The Blessing Way

Joe Leaphorn is the second protagonist and an officer in the Window Rock Law and Order office. He is one of McKee’s longtime friends and has a wife named Emma. Leaphorn describes himself as someone with an extremely logical mind that thinks in terms of cause-and-effect. He has a skill for understanding human behavior, especially his fellow Navajos, and for being able to “sort out the chaos of observed facts and find in them this natural order” (203). For example, Leaphorn is able to build an accurate narrative of George’s trips up and down Ceniza Mesa from a few tire tracks, boot prints, and scratch marks, and the evident haste involved in the man’s actions indicates to Leaphorn that he’s a Relocation Navajo. Leaphorn exists on the border of insider and outsider in his community, as he grew up and lives in the Navajo Nation, but as an officer of the “white man’s laws” (102), he’s treated with hesitancy and distance. He is nicknamed Blue Policeman by his community and drives an official Law and Order carryall truck that alerts people to his status.

Leaphorn has a deep knowledge and respect for his people and culture, but his strong sense of reason prevents him from fully believing in its mythology. He has “a white man’s haircut” (92), which to elders like Sandoval, illustrates this distance he feels. He struggles with feeling responsible for Horseman’s death since he didn’t take the rumors seriously, which happened previously in his career. He tries to adhere to Navajo philosophy as much as possible, especially the tenet of patience. He doesn’t like to rush to conclusions and is willing to take his time to investigate a crime scene so he can uncover all the evidence before making his theories.

Ellen Leon is a secondary character and a catalyst for McKee’s development. At the beginning of the novel, Ellen is the fiancée of Dr. Jimmy Hall. She enters the narrative looking for him as he works covertly in the Navajo Nation. Ellen comes to Canfield for advice about where to look, and she eventually visits the Nation herself. Ellen was initially drawn to Hall’s adventurous side, but she detests his greed, which is what she wants to tell him when she finds him. 

Ellen is sympathetic and caring, even in the face of McKee’s wild appearance and erratic behavior. She goes along with his instructions because she thinks he’s hallucinating from an injury, though she tries to steer him to stay near camp so she can treat his injuries. McKee initially dislikes Ellen’s pity for him, but he sees that it’s just her caring nature, and he vows to protect her. Regardless of how McKee sees her, Ellen is resourceful and smart, and she grows frustrated with McKee treating her like a child and shielding her from the truth. When left on her own, Ellen makes a smoke signal to attract Leaphorn’s attention, which ultimately saves her and McKee.

Ellen is portrayed as a traditional love interest. She is beautiful, with long dark hair and deep blue eyes, and McKee is immediately attracted to her. She still wears her engagement ring, but as Ellen grows to care about McKee, her words of concern give him hope that she’s interested in him too. At the end of the text, Ellen sends a letter to McKee about her plans to visit him, implying a romantic conclusion to their relationship.

George Jackson, known throughout the text as the Big Navajo, is the narrative’s antagonist. At night, George dresses as a Navajo Wolf, donning a full wolf’s pelt over his shoulders and a wolf’s skull on his head to scare people out of Many Ruins Canyon. George tries to fully embody this figure by performing violent acts, like injuring horses and shooting at herds of sheep. His violence and prowling in the northern Navajo Nation generate gossip that witches are in the region, and though he wants this to deter people from exploring the area, the gossip only attracts McKee and Leaphorn’s attention. During the daytime, George wears his hair in short braids and has a large black hat and silver concho. He is jovial and friendly, even when threatening people, which makes him appear all the more dangerous. He is intensely calm and takes his time when speaking so he doesn’t give away too much to the wrong people.

Despite using a supernatural figure in his scheme, Geroge doesn’t believe in Navajo witchcraft, and he treats the belief with “heavy sarcasm” (180). George lives in Los Angeles, where he was moved as part of a government relocation project, and Leaphorn refers to him as a “Relocation Indian” (267). George grew up severed from his culture and only learned its stories through books. He has an elementary grasp of the Navajo language and prefers to speak in English. He drives a Land Rover with a winch on it, which he uses to transport the radar equipment. George has a long history of illegal activity, and Eddie claims that his reputation for successfully completing illicit contracts reaches all the way to the East Coast. George’s actions are motived by greed, and he’s willing to kill people and animals to achieve his goals. George’s fatal flaw is his hubris. He believes he’s infallible since he’s never failed a contract before. In the end, this vanity leads to his demise, as George underestimates McKee’s perseverance and dies by his lance.

Luis Horseman is a minor character whose murder is the catalyst for the text’s central mystery. Horseman is 22 years old and grew up in the Navajo Nation, though he works in the surrounding cities. As Horseman is exposed to non-Navajo cultures and expectations, he comes to represent the alienation of young Navajo people to their traditions. Leaphorn describes Horseman as someone “lost somewhere between the values of The People and the values of the whites. No good even at crime” (95). Horseman has a history of disorderly drinking and opens the narrative on the run after stabbing a man in a drunken fight. Horseman knows some aspects of his culture, like the deities and myths, though he admits he didn’t pay much attention when his uncle tried to teach him songs. Horseman desperately tries to reconnect to this culture for his survival by chanting to the Holy People for protection and singing to attract game to his traps, though he’s unsure on the wording. George, the Big Navajo, murders Horseman simply because his disappearance might draw Law and Order’s attention to the Many Ruins Canyon region.

Dr. Jeremy Canfield is a minor, static character and McKee’s colleague in the University of New Mexico anthropology department. He is researching Anasazi ruins, which is partially why he agrees to visit the Navajo Nation with McKee. Canfield worries about his friend ever since his divorce, so he pushes McKee to go on the trip to reignite his academic enthusiasm. Canfield is a comedic character who cracks sarcastic jokes with McKee to lighten the mood. Even the Big Navajo recognizes how amusing Canfield was in their brief interaction before he kills him, calling him a “nice fella” who was “full of jokes” (174). Canfield plays the guitar and was practicing a new song before his death. His quick wit translates to general mental quickness, as he signs the note the Big Navajo forces him to write with a false name to secretly alert McKee to the danger. Canfield fights until the end and tries to escape from the Big Navajo, but this leads to his death.

Sandoval is a minor symbolic character. Sandoval is 81 years old and a professional Singer for traditional Navajo ceremonies, like the Enemy Way. He learned the trade from his father and takes great pride in performing the ceremony following the “Old Ways.” Sandoval represents the generational divide between older and younger Navajos, as his observations expose the dramatic changes in tradition and adherence to cultural norms. He is deeply regretful that younger people don’t have the same respect for the traditional rites and only seem to gather so they can party and drink. His spirits brighten somewhat in his interactions with Leaphorn, since he obviously knows the Old Ways, but he also sees that even men like Leaphorn don’t fully believe in Navajo stories.

Eddie Poher is a minor antagonist and George and Dr. Hall’s partner. Eddie is a young white man with blonde hair and blue eyes who wears a straw hat and gun holster. Unlike the Big Navajo, Eddie sometimes speaks without thinking, and his carelessness reveals information about their work that George is trying to keep secret from McKee and Ellen. Eddie is skilled with a gun and handles it “as naturally as a pipe smoker handles a pipe” (187). Eddie is from the East Coast and has ties to the mafia. His defining characteristic is his greed, as he joined the radar data theft scheme—and other illegal contracts—to secure himself nearly $200,000 in cash. Eddie’s sharp instincts backfire when he dodges McKee’s trap too well and falls into the crevasse and dies.

Billy Nez is a minor flat character and Luis Horseman’s younger brother. Billy is around 16 years old and lives with his uncle, whose last name he took. He is loyal to his family, and his main motivation throughout the narrative is seeking revenge for Horseman’s murder. He appears throughout the narrative as a distant figure stalking the Navajo Wolf on horseback until Leaphorn finally meets him at the Enemy Way ceremony. Billy wants to be taken seriously as a man, and he successfully argues with the adults to be the Scalp Carrier for the Enemy Way. Billy is adept at tracking people through the desert, as he finds the Wolf on Ceniza Mesa and steals his hat, and later finds McKee and the radar in Many Ruins Canyon. Billy’s desire for revenge complicates Leaphorn’s investigation, as he feels like he must race with the young man to catch the Big Navajo first.

Jimmy Hall is a minor antagonist and Ellen Leon’s fiancé. He works as an electrical engineer, but he has ambitions of selling patents. Hall is dissatisfied with his academic career, since it feels like he’s “caught in a system which keeps you on the treadmill” (223). He joins Eddie and George in their illegal activity with the portable radars to make quick money to escape his monotonous life. Hall is from a ranch in New Mexico, and Ellen is initially attracted to him because of his adventurous stories of riding horses and navigating the canyons. Hall wears cowboy-esque attire and has blonde hair and blue eyes. In the end, Hall shoots himself to evade arrest.