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The Silent Spirit
Margaret Coel
2009, 322 pages
Setting: 1920s California and contemporary Wyoming.
In this mystery, Father John O’Malley tries to find out what happened to Kiki Wallowingbull, a troubled young Arapaho who has just gotten out of prison for dealing drugs. Kiki is missing, and the authorities think that he has gone back to drug dealing. But Kiki’s grandparents are sure that he is clean.
Kiki wants to discover what happened to his great-grandfather Charlie Wallowingbull. Charlie had gone with other Arapahos and Shoshones to Hollywood in 1923 to play Indians in the Western movie “The Covered Wagon.” But Charlie never returned to the reservation in Wyoming when his job was done. Kiki is determined to find out what happened to Charlie so he can tell his grandparents, who raised him. He wants justice for the family. Father John wonders if Kiki’s search is behind his disappearance.
The plot goes back and forth from present day, as Father John searches for Kiki, to the 1920s in Hollywood, as Charlie Wallowingbull and his friends play their parts in the movie with Tim McCoy. Tim McCoy was a real cowboy who was the liaison with the movie director and the Native Americans. He treated the Native Americans as equals and could communicate in their sign language. “The Covered Wagon” was a real movie, and Tim McCoy was a star in the early westerns.
I like how the author takes us from the modern-day Wind River Reservation to the Hollywood Hills in the 1920s. She gives wonderful descriptions of the different times and places, and her characters are interesting. I think you’ll enjoy this Wind River mystery.
