Joe Leaphorn: Lieutenant in the Navajo Tribal Police, based in the Window Rock office. He is widowed for a year and a half.
Jim Chee: Officer in Navajo Tribal Police who joined the new special investigations office under Lt. Leaphorn. He works in Window Rock now.
Albert‘Cowboy’ Dashee: Deputy Sheriff in Apache County. He is Hopi and a good friend to Chee.
Sgt. Harold Blizzard: Bureau of Indian Affairs officer. He is a Cheyenne, just two months in this area. He grew up in the city, never on the Cheyenne reservation. He is assigned to the Sayesva murder.
David‘Dilly’ W. Streib: FBI agent from the Farmington office, investigating the Dorsey murder. He is a long time agent, making his retirement plans, introduced in Skinwalkers .
Virginia Toledo: Administrative Assistant at the Window Rock office of the Navajo Tribal Police, who keeps track of everyone there.
Lt. Toddy: Farmington police officer for the area where Dorsey is found murdered.
Captain Dodge: Officer of the Navajo Tribal Police who leads the investigation into the tape of a conversation between Zeck and Chester that was played on the local radio station, but more ominously, heard by Sgt. Yazzie days before being played in the police offices, on Leaphorn’s tape player.
Murder victims
Victor Todachene: Old man killed by a car that hit him. Driver looked to see him and drove away, leaving the man to bleed to death. He was part of the Tano pueblo.
Eric Dorsey: Teacher, age 37, of wood and metal work. Known for his care for people and his ability to make people laugh. He was murdered at the Saint Bonaventure Indian Mission high school at Thoreau, New Mexico on the Checkerboard reservation.
Francis Sayesva: One of the sacred clowns, koshares who make people laugh showing human foibles, who was clubbed to death during a ceremonial at the Tano pueblo. He is the maternal uncle of Delmar. He is a CPA in daily life.
All others
Janet Pete: Attorney for DNA, the Navajo legal aid. She is half Navajo. Her father’s family was relocated to Chicago in the 1940s. She is assigned to defend Eugene Ahkeah. She is a long time friend of Chee; their relationship becomes romantic.
Asher Davis: Reputable Indian trader, friend to Dashee. He went to high school with Applebee.
Bertha Roanhorse: She is on the Navajo tribal council, and paternal grandmother of Delmar.
Delmar Kanitewa: Boy whose grandmother asks the police to find him. His father is Navajo and his mother is Tano, divorced. Delmar lives with his father since going to high school at Crownpoint NM. He ran away from the school.
Robert Sakani: Cousin to Delmar, who was supposed to drive him from ceremony back to school.
Felix Bluehorse: Best friend of Delmar Kanitewa. Delmar picked up a silver bracelet that Felix made from the Saint Bonaventure school, and met Felix in his father's pick-up truck outside the school.
Father Haines: Catholic priest at Saint Bonaventure Mission School.
Teddy Sayesva: Brother of Francis.
Mrs. Kanitewa: Tano mother of Delmar. She lives on the Tano Pueblo.
Roger Applebee: Attorney in Nature First charity based in Santa Fe. Janet Pete knows him from Washington DC. He opposes the toxic waste dump.
Mr. Bert Penitewa: Elected governor of the Tano Pueblo, holder of their Lincoln cane, and one who came out in favor of the mine being used as a toxic waste dump about two years earlier. The next election is coming soon.
Louisa Bourebonette: Professor at Arizona State University in Flagstaff, AZ and friend to Leaphorn. They met in Coyote Waits .
Eugene Ahkeah: Friend of Eric Dorsey and handyman at the same school. He is picked up by police from an anonymous phone tip that the items stolen when Dorsey was murdered will be found under Akheah’s trailer.
Hosteen Frank Sam Nakai: Maternal uncle to Chee, his“little father” and a respected hataalii.
Hosteen Barbone: Nakai and Chee visit this hataalii about Chee's question of the incest taboo.
Old Woman Mustache: Wise elder woman with Barbone, who made clear that the incest taboo depends mainly on the clans of the mothers.
Ed Zeck: He is a lawyer at the Dalman firm (where Pete once worked), and serves as counsel to Continental Collectors, in favor of the waste dump. His is one of two voices on the cassette tape left anonymously with Chee.
Jimmy Chester: He is on the Navajo Tribal Council. His is the other voice on cassette tape left anonymously with Chee. Chester is Navajo and is expecting a check from Zeck, over $20 thousand, per that tape of a phone call.
Gray Old Lady Benally: Navajo woman about 80 years old with ill husband, great grandmother to Delmar. This couple benefits from Dorsey’s charitable actions, like bringing water, food, and making a special rocking chair for her.
Clement Hoski: He is a Navajo who works at the Navajo farm, handles produce, and hit Todachene with his truck, while he was driving drunk. He raises his grandson. He confessed over the local radio, without giving his name.
Ernie: Grandson of Clement Hoski, he is a boy showing the signs of fetal alcohol syndrome, limiting his development.
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