Throughout Skeleton Man, Hillerman repeatedly contrasts Native American cultures with a stereotypical Caucasian culture. In every case, the Native ways are portrayed as sensible, understanding of fellow creatures, and entirely within the context of nature. Conversely, the white man's culture is depicted as greedy, selfish, motivated by a desire for wealth and power and more or less oblivious to nature. In short, he paints Native American culture as good and pristine, while painting Caucasian culture as evil and inferior. Do you believe this is an accurate portrayal?

Do you think that some of Mr. Hillerman's distaste for white men's culture is nostalgia for the simple but robust days of his youth when he ran wild, in a positive sense, with his Pottawatomie and Seminole playmates? What grown man would not look back nostalgically at such a past?

Is the author's juxtaposition of modern and...