navajo nation

Navajo Nation

Four Corners

Four Corners

Map of Navajo Nation

“CheckerboardReservation”

The Navajo Reservation

Radio Station

Mt. Taylor

Window Rock

Window Rock is the capital of the Navajo Nation

Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee are stationed here, about 70 miles from Crownpoint

Shiprock

The Shiprock office of the Navajo Tribal Police does the preliminary investigative work on the Victor Todachene hit-and-run case

Tuba City (Arizona)

Crownpoint

Jim Chee was stationed here on his first assignment

The Navajo jail in Sacred Clowns is in Crown Point

Thoreau, New Mexico

A Navajo Hogan

Pueblo Indians

Tony HillermanHow did you get started writing mysteries? “I was on a convalescent furlough after World War II and got a job driving a truckload of oil field equipment from Oklahoma City to an old oil well on the Checkerboard Reservation... I was driving across the country near Crown Point where I encountered a group of Navajos... After I unloaded the stuff, I asked a rancher what was going on. He told me a couple of the Navajo Marines were back from the Pacific, and they were having a curing ceremony for them. Would they mind if I went? They said "No, if you stay sober and behave yourself." I was tremendously impressed by it. I thought that's a great way to welcome your men back from the war. I never forgot. That was 1945. “

Navajo Codetalkers

Kachina doll