Skiriki

Skiriki, the fictional Oklahoma small town which provides the setting for Calandro's novel, is a Pawnee Indian word meaning coyote, the mythical trickster figure well-known from some Native cultures. In the late 1950s, a small-time hood, alias Henry Belski, arrives in the hamlet with larceny on his mind. The Skiriki Cattlemen's Bank looks like a plum too ripe not to be picked. The crook, who also serves as the book's narrator, must construct a cover story, a plausible excuse for being in the area. He decides that he is an academic, researching a book on the Pawnee who once inhabited the region but now are quite sparse. In time, his constructed identity begins to wear thin and Belski begins to actually study the Indians, becoming increasingly enmeshed in the town and its Indian history and culture, until it becomes doubtful he'll ever make his big score. Popping up consistently in his life is a mysterious old Indian called Hoovehe, who may just be the same Cheyenne who figures prominently in stories dating back to the early 1860s. Calandro has a nice feel for rural Oklahoma existence at a time when the frontier wasn't the distant past. He intersperses Belski's story with chapters on Native life, history, folklore and real historical personages (e.g., Black Kettle, Gall and Crazy Horse). Calandro has produ c ed an interesting read that manages to straddle genres successfully. (Mar.)