At Navajo Nation and in Washington D.C.
- Joe Leaphorn: Lieutenant in the Navajo Tribal Police (NTP) at the Window Rock, Arizona, past 50 years old, widowed one year earlier, decided to continue his police work.
- Jim Chee: Officer in the Navajo Tribal Police at the Shiprock, New Mexico office, under Capt. Largo. He is about 30, and has trained to be a hatahalii. He has done the Blessing Way for a few people, including Joe Leaphorn.
- Henry Highhawk: Employed as conservator in a Smithsonian museum in Washington, D.C. He dug up graves in New England then crossed state lines after arrest warrant issued. His maternal grandmother was a Navajo, and he claims to be Navajo on her account. Blond haired, tall man, an off kilter idealist.
- Rudolfo Gomez: Man at Night Way ceremony for Agnes Tsotsie, who seeks out Highhawk. Chee calls him Bad Hands, for evidence of fingers missing under his gloves. Known as Miguel Santerro to Fleck and The Client. Part of Chile's left wing opposition in exile.
Navajo Nation or nearby
- Jay Kennedy: FBI agent for Gallup, New Mexico area.
- Bernard St. Germane: Works for major railroad, longtime friend of Leaphorn, his source for information on the Amtrak train.
- Elogio Santillanes: Man found dead along the railroad tracks in New Mexico, first called Pointed Shoes, for lack of identification on his person. In life, he was part of the leftist opposition in exile from Chile.
- Agnes Tsosie: Navajo elder who is dying of cancer, and has a Night Way or Yeibichai ceremony, a nine-day event, so she can die in peace.
- 'Cowboy' Albert Dashee, Jr: Hopi man, works as one of the deputies for Coconino County Sheriff’s office in Arizona. He accompanies Chee to the Night Way ceremony, to aid in the arrest.
Washington D.C.
- Leroy Fleck: Short but strong middle-aged man, with curly red hair, he is a law breaker and murderer from his childhood. He is tracking Santerro for The Client.
- Mrs. Fleck: Mama to Leroy, now old and violent, and the motivation for Leroy to earn the money promised by the client.
- Eddie Elkins: A disbarred lawyer and Fleck's contact for the job with The Client, and who receives the tapes recording the Santillanes family next door to Fleck's apartment. They met in prison, decades earlier, when young Fleck had been raped. Elkins taught him how get his own revenge.
- The Client: Man who hires Fleck to murder seven people, one by one, for a fee. He will not pay unless each murder goes undetected for a full month. He is part of the Chilean embassy.
- P. J. Rodney: Captain in D.C. police and old friend of Leaphorn. They met at the FBI academy early in their careers and now work together.
- Peres: Amtrak employee interviewed by Leaphorn in Washington D.C., who describes Fleck as the man in Santillanes's train compartment near Gallup, and who packed up Santillanes's belongings when the man disappeared from the train.
- Janet Pete: Formerly a legal aid lawyer for the Navajo Tribal Council, where she met her good friend Chee. She moved to Washington D.C. to work for her former law school professor McDermott who is also her lover. She is the attorney for Highhawk. Pete is half-Navajo.
- Mary Landon: Chee's longtime love, now living in Wisconsin. She is not Navajo, and neither can bend to the other one's culture and give up their own. She calls Chee in Washington, after seeing him on the news, and they end their connection.
- Dr. Caroline Hartman: Curator of the exhibit in the Natural History Museum on Masked Gods of the Americas.
- Mrs. Alice Yokum: Guard at 12th Street entrance to Smithsonian building, killed by Gomez /Santerro.
- General Ramon Huerta: High official of the secret police in Chile's government under rightist Pinochet, in Washington D.C. for an official visit.
