D'Arcy McNickle

(William) D'Arcy McNickle (January 14, 1904 – October 10, 1977) was a writer, Native American activist and anthropologist. D’Arcy McNickle, an enrolled Salish Kootenai on the Flathead Indian Reservation, 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 Métis mother, Philomene Parenteau. He grew up on the Flathead Reservation ... More

(William) D'Arcy McNickle (January 14, 1904 – October 10, 1977) was a writer, Native American activist and anthropologist. D’Arcy McNickle, an enrolled Salish Kootenai on the Flathead Indian Reservation, 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 Métis mother, Philomene Parenteau. He grew up on the Flathead Reservation in St. Ignatius, Montana 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. After returning to the United States, McNickle lived in New York City until he was hired by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1936. McNickle worked under Commissioner of Indian Affairs John Collier during the 1930s and 1940s. The Bureau of Indian Affairs first hired him as an...

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