Conner Quigley
Tony Hillerman a voice of
the Navajos
Remember
back in grade school when you had to walk a half hour to go to class that was
made up of 90% girls. I have to say not many have that memory but that’s just
the beginning of Tony Hillerman’s story.
The main question that caused me to write this essay is how does a
person of a different people become able to write about them. If you know any
background on Tony Hillerman you’ll understand why he was such a legendary
writer on fictional characters based on the Navajo people. If not It will be
explained later in this paper. Also mentioned will be the history of the
Navajos, Why Tony Hillerman became such a great writer on the Navajo people,
and then end with a summary.
What gave Tony Hillerman the
jump start to writing about the Navajo? To start it had to be he grew up
surrounded by Navajo’s. At a young age he got stuck in going to an all Native
American girl’s school provided by the Pottawatomie and Seminole Tribes who
accepted a couple boys to attend. As a young boy he hung out and was a part of
what he referred to as “country boys” (Washington post interview 1987). In his
interview he stressed on how country boyish the Navajo boys were and how they
were always separate from town boys. You can imagine from the great book he
wrote like “Talking God” that they had quite an imagination. After
finishing high school he enlisted in the Army and went to fight in a battle
commonly known as d-day in Normandy. Just an example of what a great writer he
was transforming to be the “Daily Oklahoman” printed some of his wartime
letters. Once back in the U.S. he went on to college at the University of
Oklahoma receiving an undergraduate’s degree. After college he went on to
become a newspaper reporter and editor in Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. In
’63 Hillerman went on to finish his schooling at the University of New Mexico
in Albuquerque. Tony Hillerman became the writer he was by the history of his
past. Loving the people you grew up with, which were of a different people makes
writing about them so easy. “There were town and country boys, and the potts
and me were country boys, see? We wore bib overalls and carried our lunch in a
sack. The town boys wore low-cut shoes and belt pants. To this day I still feel
much more comfortable around redneck country boys than I do with yalies.”(Washington
Post) In this interview you can see what bond Hillerman had with his Navajo
friends. The Navajo were great at teaching. As you already know he was educated
from Navajo people from the beginning. A
few facts worth mentioning about the Navajo are for example they are the
largest North American Tribe to date, there is an independent government body
that runs who gets what Indian reservation and property, and the Navajo are
also known as dine from their traditional language.
Not important but a subject
need to be touched upon is why did he chose to write about Navajo’s? What you can’t
go around saying is that he only wrote about them because he didn’t he had tons
of adventures involving detective and military personal. He also published a
few books describing the scenery of the southwest but His main drive in words
related to Navajo’s. If you don’t believe what you’re reading then go and look
at his 18 book Navajo series. He became famous writing about a people he was
never born into. Which leads me to my final argument of how a person becomes as
a good of a writer as Hillerman who writes about a different culture other that
his.
Riddle me this have you ever
tried riding a bike or driving a car. Chances are it wasn’t pretty but after
much practice you perfected it to your liking. Hillerman lived the same way he
learned about The Navajo until he knew so much that he could describe them
accurately in intelligently. In the first body paragraph there was a brief
description on Hillerman’s education. Think about how much time he really spent
studying those great people. It was a connection from the start and all that
puzzle needed was a little piece to be put together.
In review Tony Hillerman was
such a great writer of The Navajo’s because of his drive to learn about them
and his childhood of trust with them. From the days of going to an all girls
school to the finishing of college that led up to his writing ability of The
Navajo. This puzzle of a person was an example to what knowledge and past can
combine. The real stress of this essay is to prove a point that anyone can
write about anything if they have the tools to complete the job.
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