Night of the White Buffalo
by Margaret Coel (Penguin Group)
Margaret Coel has written 17 other Wind River Mysteries, so it would be understandable if the series was getting a little stale. That’s not the case. Number 18, “Night of the White Buffalo,” is as fresh as any of the Boulder author’s other books. In fact, Coel’s work has a maturity that comes from years of honing the writing craft.
To Wind River fans, the characters are old friends. Vicky Holden is an Arapaho Indian attorney who handles some of her people’s scummiest cases — arrests for drunkenness and assault, for instance. Father John O’Malley, a recovering alcoholic, is the reservation priest. Together, the two solve mysteries. Their relationship is much more than one of friendly colleagues, however. Beneath the friendship is an undercurrent of forbidden love that each must suppress. You might think that after all these books the tension would get old — you know, put up or shut up — but it doesn’t.
“Night of the White Buffalo” begins when an unknown parishioner steps into the confessional at the mission church and tells Father John that he’s murdered a man, murdered him on purpose. Then he bolts from the church before Father John can identify him.
Months later, Vicky and her boyfriend, Indian attorney Adam Lone Eagle, discover the body of a rancher who’s been shot to death in his car. The dead man, the white owner of the Broken Buffalo ranch, is seemingly a victim of random shootings that have taken place on the reservation.
The death only adds to problems on the Broken Buffalo, now operated by the dead man’s wife. The spread is in the midst of financial chaos. Cowboys, claiming they haven’t been paid, have disappeared. Meanwhile, a white buffalo calf named Spirit has just been born, which means thousands of lookers will be descending on the ranch, breaking down fences, ruining rangeland and demanding services. But also bringing in thousands of dollars in donations.
The White Buffalo is a symbol to the tribes that the creator is among them. In the beginning, White Buffalo women gave the Indians their sacred rituals and ceremonies, a tribal elder explains to Father John. She promised to return when the people needed her. Now with “some crazy guy shooting at cars … man getting murdered, she’s come back, just like she promised,” he says. “She is like a visitation of the Blessed Mother.”
Indeed, the white buffalo calf is a symbol for non-Indians, too. “The Creator has blessed us with many symbols in the world,” a fellow priest says.” We must open our hearts to see them.”
While the Broken Buffalo ranch hands concentrate on handling the crowds of pilgrims who want to see Spirit, Vicky and Father John look for the killer, putting their own lives in danger, of course.
The setting is a character in Coel’s books, and she writes realistically about the Wind River Reservation — about the poverty and alcoholism. It’s clear she knows the Arapaho, too. Her characters are not clichés, but real people who are imbued with the richness of their Indian heritage.
A few years ago, Coel put aside Vicky and Father John to start a second mystery series, one set in Denver. But she appears to be back on the reservation to stay. If “Night of the White Buffalo” is any indication, the Wind River series has a long life ahead of it.
