Reviewed by Jeanne
Stanley Milford, Jr. was born to a Navajo father and Cherokee
mother who divorced when he was a child.
Growing up, his life was divided between living with his mother in
Oklahoma and with his father’s family on the Navajo Reservation. He never learned to speak Navajo but learned
the traditional stories, folklore, and beliefs.
He had an interest in law enforcement from a young age, so becoming a
Navajo Ranger was in many ways a dream come true.
Navajo Rangers aren’t strictly law enforcement; their duties
are wide-ranging and may include anything from inspecting stock to joining a
manhunt to investigating reports of unusual creatures or activity. The latter investigations increasingly fell
to Milford and his fellow Navajo Ranger, Jon Dover. Many such reports were dismissed by the
police and other authorities, but Milford had a commanding officer who felt
even these seemingly off-kilter cases should be examined to show the community
that their concerns were being taken seriously.
That is one of the major themes running through the book:
treating people with respect and not belittling their experiences or accounts.
Sometimes the things they investigated could be proved to have a non-supernatural
explanation, such as a woman who kept hearing odd noises and finding strange
bundles of twigs around her home; others were much more elusive. Milford himself had some inexplicable
experiences, so he has a great deal of empathy for victims. He also set high standards for the
investigations, laying out procedures to be followed just as he would for a
more mundane investigation. He also began working with others who had experience
in the paranormal world, such as MUFON (Mutual UFO Network) in order to get
more expertise.
The book is as much about life on the reservation as it is
about the paranormal, which is a plus as far as I’m concerned. As someone who read all the Tony Hillerman
books, I was aware of some of the tribes’ beliefs (the area is also home to
other tribes, such as Hopi and Zuni) as well as conditions, but Milford’s vivid
accounts made it all feel very real. There are few Rangers in a vast area; the
terrain can be difficult to travel; and people often live isolated lives. Milford also retells some of the Navajo stories
about creation and explains a bit of their belief system about skinwalkers,
ghosts, and other beings. Some of these more
or less fit into Navajo traditions; others less so.
I liked Milford’s measured approach to the unknown. He sometimes speculates about some of the phenomena
for which he has no explanation but doesn’t try to come to definitive
conclusions. His approach is open but
with a healthy dose of skepticism, though no matter what he concludes, he
respects those who tell the stories. I also
like the way his descriptions make the reader feel as if they are right there
with him in the heat and the scratchy vegetation.
In short, I quite enjoyed this account.
