Wind from an Enemy Sky

Content Warning: This section addresses themes of racism, cultural erasure, and violence against Indigenous people.

D’Arcy McNickle was an Indigenous American activist, anthropologist, and writer. He was born in St. Ignatius, Montana, in 1904 to William McNickle, a rancher of Irish descent, and Philomene Parenteau, a Cree Métis woman who was adopted into the Flathead tribe after the failed Métis uprising in 1885. McNickle was raised on the Flathead Reservation as the youngest of three children. Despite his mother’s objections, he was taken to the boarding school in Chemawa, where he experienced the brutal attitudes toward Indigenous American children firsthand. He attended the University of Montana to study language and literature. After a recommendation to do so by a professor, he sold his tribal allotment and traveled abroad first to Oxford University and then to the University of Grenoble, although he finished a degree at neither university.

When McNickle returned to the United States, he settled in New York City. There, he first worked as an editor for Encyclopedia Britannica before beginning a writing career. His debut novel, The Surrounded, was published in 1936 and explored themes of cultural conflict and identity within Indigenous communities. His other books include They Came Here First: The