Natick. MA 617-235-6301 or 508-655-1070 late brother, Barney, Hillerman 52 -;~------describes himself at the time from the mythic raid on which foreshadows the towering bors in Sacred Heart was that Hillerman remembers the as "an infantryman home from the ceremony is based. The presence of the natural world the joads had enough money to deep sense of inferiority that Europe, with a patch over my lead rider carried a feathered in the Chee/Leaphorn myster- get to California. The Hiller- went along with being a coun- left eye, a stiff leg, and a sixty- pole to which a long-billed cap ies; this world, animated by mans supported themselves try boy, a memory that he in- day convalescent furlough." was tied. I learned later that spirits, not only provides the with the store and by growing a sists has been key in his rela- Aside from his tour in the the patients being cured were books with their setting and few crops. Many of their neigh- tionships on the Navajo reser- Army, Hillerman had spent all two marines who had come tone but often plays a role in bors were Pottawatomie or vation. "When you're a kid," 20 years of his young life in ru- home to their people from the the narrative as well. Seminole Indians. he says, "you identify 'us and ral Oklahoma. He had never battle of Okinawa. I presume It would be 25 years, Wanting the best possible them.' In our case, the country been west of El Paso. the cap was a trophy taken though, before Hillerman could education for their son, Hiller- boys were us and the town A chance meeting at a USO from a Japanese soldier." put this experience directly to man's parents' somehow per- boys were them. As country dance in Oklahoma City led to Later, Hillerman learned use. Born on May 27, 1925, suaded the SIsters of Mercy to boys, we wore bib overalls, a job hauling a load of oil-drill- that the purpose of this particu- Hillerman grew up with his accept Tony into the girls' didn't know how to shoot pool, ing equipment to a destination 'lar ceremony was to cleanse older brother and sister in the boarding school. Thus he grew and didn't know how to use a in the western New Mexico the returning Navajo soldiers tiny hamlet of Sacred Heart, up Catholic in the Protestant phone. This difference was far section of the Navajo reserva- of their contact with non-Nava- Oklahoma, which was nothing Bible Belt, a white kid sur- more important than any racial tion. "I know now," Hillennan jo cultures. more than a crossroads outside rounded by Indians, and a boy differences between me and writes, "that those first Nava- Quite a profound sight for a the -town of Konawa. Sacred in an all-girls' school - all of the Pottawatomies. Later, jos encountered were partici- young Catholic Okie redneck Heart's main features were a which, he says, helped him lat- when I started visiting the pants in a curing ceremony .... unsure of his future. The mo- cotton gin, a filling station, and er to establish an immediate trading posts on. the Navajo All I knew then was what I saw ment foreshadowed what re- a general store run by Hiller- rapport with Southwestern reservation, I realized these - a group of mounted men and mains Hillerman's obsessions man's father. On the hill above tribes. were the same damn people women emerging from a thick- 46 years later. The incongru- Sacred Heart were a Catholic "Growing up that way," who were sitting on the front et of pinyon and juniper' and ities - the magical appearance church - a somewhat unusual Hillerman says, "you really porch at my daddy's store. crossing the dirt road ahead of of a group of traditionally building for the South - and a appreciate what it's like being a They're sitting around thinking my truck. There was a trail dressed Navajos in front of a largely abandoned Benedictine minority. For example, trying outsiders are looking down there, I'm sure, but it wasn't truck hauling oil-drilling equip- monastery that stood near a to practice being a Catholic their noses at them. I know visible from where I stopped, ment; the violent symbol in girls' boarding school run by while surrounded by all these just what to say to these peo- and the riders seemed to such a setting of a Japanese the Sisters of Mercy. The near- Protestants made you sympa- ple." emerge as if by magic from that soldier's hat from one of the est library was 35 miles away. thize with the poor Pueblo In- After his 1945 experience great cliff of pink-and-salmon bloodiest battles of World War "I remember rolling hills, dians who try to maintain some driving oil-drilling equipment sandstone that forms the II- suggest many of the nov- red clay, a lot of gullies, and dignity in their ceremonies to New Mexico, Hillerman southwest wall of Mariano els' themes. And the element scrub oak," Hillerman says, with us rednecks staring at studied journalism under the •Mesa. Some of them were in of landscape (the careful de- adding that the only difference them all the time. I really GI Bill. In 1948 he married his ceremonial attire, painted and scription of the "great cliff of between the Joads in The appreciate cultures based on University of Oklahoma class- dressed as warriors returning pink-and-salmon sandstone") Grapes of Wrath and his neigh- faith." mate Marie Unzner, and by

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THE BQSfON GLOBE MAGAZINE. DECEMBi':R 8. 1991 53 f

1952 he had become chief of a shooting of a tribal policeman ton. Anyway, some very nice two-man UPI bureau in Santa on the Jicarilla Apache reserva- lady came up to me and asked tHoJidaySpecialslJ Fe. Two years later, he moved tion, a man who had apparently why I used two different detec- to The New Mexican, working been a tough and well-respect- tives. She said, 'Frankly, [ can't his way up to executive editor ed cop. Maybe the story would tell them apart.' You hear a lot and thus fulfilling a longtime have a tribal policeman in it. of things when you're signing ambition to edit a capital-city "One day," Hillerman re- books, but that one was like a newspaper. calls, "you say, 'All right, I spear in the heart. [ came back "Santa Fe is such a weird gotta quit stalling.' You can't and wrote Skinwalkers." place for someone like me, quite get to work, because you Published in 1986, Skin- who's basically a redneck cot- just know that what you're go- walkers brought Leaphorn and ton farmer. I had a Pulitzer ing to write is going to get re- Chee together to work on the award winner writing a column jected. So you finally write a same case. They have been in for me at $10 a week. I had a first chapter, and you write it all three books since then, de- National Book Award winner over and over and over. You veloping individually and in as book editor for $40 a week." still don't have a book, but contrast to each other. Coinci- Meanwhile, Hillerman har- you've got a really great first dentally, the three books have bored the dream, common at chapter." been Hillerman's only best the time, of writing The Great It took Hillerman three sellers. American Novel. "In 1962, Ma- years to move beyond that first Ten mysteries after quit- rie said, 'If you're going to do chapter. When he began send- ting his editor's job, Hillerman it, you ought to do it,' " Hiller- ing the manuscript around, his still has not written the Ameri- man recalls. He was about to agent told him to stick to non- can War and Peace. The tug of turn 37. He had six children. fiction, but if he really had to mysteries remains too strong. He enrolled in the graduate write a novel, she said, for Right now, for example, four writing program at the Univer- God's sake, take out all that In- characters wait for him atop sity of New Mexico, lined up a dian stuff. A sympathetic editor that pueblo roof. In Talking part-time job there, quit as edi- at Harper & Row gave him ad- Mysteries, Hillerman writes tor of The New Mexican, and vice on rewriting what he had about a Navajo librarian with moved his family to Albuquer- submitted, and in 1970' The whom he once discussed the . o.~'mpo~~/; que. "I wanted to be an author, Scandinavian Furniture Blessing Way, introducing Lt. work of the Indian novelists I\~~~ C ?)C• ~ capital A," he says. "I had no Joe Leaphorn of the Navajo Leslie Silko, James Welch, and ~ .) Open Mon., Tues. 10-&: Wed., Thurs., Fri. 10.9; 5.t. 10-5 "508. great social purpose. I'd been a ~ Tribal Police, was published to Scott Momaday. Their work _. Rle. 114 Middleton, Mass. 01949 (Near Danvers line) 777-1353 reporter and an editor for 17 high praise. Its first chapter, existed on a plane far above years, and now I just wanted to Hillerman says, looks nothing his, he told the librarian. "They get a book published." like the one he had worked on are artists," he remembers The book came slowly. He for so long three years earlier. saying. "I am a storyteller." MON01YPE: THE ONE AND ONLY finished his academic work at Since then, the novels have The librarian responded: thru Dec. 16, 1991 the university and took a job followed at a steady rate. After "Yes. We read them, and their teaching in the journalism de- two more Leaphorn mysteries, books are beautiful. We say, partment. He decided he would Hillerman began to feel limited 'Yes, this is us. This is reality.' hold off writing the American by Leaphorn's strictly logical But it leaves us sad, with no equivalent of War and Peace for and somewhat jaundiced view- hope. We read of jim Chee, and the moment and work on point. People of Darkness re- Joe Leaphorn, and Old Man something a little easier - a placed Leaphorn with Officer Tso, and Margaret Cigaret, and mystery, perhaps. The idea Jim Chee, an aspiring shaman MON01YPES MAKE GREATGIFTS! the Tsossies and Begays, and came to him to set a novel on from the eastern "Checker- the Navajo reservation be- again we say, 'Yes, this is us. board" section of the reserva- But now we win.' Like the sto- POWERS cause, if he couldn't keep the tion, where non-Navajo influ- plot interesting, at least "there ries our grandmother used to ences are strongest. Then the tell us, they make us feel good would be all this Navajo stuff" GALLERY novels took on a new, more about being Navajos." to engage the reader's atten- AND FINE FRAMING complex shape. "I was signing "As a fellow country boy," 342 Great Rd., Acton e Junction Rts. 2A & 27 • ;08-263-5105 • Call for hours tion. He remembered editing a . .' 1\- -.. - .' -, books someplace," Hillerman Hillerman says, "I am proud of story once about the fatal says. "It may have been Bos- that." •

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IN THE BOSTON GLOBE MAGAZINE jANUAR Y 26, 1992

SPACE RESERVATION DEADLINE,

DECEMBER 18. 199'

54