Shooting Chant — Aimee Thurlo; David Thurlo

As Shooting Chant opens, Navajo Police Special Investigator Ella Clah is newly pregnant. Though unmarried, she has no fears about her child's acceptance by her family; according to Navajo tradition, a child is always of its mother's clan. But can Ella be a good cop if she's worried that any mistake might leave her child an orphan?

Her current cases seem to be urging her to make a final decision about her career. A near-riot at the LabKote factory on the Reservation reveals that Ella's brother, a medicine man, has joined the Fierce Ones, a violent Navajo activist group. State Senator James Yellowhair is kidnapped, and while she's searching for clues, Ella is shot at by a sniper.
Ella's intuition insists that these events are all linked, but her investigation is slow to turn up any leads. With a murderer apparently stalking pregnant Navajo, Ella begins to fear not just for her own life, but that of her unborn child.