D'Arcy McNickle was an enrolled Salish Kootenai on the Flathead Indian Reservation. He was born on January 14, 1904, to William McNickle, ethnic Irish, and Philomene Parenteau, Cree-Métis. His mother was among numerous Métis who had fled to Montana in the late 19th century to escape the aftermath of suppression following the 1885 Riel Resistance, also known as the North-West Resistance. She eventually found refuge at the Flathead reservation.[3] McNickle grew up on the reservation in St. Ignatius. He attended mission schools there and boarding schools located elsewhere, off the reservation.
At the age of seventeen, McNickle entered the University of Montana, graduating with the class of 1925. His study of Greek and Latin inspired his love for language, and he began to explore writing.[4] After graduating, in 1925 McNickle sold his land allotment on the Flathead Reservation in order to raise money to study abroad at Oxford University and the University of Grenoble. After returning to the United States, McNickle lived and worked for a time in New York City. In 1936 he published his first novel, The Surrounded.
That year he was hired as an administrative assistant at the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and moved to Washington, DC.[5][6] McNickle worked under John Collier, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, during the 1930s and 1940s. During this period, Collier encouraged reorganization of self-government among the Native American tribes, and many began to assert greater autonomy for their peoples. McNickle developed expertise in a wide range of areas related to Native American policies. He helped found the National Congress of American Indians in 1944. By 1950, he had been promoted to chief of the tribal relations branch at the BIA.[7] He also began to publish non-fiction works on Native American history, cultures, and governmental policies.
In 1952 McNickle was selected as director of American Indian Development, Inc., which was affiliated with the University of Colorado at Boulder. He was also active with other Native American organizations, as tribes began to assert their drive for civil rights and to work more closely together as an ethnic group. He was instrumental in drafting the "Declaration of Indian Purpose" for the 1961 American Indian Chicago Conference.
Continuing his academic work, McNickle moved in 1966 to what is now the University of Regina, to develop a new anthropology department. In 1972, McNickle helped create the Center for the History of the American Indian in Chicago's Newberry Library.[8]
Personal life
McNickle was married three times: First to Joran Jacobine Birkeland from 1926 to 1938; they had a daughter, Antoinette Marie Parenteau McNickle. He next married Roma Kaye Haufman (1939–1967). They had a daughter, Kathleen D'Arcy McNickle. Lastly, he was married to sociologist Viola Gertrude Pfrommer, from 1969 to 1977. McNickle died of a heart attack in October 1977.[8]
