Well-known for his Navajo based police mysteries, Tony Hillerman wrote many successful novels. He was born in Oklahoma in 1925 and raised with the Pottwatomie and Seminole Indians. Tony joined the Army when he was he was just 18-years-old. While he was in the Army in World War II, he won the Bronze Star with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Silver Star as well as the Purple Heart after he was wounded. When he got out of the Army he went to college at the University of Oklahoma where he worked as a journalist.

Tony went to the University of New Mexico and joined the journalism team there in 1966. Tony went on to write novels. The novels he wrote were written in hopes to get his readers to show respect for the Indian culture. His first novel was "The Blessings Way." This focused on the Indians and the reservations.

His second book was published in 1971 called, "The Fly on The Wall." It was about big city corruption and a political reporter. Hillerman's heart was with the Indian writings he did and the lands. The four corners and the Indian cultures was what he wanted his novels to portray. Tony was a best selling mystery writer, who brought Navajo culture into Americas reading.

Some of his best selling novels are "Sacred Clowns," "Coyote Waits" and "A Thief of Time." Tony Hillerman wrote novels about Lt. Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee of the Navajo Tribal Police. The area Leaphorn and Chee were suppose to patrol was in Northern Arizona. It was called the famous hole in the ground.