Officer Jim Chee is new to both the force and his practice as a medicine man. He is beating out a path between traditional Navajo belief and modern law enforcement, often finding himself forced to choose between one or the other. He manages the balance, however, and keeps shaky faith in his spiritual practice even as his teacher, Wilson Sam, is threatened.

A member of the Saulteaux tribe from Manitoba, Canada, Adam Beach recently starred opposite Nicolas Cage in John Woo's World War II epic Windtalkers, about Navajo Marines who used a code based on their complex native language to send messages undecipherable to the Japanese. In 1998 Beach appeared in Chris Eyre's critically acclaimed Smoke Signals. He has also starred in Squanto for Disney Studios and Dance Me Outside, which earned him a Best Actor award from the American Indian Film Festival. On television, he has appeared in Lonesome Dove; Walker, Texas Ranger; The Rez; and many other series. Audiences will next see Beach in two independent films: The Big Empty, alongside Jon Favreau, Rachael Leigh Cook, and Daryl Hannah; and Posers for director Katie Tallio.

In Hillerman's words: The door of the station opened and three men in the khaki summer uniforms of Navajo Tribal Policemen emerged. ... The round brim of Chee's hat was tilted, shading his face, but Leaphorn could see enough of it to match the photo in Chee's personnel file. A longish, narrow face, fitting a longish narrow body -- all shoulders and no hips. The "Tuba City Navajo," as some anthropologist had labeled the type. Pure Athabascan genetics. Tall, long torso, narrow pelvis, destined to be a skinny old man."

Skinwalkers, Chapter 5