SOURCE: Fitz, Brewster E. “Ethnocentric Guilt in Tony Hillerman's Dance Hall of the Dead.” MELUS 22, no. 2 (summer 1997): 92-103.

In the following essay, Fitz examines the anthropological and ethnocentric themes in Dance Hall of the Dead.

Tony Hillerman's ethnographic detective novels have been widely acclaimed. He has acquired a loyal following of readers among both Native and Anglo-Americans as well as international readers. This success has been attributed in part to the Navajo detectives Hillerman has created, who, according to Ernie Bulow, open up “a world of interesting characters, beautiful landscapes, and a people who see things in different terms than Anglo-American culture,” and in part to Hillerman's having a “hell of a knack as a storyteller” (Hillerman and Bulow 14).

Hillerman is not the first or only writer to introduce detectives from non-Anglo or non-European cultures into mystery novels.¹ His Navajo policemen, Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn, are, however...