Native American Eyes
& Faithful Indian Companions

Sheesh. I don't know which is worse -- the crude, racial stereotyping of times past, or the more recent adding of a dollop of native blood to assorted gumshoes to lend them some sort of well-intentioned but patronizing cred.

Which makes it all the more inspiring when they care enough to get it right...

Native American Eyes

• Jim Anthony by John Grange (Comanche)
• Johnny Canuck by James Moffatt (Sioux)
• Eagels by Ian Alexander (Iroquois)
• David Return by Manly Wade Wellman (Tsichah [ficticious])
• Mohawk Daniels
• Trade Ellis by Sinclair Browning (Apache)
• November Joe by Heskith Prichard
• Sharon McCone by Marcia Muller (Shoshone)
• Howard Moon Deer by Robert Westbrook (Objibwa)
• Jane Whitefield by Thomas Perry (Seneca)
• Laura Winslow by David Cole (Hopi)
  
  

Faithful Indian Companions

You can blame it all on Tonto, but the "faithful Indian companion" is a mainstay of American literature, for better or (often) worse, stretching back at least to Chingcachgook in James Fenimore Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales.

• Chief Moses Tamiami by William Babula (Seminole)

One of private detective Jeremiah St. John's two partners.

• Jimmy Sisiwan by Betty Webb (Pima)

The partner of private eye .

• Willie Prettybird by Richrd Hoyt (Cowlitz)

Also known as "Willie Sees the Night," this Cowlitz shaman first appears in Fish Story (1985), the fourth in the John Denson private eye series, and later becomes his assistant.

• Sara Morningsky by Lee Driver (a "Native American" shape-shifter)

Assistant to private eye Chase Dagger

• Zebulon Sixkill by Robert B. Parker (Cree)

Parker introduced Zebulon in his Spenser final novel, (2011), and the former college-football star becomes his "apprentice" in the subsequent novels by Ace Atkins

RELATED LINKS

• Native American Detectives

An impressive chronological checklist, compiled by Steve Lewis, from Mystery*File.

Preliminary list compiled by Kevin Burton Smith.