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Navajo Cops to Star in TV Show

"... only sagebrush, rabbit brush, snake weeds, and the endless variety of demure little blossoms produced by dry country grasses" — Tony Hillerman, Arizona Highways In the 38 years I knew Tony Hillerman, we didn't talk much about writing. We talked about a lot of other things — football, fishing, newspapers (he had been a reporter and an editor), baseball, poker, religion, politics, food, war, power (and his eternal enmity toward those who abused it at the expense of the powerless). We talked about everything under the sun, but we didn't talk much about writing. So I never was able...

PHOENIX -- Tony Hillerman, author of the acclaimed Navajo Tribal Police mystery novels and creator of two of the unlikeliest of literary heroes — Navajo police officers Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee — died Sunday of pulmonary failure. He was 83. Hillerman's daughter, Anne Hillerman, said her father's health had been declining in the last couple years and that he was at Presbyterian Hospital in Albuquerque when he died at about 3 p.m. Hillerman lived through two heart attacks and surgeries for prostate and bladder cancer. He kept tapping at his keyboard even as his eyes began to dim, as...

Navajos, Late Author Hillerman Shared Affection Monday, October 27, 2008 10:02 PM FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. -- On the Navajo Nation where tribal members sometimes hesitate to open up to outsiders, they embraced Tony Hillerman as an honest and genuine man who wanted to learn about their culture and get the details right. Hillerman, who died Sunday of pulmonary failure at age 83, was author of the acclaimed Navajo Tribal Police mystery novels. His books in the Navajo series were characterized by vivid descriptions of Navajo rituals and of the vast reservation in the Four Corners region. But Hillerman's relationship with the...