Tony Hillerman, the award winning author of Navajo Tribal Police mysteries and non-fiction books on the American Southwest, died on October 26, 2008, at the age of eighty-three.

He was born in Oklahoma and attended Indian boarding school for eight years. He grew up poor in rural Oklahoma, viewing everyone as equal, until he was exposed to the class system during the Second World War. This experience was a major influence in his subsequent writings. He had a distinguished military career during the WWII, earning many medals. From 1948 to 1962, he worked as a journalist. He taught journalism at the University of New Mexico from 1966 to 1987. In many ways his books were not just entertaining, but instructional.

He served as a former president of the Mystery Writers of America, receiving the Edgar Allan Poe and the Grand Master Award. He wrote eighteen novels featuring Navajo detectives Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee. His non-fiction works included his memoirs, a guide to his life, information about New Mexico and Southwestern Indians.

The mystery novels are set in New Mexico and Arizona. Many novels involve investigation of supernatural events, which, in turn, leads to expositions of Navajo culture. Some of the cases are solved because of the knowledge of the detectives of the local Indian society. Although non-fiction, these detective stories also give a great deal of information about the culture of the Navajos.

Hillerman, through both his non-fiction and detective novels is concerned about the difficulties the Navajos face in dealing with modern American culture.