D'Arcy McNickle (January 14, 1904 – October 10, 1977) was a writer, Native American activist and anthropologist.

Biography

D’Arcy McNickle, an enrolled Salish Kootenai

Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation

The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation are the Bitterroot Salish, Kootenai and Pend d'Oreilles Tribes. The Flatheads lived between the Cascade Mountains and Rocky Mountains. The Salish initially lived entirely east of the Continental Divide but established their...

 on the Flathead Indian Reservation

Flathead Indian Reservation

The Flathead Indian Reservation, located in western Montana on the Flathead River, is home to the Bitterroot Salish, Kootenai, and Pend d'Oreilles Tribes - also known as theConfederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation...

, became one of the most prominent twentieth-century American Indian activists. He was born on January 14, 1904, to an Irish father, William McNickle, and a one-quarter Cree

Cree

The Cree are one of the largest groups of First Nations / Native Americans in North America, with 200,000 members living in Canada. In Canada, the major proportion of Cree live north and west of Lake Superior, in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and the Northwest Territories, although...

 Métis

Métis

A Métis is a person born to parents who belong to different groups defined by visible physical differences, regarded as racial, or the descendant of such persons. The term is of French origin, and also is a cognate of mestizo in Spanish, mestiço in Portuguese, and mestee in English...

 mother, Philomene Parenteau. He grew up on the Flathead Reservation in St. Ignatius, Montana

St. Ignatius, Montana

St. Ignatius is a town in Lake County, Montana, United States. The population was 788 at the 2000 census. The town is located on the Flathead Indian Reservation.-Geography:St...

 and went to mission and non-reservation boarding schools. In 1925 McNickle sold his land allotment on the Flathead Reservation so that he could raise the money necessary to study abroad at Oxford University and the University of Grenoble

University of Grenoble

University of Grenoble or Grenoble University was a university in Grenoble, France until 1970, when it was split into several different institutions:...

. After returning to the United States, McNickle lived in New York City until he was hired by the Bureau of Indian Affairs

Bureau of Indian Affairs

The Bureau of Indian Affairs is an agency of the federal government of the United States within the US Department of the Interior. It is responsible for the administration and management of of land held in trust by the United States for Native Americans in the United States, Native American...

 in 1936.

McNickle worked under Commissioner of Indian Affairs John Collier

John Collier (reformer)

John Collier was an American social reformer and Native American advocate. He served as Commissioner for the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the President Franklin D. Roosevelt administration, from 1933-1945...

 during the 1930s and 1940s. The Bureau of Indian Affairs first hired him as an administrative assistant, but by 1950 he had been appointed chief of the tribal relations branch, and he soon became an expert. He was appointed the director of the University of Colorado

University of Colorado at Boulder

The University of Colorado Boulder is a public research university located in Boulder, Colorado...

's American Indian Development, Inc. in 1952, and received an honorary Doctor of Science

Doctor of Science

Doctor of Science , usually abbreviated Sc.D., D.Sc., S.D. or Dr.Sc., is an academic research degree awarded in a number of countries throughout the world. In some countries Doctor of Science is the name used for the standard doctorate in the sciences, elsewhere the Sc.D...

 degree in 1966. Later that year, he moved to what is now the University of Regina

University of Regina

The University of Regina is a public research university located in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. Founded in 1911 as a private denominational high school of the Methodist Church of Canada, it began an association with the University of Saskatchewan as a junior college in 1925, and was disaffiliated...

, to create the anthropology department. In 1972, he helped create the Center for the History of the American Indian in Chicago's Newberry Library

Newberry Library

The Newberry Library is a privately endowed, independent research library for the humanities and social sciences in Chicago, Illinois. Although it is private, non-circulating library, the Newberry Library is free and open to the public...

; the center was named in his honor in 1984. Also named in his honor was the library at the Salish Kootenai College

Salish Kootenai College

Salish Kootenai College is a Native American tribal college based in Pablo, Montana which serves the Bitterroot Salish, Kootenai, and Pend d'Oreilles tribes. There are approximately 1,100 students attending the college; enrollment is not limited to Native American students.Prior to 1978, it was a...

 on the Flathead Reservation.

McNickle was also instrumental in drafting the "Declaration of Indian Purpose" for the 1961 American Indian Chicago Conference, helped found the National Congress of American Indians

National Congress of American Indians

The National Congress of American Indians is a American Indian and Alaska Native indigenous rights organization. It was founded in 1944 in response to termination and assimilation policies that the U.S. government forced upon the tribal governments in contradiction of their treaty rights and...

, and was named a fellow of the American Anthropological Association

American Anthropological Association

The American Anthropological Association is a professional organization of scholars and practitioners in the field of anthropology. With 11,000 members, the Arlington, Virginia based association includes archaeologists, cultural anthropologists, biological anthropologists, linguistic...

.

McNickle was married three times: to Joran Jacobine Birkeland from 1926–1938; to Roma Kaye Haufman from 1939–1967; and to his AID co-worker, sociologist Viola Gertrude Pfrommer, from 1969-1977. He had two daughters, Antoinette Marie Parenteau McNickle (with Joran) and Kathleen D'Arcy McNickle (with Roma). He died of a heart attack in October 1977.

The Surrounded

McNickle's best-known literary contribution was his novel The Surrounded, which tells of Archilde Leon, a young half-Salish male returning to the Flathead Indian Reservation

Flathead Indian Reservation

The Flathead Indian Reservation, located in western Montana on the Flathead River, is home to the Bitterroot Salish, Kootenai, and Pend d'Oreilles Tribes - also known as theConfederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation...

 who finds that he cannot communicate with either his white (Spanish) father or his traditionalist Indian mother. Archilde begins to find his place on the reservation after one of the elders, Modeste, teaches him the stories of Salish history, and Archilde simultaneously reconciles with his father and adopts his mother's Indian traditions. However, at the end of the novel, he is wrongly accused of two murders (one committed by his mother) and surrenders in a scene that represents the book's title.

Organizations

• National Congress of American Indians
  National Congress of American Indians
  The National Congress of American Indians is a American Indian and Alaska Native indigenous rights organization. It was founded in 1944 in response to termination and assimilation policies that the U.S. government forced upon the tribal governments in contradiction of their treaty rights and...
  
   (N.C.A.I)
• American Indian Development, Inc. (A.I.D)

Literary Contributions

• The Surrounded (1936)
• Wind From an Enemy Sky (1978)
• The Hawk is Hungry
• Indian Man: A Life of Oliver La Farge (1971)
• Indians and Other Americans: Two Ways of Life Meet
• Native American Tribalism: Indian Survivals and Renewals
• Runner in the Sun: a story of Indian Maize
• They Came Here First : the Epic of the American Indian (1949)
• The Indian in American Society (for National Congress of American Indians, 1955)
• An Historical Review of Federal-Indian Relationships (American Indian Policy Review Commission, 1975)

Academic criticism

• Cobb, Daniel M. “Chapter One: Declarations.” In Before Red Power: The Politics of Tribal Self-Determination in Cold War America. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2008.
• Cobb, Daniel M. “Indian Politics in Cold War America: Parallel and Contradiction.” Princeton University Library Chronicle LXVII, no. 2 (winter 2006): 392-419.
• Cobb, Daniel M. “Talking the Language of the Larger World: Politics in Cold War (Native) America.” In Beyond Red Power: New Perspectives on American Indian Politics and Activism. Edited by Daniel M. Cobb and Loretta Fowler. Santa Fe: School of American Research Press, 2007.
• Collier, John. “A Perspective on the United States Indian Situation of 1952 in its Hemispheric and Worldwide Bearing.” América Indígena 13, no. 1 (January 1953): 7-13.
• Cowger, Thomas. The National Congress of American Indians: The Founding Years. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2001.
• Cracroft, Richard H.
  Richard H. Cracroft
  Richard H. Cracroft is an emeritus professor of English at Brigham Young University . He held the title of Nan Osmond Grass Professor in English at that university. Cracroft has been both head of BYU's English department and dean of the College of Humanities...
  
   Twentieth-century American Western Writers. Detroit: Gale Group, 1999.
• Critical Perspectives on Native American Fiction. Edited by Richard F. Fleck. Washington, D.C.: Three Continents Press, 1993.
• Handbook of Native American Literature. Edited by Andrew Wiget. New York: Garland, 1996.
• Hans, Birgit, ed. “The Hawk is Hungry” & Other Stories: An Annotated Anthology of D’Arcy McNickle’s Short Fiction. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1992.
• Hans, Birgit. “Surrounded: The Fiction of D’Arcy McNickle.” Thesis Dissertation (Ph.D.) University of Arizona, 1988.
• Hans, Birgit. The Hawk is Hungry: An Annotated Anthology of D’Arcy McNickle’s Short Fiction. Thesis (M.A.) University of Arizona, 1986.
• Lagrand, James B. Indian Metropolis: Native Americans in Chicago, 1945-75. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2002.
• Libby, Orin Grant. The Arikara Narrative of Custer’s Campaign and the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Introduction by D’Arcy McNickle. 1920. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1998.
• Lurie, Nancy Oestreich. “Sol Tax and Tribal Sovereignty,” Human Organization: Journal of the Society for Applied Anthropology, Vol. 58 No. 1 (Spring 1999): 108-117.
• Miller, Jay. Writings in Indian History, 1985-1990. Compiled by Jay Miller, Colin G. Calloway, and Richard A. Sattler. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1995.
• Nagel, Joane. American Indian Ethnic Renewal: Red Power and the Resurgence of Identity and Culture. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.
• Native American Literature: An Anthology. Compiled by Lawana Trout. Lincolnwood, Ill.: NTC Pub. Group, 1999.
• Ortiz, Alfonso. D’Arcy McNickle (1904–1977): Across the River and Up the Hill: A Personal Remembrance. 1980-1989?.
• Ortiz, Simon J. “Towards a National Indian Literature: Cultural Authenticity in Nationalism.” MELUS 8, no. 2 (summer 1981): 7-12.
• Owens, Louis. Other Destinies: Understanding the American Indian Novel. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992.
• Parker, Dorothy R. “Choosing an Indian Identity: A Biography of D’Arcy McNickle.” Thesis Dissertation (Ph. D.) University of New Mexico, 1988.
• Parker, Dorothy R. “D’Arcy McNickle: Living a Broker’s Life.” In Between Indian and White Worlds: The Cultural Broker. Edited by Margaret Connell Szasz. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1994.
• Parker, Dorothy R. Singing an Indian Song: A Biography of D’Arcy McNickle. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1992.
• Parker, Dorothy. “D’Arcy McNickle.” In The New Warriors: Native American Leaders since 1900. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2001.
• Parker, Robert Dale. The Invention of Native American Literature. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2003.
• Provinse, John Henry, Thomas Segundo, Sol Tax, and D’Arcy McNickle. The American Indian Now: An NBC Radio Discussion. Chicago: University of Chicago Round Table (Radio Program), 1954.
• Purdy, John Lloyd. Word Ways: The Novels of D’Arcy McNickle. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1990.
• Rains, James W. “Today Speaks in Yesterday’s Voice: Writing American Indians into History in the Fiction of D’Arcy McNickle." Thesis Dissertation (Ph.D.) University of Michigan, 2004.
• Roemer, Kenneth M. Native American Writers of the United States. Detroit: Gale Research, 1997.
• Rosier, Paul C. “’They Are Ancestral Homelands’: Race, Place, and Politics in Cold War Native America, 1945-1961.” Journal of American History 92, no. 4 (March 2006): 1300-1326.
• Ruppert, James. D’Arcy McNickle. Boise, Idaho: Boise State University, 1988.
• Smoke Rising: The Native American Literary Companion. Edited by Joseph Bruchac, managing editor; Janet Witalec, editor with Sharon Malinowski. Detroit: Visible Ink Press, 1995.
• Squires, Nancy Elam. "Back to the Blanket: The Indian Fiction of Oliver La Farge, Joseph Matthews, D’Arcy McNickle, Ruth Underhill and Frank Waters, 1927-1944." Thesis (Ph.D.) Harvard University, 2004.
• Stories for a Winter’s Night: Short Fiction by Native Americans. Edited by Maurice Kenny. Buffalo, N.Y.: White Pine Press, 2000.
• Straus, Terry, Ron Bowan, and Michael Chapman, “Anthropology, Ethics, and the American Indian Chicago Conference,” American Ethnologist Vol. 13 No. 4 (November 1986): 802-804.
• The Legacy of D’Arcy McNickle: Writer, Historian, Activist. Edited by John Lloyd Purdy. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1996.
• The Singing Spirit: Early Short Stories by North American Indians. Edited by Bernd C. Peyer. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1989.
• Thompson, Joan Elizabeth. “The Control of Water and Land: Dams and Irrigation in Novels by Mary Hallock Foote, Mary Hunter Austin, Frank Waters, and D’Arcy McNickle.” Thesis Dissertation (Ph.D) University of Minnesota, 1994.
• Towner, Lawrence William. “D’Arcy McNickle.” In Past Imperfect: Essays on History, Libraries, and the Humanities. Edited by Robert W. Karrow, Jr. and Alfred F. Young, with an introduction by Alfred F. Young. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993.
• Voice of the Turtle: American Indian Literature, 1900-1970. Edited by Paula Gunn Allen. New York: Ballantine Books, 1994.

External links

• The Newberry Library D’Arcy McNickle Center for Native American History,
• Biography of D’Arcy McNickle, The Newberry Library, Chicago, IL,
• D’Arcy McNickle Library, Salish Kootenai College, Flathead Indian Reservation, Montana,
• D'Arcy McNickle Papers at the Newberry Library
• Dorothy R Parker D'Arcy McNickle Papers at Newberry Library
  Newberry Library
  The Newberry Library is a privately endowed, independent research library for the humanities and social sciences in Chicago, Illinois. Although it is private, non-circulating library, the Newberry Library is free and open to the public...