57 pages • 1-hour read
The Blessing Way
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Chapters 13-15Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of animal cruelty, animal death, racism, graphic violence, and death.
Chapter 13 Summary
In the morning, McKee lays in a thicket of willows and hears Ellen Leon’s car approaching. He worries his wild appearance will frighten her, but he needs her help to escape. He walks onto the path as she speeds past, and he yells at her to stop. He tells her that he’s a friend of Dr. Canfield, and she unlocks the car to let him in. He makes her turn the car around and promises to explain as they drive. Overnight, McKee slowly made his way down the canyon as the Wolf stalked him from above. He kept still in the shadows and ran to the opposite side of the canyon when he was sure the man left. McKee understood that Canfield likely wasn’t coming back, and that his note was a warning. Just before dawn, a rock gave way and McKee tumbled to the canyon floor, dislocating his pinky and hitting his head. He cleaned his wounds in a pool of water, and as he wandered in the growing daylight, he began to fret about Ellen.
Back in the car, McKee explains Canfield’s note and the man stalking their camp. He wants Ellen to drive to Shoemaker’s, where they can call the police. They stop at the sound of a loud motor, and when they investigate, they see a Land Rover winching a tree to block the road. They use the sound of the winch as cover to drive back to McKee’s camp. There is no sign of Canfield, so McKee collects food and his pocketknife. He tries to start his truck, but the spark plug wires are missing. They return to Ellen’s car, and McKee directs her up the canyon. Ellen would rather return to the camp to wait for help, since McKee obviously has a concussion and severe hand injury. She slows down, but McKee presses on the gas pedal and orders her to obey, promising to apologize later if he turns out to be wrong. They drive on silently, and Ellen cries.
Ellen turns into a narrow tributary, which has tire tracks on it. After overcoming an obstacle of rocks, they park, conceal the car, and continue the path on foot. After 50 yards, Ellen sits and claims she twisted her ankle. McKee feels hopeless about making progress, and Ellen again suggests returning to camp. First, McKee inspects the tire tracks and finds Canfield’s camper further ahead. He breaks into the locked truck and discovers the deceased body of his friend in the trunk. He closes Canfield’s eyes and pushes him back into the vehicle. He runs back to Ellen and informs her that they must keep going. He tugs on her arm, and when he lets go at her complaint, she runs to the car and locks herself in. McKee threatens to break the window and coerces her out.
When they turn around, the Big Navajo suddenly appears with his pistol and blocks their path. The man calmly asks McKee to lean against a tree and checks him for weapons. He checks Ellen too, and when McKee turns to look, the Big Navajo hits him with the gun. He asks how McKee evaded him and laughs at his good luck that they waited so long in the canyon. Ellen and McKee walk ahead, and Ellen apologizes for not believing him. At the camper, McKee asks why the Big Navajo killed Canfield, but he claims it was just bad luck. They walk over increasingly rough terrain to a steep rockface, and the Big Navajo instructs McKee to climb and wait at the top, or else he’ll shoot Ellen. McKee follows these orders, making a silent promise to protect Ellen. When they all reach the summit, the Big Navajo inspects McKee’s injured hand. He wants to soak the hand to reduce the swelling, since he needs McKee to write a letter.
Chapter 14 Summary
The Big Navajo drives with Ellen in the passenger seat and McKee tied up face down in the back. Ellen tells the man that lots of people know she’s in the canyons, and that it’s her fault McKee got caught. He sarcastically claims Navajo Wolves can turn into many animals, so he would’ve captured McKee anyway. From the list of animals he shares, McKee senses the man got his information from an anthropology book. The vehicle stops at the Big Navajo’s tree trap, and he exits the vehicle to winch the trunk out of the way. When they’re alone, Ellen reports on her conversation and asks McKee if he’s all right. McKee tells her to look for an opportunity to run and hide, and he teaches her how to navigate by the stars to Shoemaker’s.
The Big Navajo returns and drives to McKee’s camp, where he and Ellen collect McKee’s papers. After a few more miles, they park at a narrow canyon near an Anasazi cliff dwelling. A young white man, Eddie, greets the Big Navajo, who he calls George, and inspects the tied-up McKee. Ellen and McKee get out of the car. Eddie is surprised McKee hasn’t written the letter yet, but the Big Navajo wanted Eddie’s extra security. Eddie agrees that there’s too much money involved in their scheme to take any chances.
After flipping through McKee’s papers, the Big Navajo orders McKee to write to Dr. Green, head of the anthropology department, that he, Canfield, and Ellen are leaving the canyon to work somewhere else. He and Eddie need time to vacate the area without anyone prying, and Canfield’s disappearance might cause an investigation. He promises not to kill McKee and Ellen if they cooperate, since he only killed Canfield because he tried to fight back. He plans to leave the pair in the Anasazi ruins with food and water until they’re found or escape on their own. McKee doesn’t trust the Big Navajo, so he persuades the man that a triple-homicide will draw more attention than just one murder. When he’s satisfied the man sees his logic, McKee agrees to write the letter. To stall for time, he describes at length how he’ll explain the change of location. He and Ellen both lie that she’s his graduate assistant.
For the whole exchange, McKee keeps his hand down to increase the swelling in his finger, and when he lifts it to grip the pen, the pain is unbearable. Ellen tells him not to write, and he feigns anger at her for causing the whole mess. McKee writes a single shaky word and suggests writing with his left hand, but the Big Navajo thinks that will draw too many questions. The men consider their options and inspect McKee’s hand again. The Big Navajo orders Eddie to bring McKee and Ellen into the cliff dwelling, where they’ll treat his hand.
Chapter 15 Summary
Leaphorn borrows a horse and travels to the Ceniza Mesa as fast as possible. As he drives down the highway, he ponders the motive for Horseman’s murder and concludes the Big Navajo must have found the Army’s missing missile, and he and Horseman must have fought over ownership for the reward, not knowing it was cancelled. The Big Navajo then moved Horseman’s body away from the missile so Law and Order wouldn’t find it. The theory calms Leaphorn, but the radio voice of a Navajo trying to convert people to “the Jesus clan” (201) angers him. He shuts the radio off and sings a Navajo song to himself instead.
He rides up the mesa on horseback and expects to find the same tire marks Billy Nez drew for him. The imprints would indicate that a truck drove up the mesa light and carried an added load down. He finds these tracks, confirming his theory, but he also finds an older set of tracks that show the truck carried something heavy up the mesa. Leaphorn systematically makes sense of the new evidence and forms a clearer picture of the Big Navajo’s movements. He drove from the southeast up the mesa with a heavy metallic object in the back, stopping periodically to clear the path. He dropped the object on a flat piece of sandstone and drove back the way he came.
On the second trip, the truck approached using a different path, and boot prints indicate where Billy Nez stole the hat. The man then drove up to the object, lifted it onto the truck, and drove off. Leaphorn wonders if the different approach was meant to be faster, but it’s out of character for a Navajo to hurry. Leaphorn looks out toward the direction he must travel, and he feels a creeping sense of urgency. He reconsiders Horseman’s murder and asks why a Navajo would kill one of his own. Murder among Navajo isn’t common, as death is extremely fearsome. The Navajo Way also teaches against greed, so Horseman wouldn’t have been killed for profit. Leaphorn is sure the Big Navajo is one of the People, but his short braids hint that he was removed from the culture. Leaphorn speeds away toward the Tsosie hogan, where he’ll track Billy Nez and save him from confronting the dangerous man.
Chapters 13-15 Analysis
Ellen Leon enters the narrative in Chapter 13 and introduces a new relationship dynamic with McKee. Ever since his sudden divorce, McKee has been wary about women, and he admits in the lead up to Ellen’s arrival that he’s not sure a woman would believe his story. He thinks, “There simply was no way to explain it all without sounding like a complete fool” (148). McKee’s belief that women are too mysterious to understand, that their minds work inherently differently than men, prevents him from being completely honest with Ellen about the danger they face. This belief is largely a product of both the crime noir genre and the time period (1970) in which the book was written. At that time, American definitions of masculinity and femininity were strict and lacked nuance. For example, McKee doesn’t correct Ellen’s hopes that Canfield will be alive at the camp, since he doesn’t want to frighten her and thinks she’s too delicate to handle the truth. Since he withholds information from her, Ellen doesn’t grasp the severity of their situation until it’s too late. With the information she does have—that McKee hit his head against a rock—she is under the impression that McKee is hallucinating from a concussion. Ellen is a sympathetic character who both pities and fears McKee, and though McKee resents her pity, his romantic nature also paints Ellen as a potential love interest. He feels disappointed when he sees her engagement ring, and he frets over what she will think seeing such a “large man with a badly torn shirt, a bruised and swollen face, and an injured hand” (140). Ellen’s caring nature motivates McKee to change his mindset, as she appears genuinely concerned about him. McKee makes a vow to protect Ellen from harm to prove to himself that he’s capable of being brave.
These chapters also introduce the Big Navajo as a pivotal character and possible antagonist. The text emphasizes the duality of his personality, as he appears both calm and friendly, but is also carelessly violent. For example, McKee describes how the Big Navajo “seemed genuinely amused” (172) by McKee’s story about why they got stuck in the canyon, only moments after hitting him in the head with his pistol. The Big Navajo describes his murder of Canfield as “just bad luck” (174) after complimenting the deceased man for being a “nice fella” (174). The Big Navajo’s volatility terrifies McKee and makes the Big Navajo appear as a wild card, whose movements and intentions can’t be predicted.
These chapters introduce the Big Navajo’s major character flaw: his vanity. He has a high opinion of himself and his skills, and he believes with certainty that everything will go as he plans. His conversation with Ellen exemplifies this trait, as he dismisses her supposition that McKee would’ve escaped by saying, “Lady. Drop it. You don’t know who I am. Nobody gets away” (181). The Big Navajo is so sure of himself that he underestimates McKee, which leads to his demise in future chapters.
These chapters expand on the theme of The Complexities of Law Enforcement in Indigenous Societies, exploring how Leaphorn’s cultural perspective sometimes hinders his investigative work. As he investigates the Ceniza Mesa, Leaphorn tries to understand the Big Navajo’s behavior through the lens of a Navajo from the Nation, but nothing he theorizes makes sense. For example, Leaphorn can’t understand why the Big Navajo would kill Horseman over something like a monetary reward because “Navajos did not kill with cold-blooded premeditation. Nor did they kill for profit” (210). The very idea goes against core Navajo values. The Navajo Way is a motif in the novel; it describes the philosophy of Navajo life and how to live in harmony. The Navajo Way instructs people to rid themselves of extremes and to place “little worth on property” (210), which results in a life of patience, compassion, and simplicity. Leaphorn’s acceptance of the Navajo Way as the only influence on a Navajo’s life prevents him from understanding the truth of the case right away. Only after he recognizes that the Big Navajo must have spent time away from the Nation does Leaphorn see that understanding the crime solely through a Navajo lens is folly. Leaphorn struggles to adhere to the Navajo Way in these chapters, as he wants to take his time to figure out the mystery, but he also feels a sense of urgency to capture the criminal, per his job as a police officer.
The theme of The Role of Cultural Knowledge in Survival returns in these chapters as McKee tries to evade capture by the Big Navajo. He must survive in the darkened, dangerous landscape, as well as predict the Big Navajo’s movements. The text shows how McKee keeps to the shadows of the canyons and hides among its natural geography to evade detection, even though running away along the canyon’s sandy bottom would be a more direct route to safety. McKee describes the stealth required in his movements by comparing them to his military experience in Korea: “Years before, when his company of the First Cavalry had been rearguard in the long, leapfrog retreat down the Korean Peninsula from Seoul toward the Pusan beachhead, he had learned how it felt to be hunted” (144). This memory highlights how McKee sees the situation and emphasizes that it’s not unfamiliar, which gives him an advantage that the Big Navajo doesn’t expect. The Big Navajo is incredulous that a man like McKee—a white professor from the city—could outmaneuver his tracking skills in his native environment. He chalks McKee’s initial success up to luck. However, after capturing McKee, he brings McKee to Eddie so he doesn’t escape again.
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