The Dark Wind is the second Tony Hillerman

Tony Hillerman

Tony Hillerman was an award-winning American author of detective novels and non-fiction works best known for his Navajo Tribal Police mystery novels...

 novel to feature Officer Jim Chee

Jim Chee

Jim Chee is one of two Navajo Tribal Police detectives in a series of mystery novels by Tony Hillerman. Unlike his superior Joe Leaphorn, the "Legendary Lieutenant", Chee wants to be a staunch believer in traditional Navajo culture; indeed, he is studying to be a traditional healer at the same...

. Recent college graduate Jim Chee has just taken a job with the Navajo Tribal Police

Navajo Tribal Police

The Navajo Nation Police is the law enforcement agency on the Navajo Nation in the Southwestern United States. It is under the Navajo Division of Public Safety. It is headed by a Chief of Police, six Police Captains and eight Police Lieutenants...

 in Arizona, where he helps keep the peace with his superior Captain Largo on land earmarked for joint use by the Navajo and the Hopi. Cowboy Dashee, a deputy sheriff from the Hopi law enforcement group, discovers a decaying and unidentified body in the desert, and thinks that the body may be linked to a recent robbery at the reservation's trading post. The shop's manager, Jake West, is convinced that Joe Musket, a Navajo drug dealer, is responsible for the killing. Chee investigates the murder, the robbery, and a mysterious plane crash.

The novel was adapted as a feature film in 1991. It starred Lou Diamond Phillips

Lou Diamond Phillips

Lou Diamond Phillips is an American film, television, and stage actor and director. His breakthrough came when he starred in the film La Bamba. He earned a supporting actor Golden Globe Award nomination for his role in Stand and Deliver and a Tony Award nomination for his role in The King and I...

 as Jim Chee, Fred Ward

Fred Ward

Freddie Joe "Fred" Ward is an American actor. He began his career in 1979 alongside Clint Eastwood in Escape from Alcatraz. He is best known for his starring roles in the motion pictures Remo Williams, Tremors, Henry & June, Short Cuts, The Right Stuff and Exit Speed...

 as Joe Leaphorn

Joe Leaphorn

Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn is a fictional character created by American mystery writer Tony Hillerman, one of two officers of the Navajo Tribal Police that feature in a number of novels. The other officer is Jim Chee.- Profile :...

 and Gary Farmer

Gary Farmer

- History :Farmer was born in Ohsweken, Ontario into the Cayuga nation and Wolf Clan of the Haudenosaunee/Iroquois Confederacy. Farmer attended Syracuse University and Ryerson Polytechnic University, where he studied photography and film production....

 as Cowboy Dashee. It was directed by Errol Morris

Errol Morris

Errol Mark Morris is an American director. In 2003, The Guardian put him seventh in its list of the world's 40 best directors. Also in 2003, his film The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.-Early life and...

, a documentary film-maker making his dramatic feature debut, and was produced by Robert Redford

Robert Redford

Charles Robert Redford, Jr. , better known as Robert Redford, is an American actor, film director, producer, businessman, environmentalist, philanthropist, and founder of the Sundance Film Festival. He has received two Oscars: one in 1981 for directing Ordinary People, and one for Lifetime...

.