Jim Chee
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Jim Chee is one of two Navajo Tribal Police detectives in a series of mystery novels by Tony Hillerman. Unlike his superior, "Legendary Lieutenant" Joe Leaphorn, Chee is a staunch traditionalist; indeed, he is studying to be a shaman at the same time that he is a policeman.
Chee has had many personal troubles over the course of the series. He first falls in love with a white schoolteacher teaching primary school on the reservation, but finds that they will never be compatible; she wants him to give up many of his Navajo ways and become, essentially, white, which he cannot do. Chee next falls in love with Janet Pete, a half-Navajo, half-white lawyer attached to the local prosecutor's office. Though this romance starts out strong, it, too, disintegrates, as Janet cannot give up many of her ways, yet wants Chee to leave the reservation. Eventually, she betrays him, and they part ways. Chee's third, and, to date, final romance is with Bernadette Manuelito, a full-blooded Navajo and member of the Tribal Police; this is the one that seems to have the potential to last. At the same time, Chee's uncle Frank Sam Nakai tells him that he won't really make a good shaman, a message that devastates Chee.
Chee and Leaphorn do not get along terribly well at first; Leaphorn views Chee (justifiably) as too hot-headed and impatient, while Chee has great respect for Leaphorn but sees him as too stodgy. Chee is willing, however, to call on Leaphorn whenever he is stuck with a particular problem in a case. Eventually, the two men develop a healthy respect for each other, if not a deep friendship.
Hillerman has said (in his 2002 autobiography, Seldom Disappointed) that he created Jim Chee as an alternative to Leaphorn for the novel People of Darkness (1980) because the novel is set on the Checkerboard Reservation, and Hillerman felt that Leaphorn was too hardened to fit into the plot. He needed someone more naive, and Chee fit the bill.
Bibliography
Jim Chee appears in the following novels:
- People of Darkness (1980)
- The Dark Wind (1982)
- The Ghostway (1984)
- Skinwalkers (1986) made into a Mystery movie by the Public Broadcasting Service
- A Thief of Time (1988) made into a Mystery movie by the Public Broadcasting Service
- Talking God (1989)
- Coyote Waits (1990) made into a Mystery movie by the Public Broadcasting Service
- Sacred Clowns (1993)
- The Fallen Man (1996)
- The First Eagle (1998)
- Hunting Badger (1999)
- The Wailing Wind (2002)
- The Sinister Pig (2003)
- Skeleton Man (2004) ISBN 0060563443
In every novel from Skinwalkers on, he is joined by Joe Leaphorn.