Hillerman's novels address questions about how people's cultural backgrounds affect the ways they experience reality. To understand other people, Hillerman suggests in his work, one must understand their cultural backgrounds and values, not easy tasks for outsiders. In Sacred Clowns, Hillerman makes a special effort to demonstrate the diversity of Native American cultures by showing that people from different tribes do not readily understand each other. The best example of this confusion is the inability of Sergeant Blizzard, an officer of Bureau of Indian Affairs of Cheyenne ancestry, to interrogate Navajos because he does not understand their conventions of politeness. To get information from these reticent people, he has to call on Chee, who understands how to question members of his tribe. The ways that various characters view reality in Sacred Clowns (and his other novels) raise important issues for discussion, such as the following: 1. What...