Coyote Waits and Representation

 I got paid, so that’s pretty sweet.

I also feel the need to point out that there is a book series about Navajo mythology by an actual Native American woman called The Sixth World and it’s good, you should go read it? Anyhow on to the Note about a Tony Hillerman novel.

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Coyote Waits and Representation

I first read Coyote Waits in high school in my American literature course. The woman who taught the course before the teacher I had apparently decided that it would be worthwhile to read not just the books that were parts of the standard American English literary canon, and threw in a modern mystery novel. It’s an odd choice, but I’m glad that it was made, because when you take high school American literature courses, you don’t actually read that many books that feature Native Americans.

Tony Hillerman’s novels, at least the ones he got famous off of, are about policemen Joe Leaphorn and/or Jim Chee, who work for the Navajo Tribal Police and solve mysteries on Navajo Tribal Lands. I was kind of astounded to discover that Tony Hillerman wasn’t Navajo, considering that he writes a bunch of books about Navajo characters and sharing Navajo beliefs. There are mixed opinions on him; his books are kind of textbook cultural appropriation, by strict definition, and there are many who feel as if he’s kind of a dick because of it. But he’s also been named Friend of the Dineh by the Navajo Tribal Council, donated a lot of his earnings to helping improving the lives of the Navajo people, actually talked to the Navajo about themselves before writing his books, and many Navajo feel he did a good job of representing their people. Which makes him okay in my book.

This doesn’t have much to do with most of the essay, just thought it was necessary to give some background to what I was talking about. And while we’re on disclaimers, I’ll repeat one I’ve used before: When I use the word ‘mythology’ I do not mean a story that is untrue. I use it to mean a story of religious significance. Religion and mythology are not interchangeable; one refers to a set of stories, the other is a set of beliefs and practices. 

In simple terms: Christianity, with going to church on Sunday, is a religion. The story of the Transfiguration is mythology. As a Catholic, obviously I think it’s true, too. Make sense? Cool.

On to the actual meat of what I’m trying to say!

Re-reading Coyote Waits, I can’t help but think: Native Americans don’t really have a lot of good representation in fiction. I mean, at least they’re there, and they’re not always gangsters, which is more than Puerto Ricans mostly get, but… there are certain stereotypes that writers make Native Americans fit into when it comes to fiction. We could give examples of subversions, or fully-fleshed out examples, sure; but by and large, in mainstream fiction, they tend to lean towards this romanticized ideal of a wise sage, or a noble warrior type, or the melancholy remnant of his people, all tinged with a spirituality that’s vaguely exotic. There are well-written and performed characters in there, but most of them fit those bits, and it’s rare to see characterization outside of that. I recently read a revival Lone Ranger comic that tried to do more with Tonto, and this amounted to… giving him a love interest, basically.

Tony Hillerman, on the other hand, makes his Native American characters (who make up most of the cast in Coyote Waits, at least) actually people. You have Chee, a policeman who vaguely has aspirations of being a medicine man, but none of the skill for it. You have Leaphorn, a policeman who is firmly not old-fashioned in his beliefs, but is kind of tired of everyone but still thinks fondly of his deceased wife. You have Janet who is a big shot lawyer who gets annoyed when Chee pulls the ‘More Navajo Than You’ card. And you have Pinto who is a troubled old man that academics are happy to mine and discard for their papers and books.

Navajo mythology and beliefs are not treated as being Wrong or being Right. They are just parts of life. Chee thinks Leaphorn considers it all stupid superstition, but we do not actually see that when we’re in Leaphorn’s head. He doesn’t seem to believe in it, but he doesn’t disparage it either. At most, he’s annoyed that his late wife’s familial connections make him, by Navajo tradition, obligated to look into the homicide that Pinto’s been accused of committing, as he would rather be on vacation.

Chee on the other hand still holds a torch for the idea of being a medicine man, and so he’s obviously more spiritual. But it’s not as if he’s some Magical Native American stereotype; in fact he feels pretty hopeless, because the only people he’s done any work for as a medicine man were his family, and he’s scared that they were only humoring him. And this doesn’t really have much overall significance in solving the mystery; it’s not like he needs to use shamanism to find the murderer or anything like that.

It’s portrayed pretty much exactly as a white Christian considering seminary would be portrayed, truth be told. 

I think there’s a lot of talk about representation, and how you’ve got to do this or that because that’s how to do it respectfully when you’re showing a minority and fiction. And yeah, obviously you’ve got to keep an eye on how you write, and do you best to be respectful; no doubt about that. But there’s this tendency to feel like you absolutely have to make sure every detail lines up with a rigid cultural expectation. Like, for instance I remember finding a Tumblr blog that had a bunch of links on how to write a Muslim character, and all of them basically said, “No you can’t do that, it’s against Muslim beliefs, so a Muslim would never act that way.”

Tony Hillerman wrote a book and said, “I’m going to portray them as people. Some of them are traditional in their lifestyle, others are not.” And that’s… something not a lot of people do. Many writers are so focused on making sure they make characters who are Noble Representatives of Their Culture, they’re no longer characters but stereotypes. Less offensive stereotypes, which is better than offensive stereotypes to be sure, but still stereotypes. 

There’s variety. There’s diversity. There are people. And while there’s nothing wrong with writing role models, when that’s all you want to do for a group of people who don’t get much representation. Representation is about more than making a token role model, it’s about portraying people who don’t get portrayal a lot, and showing them as people.

That’s my two cents anyway.

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