57 pages • 1-hour read
The Blessing Way
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Themes
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of animal cruelty, animal death, racism, graphic violence, and death.
Alienation From Traditional Culture
Several Navajo characters in The Blessing Way are alienated from their traditional culture due to the encroachment of outside influences, particularly white, urban values. The text portrays this movement away from traditional practices as having negative impacts both on the individual and the Navajo community as a whole. Sandoval, an 81-year-old elder of the Navajo Nation, sees the changes to his community firsthand, especially at traditional ceremonies like the Enemy Way. Sandoval describes the changes in attitude among young people who come to the ceremonies: “In the old days there wouldn’t have been any drinking and gambling at a ceremonial like this” (89). The younger generation, many of whom go to school or work out of the Nation, are exposed more to “white man” culture, which to Sandoval waters down their understanding and acceptance of their own culture. Sandoval must guide Charley Tsosie through the Enemy Way step by step, and even “had to remind him to face the east” (87), which he claims older generations knew by heart. Even those like Leaphorn who have deep knowledge of the culture appear to not fully accept it, which further proves to Sandoval that the Old Ways are being lost.
Luis Horseman and George, the Big Navajo, are two characters who embody this alienation. Though Horseman grew up in the Nation, he works mostly in the cities and has thus picked up habits like excessive drinking and aggression. Leaphorn describes Horseman as “just another poor soul who didn’t quite know how to be Navajo and couldn’t learn to act white” (67), leaving him adrift in the middle, not able to fit in comfortably with either group. When Horseman is hiding from the police and the Navajo Wolf, he tries to remember the lessons from his uncle so he can survive in the wilderness, but he realizes he wasn’t paying attention like he should’ve. He feels disconnected from the Holy People, who are meant to provide protection, because he doesn’t know the right songs or rituals to contact them. The text portrays Horseman’s attempts to reconnect with his culture as last-ditch effort to return to his roots so he can survive the consequences of his un-Navajo actions—the stabbing of another man.
George is a more extreme example of alienation, as he didn’t grow up surrounded by other Navajos and their traditional practices and philosophies. As such, what George knows about his culture “he must have got out of a book” (268) rather than being raised on its principles. Emphasizing this alienation, Navajo people who interact with George use the Navajo language because of the way he looks, but George prefers to speak in English, the dominant language of the cities. While investigating, Leaphorn is surprised by George’s violent behavior in the name of money, since his actions run so contrary to all Navajo philosophy. George grew up in Los Angeles as part of a government initiative to relocate Navajos to places where they could work, but the text shows that this project was a massive failure, as it turned George into a violent, money hungry man who would kill and scare his fellow Navajo for his own profit. George’s alienation from the values of Navajo culture produces the narrative’s main conflict and ultimately leads to several unnecessary deaths.
The Complexities of Law Enforcement in Indigenous Societies
As a crime novel, The Blessing Way explores how law enforcement operates differently in Indigenous societies, since the Law and Order office must navigate both traditional and American-imposed rules. As Leaphorn explains, the laws he enforces are the “white man’s laws” (102), forced on an existing culture that had its own forms of protection and punishment. Leaphorn must therefore approach his investigations and cases with a mindset that balances the cultural practices and behaviors of his people with the requirements of the law. For example, Leaphorn cannot arrest anyone on suspicion of being a witch, despite the fear this figure is generating in his community. He must wait until someone commits an actual violation because “the white man [does] not recognize witchcraft as an offense” (102). The community, on the other hand, takes the witch sightings seriously. To protect themselves, they conduct an Enemy Way ceremony, which is meant to turn the witch’s powers against him to weaken and eventually kill the man. None of the people affected by the witch report their troubles to the police, as they know Law and Order has no jurisdiction over the supernatural.
When Leaphorn does suspect a crime has been committed, the text depicts the different techniques he must employ to investigate within the Navajo community. Leaphorn knows that Navajo people are quite secretive, especially with those outside their clans, so he’s often restricted in how much information he can extract from those he questions. Leaphorn both respects and curses “his close-mouthed people” (120), as their extreme caution with outsiders makes his job take longer than he would like. To combat this, Leaphorn must take his time building trust, speaking about mundane topics and gossip before eventually turning to his real inquiries. In spite of this, the Navajo Nation also has an extensive gossip network that Leaphorn both uses to learn information and send out his own information. For example, Leaphorn visits Shoemaker’s trading post to learn more specifics about the witch gossip while also sending out word that Horseman’s victim is recovering in hopes that the boy will come out of hiding before Law and Order conducts a full-fledged manhunt.
The deep-seated values of the Navajo people help Leaphorn in his investigations, as he can easily pinpoint natural and unnatural behavior. The Navajo Way of harmony and nonviolence is the guiding principle of Navajo life, so Leaphorn refers back to the Way while he puzzles out the motive and timeline of Horseman’s murder. He guesses correctly that Horseman would hide near his mother’s clan in the north, which leads Leaphorn to consider homicide rather than a self-inflicted death when Horseman’s body is discovered in the south. Leaphorn’s knowledge of Navajo behavior also draws his attention to the strangeness of the motive for Horseman’s murder, as it becomes clear that he was killed for profit, not out of “anger or fear” (209). Using the lens of the Navajo Way initially impedes Leaphorn’s investigation, as he makes assumptions about the Navajo suspect based on the tenets of Navajo life. When he finally realizes that George has little connection to his Navajo culture, he’s able to detect and predict the outsider-like behavior and save Ellen and McKee.
The Role of Cultural Knowledge in Survival
The narrative’s action occurs primarily in the daunting landscape of the Arizona desert, where the characters must use all of their skills and knowledge to survive severe geography and dangerous situations. The text opens with Luis Horseman trying to survive on his own in the canyons, and it demonstrates the traditional Navajo skills he falls back on for his nourishment The opening chapter specifically highlights how Horseman creates tools out of the natural environment for the purposes of hunting. For example, he creates deadfall traps out of stones and twigs to attract kangaroo rats, and when these prove unfruitful, he whittles a lance out of branches to hunt prairie dogs. Though Horseman’s efforts with the traps are unfruitful, the text juxtaposes his familiarity with how to live off the land with McKee and Canfield. Though both men study Navajo culture, they live and work in the city, so instead of relying on the natural environment to provide their food as they camp, they bring in a carload of groceries and supplies so they can focus on their research instead of survival.
Though their skills at hunting differ, both Horseman and McKee successfully manipulate the region’s geography to conceal themselves from those hunting them. The canyons, mesas, plateaus, and valleys can be treacherous, but they also provide ample cover for the men on the run. Horseman, wanting neither the police nor the trucks working in the area to see him, constructs his camp under a granite ridge so the light of his fire won’t be visible. McKee similarly keeps himself hidden in the shadows of the canyon as he runs away from the Big Navajo. For example, when running from the Big Navajo, McKee takes the longer route along the opposite canyon wall because he knows that “trading the easier going along the bottom for the invisibility offered by the rocks and brush” (144) will increase his odds of surviving the night. McKee, familiar with being stalked in an unfamiliar environment due to his time in the Korean War, thus uses his experience to evade capture, knowing that moving slowly and with the geography will provide the best chance of escape.
McKee’s historical knowledge of the area further helps save him and Ellen as they’re forced into an enclosed ancient dwelling and left to die. To Ellen, the dwelling’s architecture is insurmountable and causes immense anxiety about their impending demise. McKee, however, notices quirks in the structure that alleviate his fears. McKee knows that the Anasazi ruins are too old to be in such good condition, which indicates to him that someone restored the structure more recently. His anthropological expertise allows him to recognize the faded Hopi deity on the wall, leading him to find the escape tunnel out onto the cliff, which all Hopi houses have. Without this knowledge of Hopi construction, McKee and Ellen would’ve either had to risk their lives ambushing Eddie and George inside the dwelling, or leave their lives to chance, hoping someone would stumble past the dwelling and find them.
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