 jim chee is one of two navajo tribal police detectives in a series of mystery novels by tony hillerman.george n. dove and earl f. bargainnier (eds), cops and constables: american and british fictional policemen, popular press, 1986, pp. 98â113, isbn 0879723343. unlike his superior joe leaphorn, the "legendary lieutenant", chee is a staunch believer in traditional navajo culture; indeed, he is studying to be a traditional healer at the same time that he is a police officer. == profile == ===personal life=== jim chee is an acting sergeant in the navajo tribal police when we first meet him in people of darkness, working in the crownpoint, nm office. he has two older sisters, and his mother and his mother's uncle and her two sisters (his little mothers) are still alive and part of his life. his grand uncle, hosteen frank sam nakai is frequent help to chee, whose advice runs through chee's mind, and whose tapes of the words for various navajo rituals aid chee in memorizing them. from childhood on, chee is remarked for his excellent memory, detailed and exact. chee's uncle has told him that he cannot actively choose to be navajo until he understands the culture of the whites who surround and interact with the reservation. he is in this process of learning when he first asks mary landon out in people of darkness. she is a white schoolteacher at a primary school on the reservation. he is in love but slowly realizes that they will never be compatible. at first, she wants him to give up many of his navajo ways and live in her home state, away from the navajo people, which he cannot do. then, in the ghostway, she realizes she does not want to change him, and goes home to wisconsin to figure out if their love could make them a couple. in skinwalkers, she sends him a letter saying she is not returning to crownpoint, but getting her masters degree in wisconsin. also in skinwalkers, chee meets janet pete, a half-navajo, half-white lawyer attached to the local prosecutor's office. in talking god, mary landon writes to chee not to visit her again, and then they end their relationship by telephone. also in talking god, he spends the vacation meant to be in wisconsin to visit janet pete, who seems afraid because someone is following her. she followed her lover to washington d.c., so she and chee are just friends, thus far. pete returns to the reservation area in coyote waits, where their connection goes a step beyond friendship when she sees chee in a new light after the case of hosteen ashie pinto. though this romance starts out strong, it, too, disintegrates. janet cannot give up many of her ways, yet wants chee to leave the reser
Fictional_American_police_detectives Fictional_Navajo_people Fictional_characters_from_Arizona