Singing an Indian Song: A Biography of D'Arcy McNickle (American Indian Lives) [Paperback]

Dorothy R. Parker (Author)

Book Description

Series: American Indian Lives | Publication Date: November 28, 1994

One of the foremost Native American intellectuals of his generation (1904-77), D'Arcy McNickle is best known today for the American Indian history center that carries his name at the Newberry Library in Chicago, and for his novels, The Surrounded, Runner in the Sun, and Wind from an Enemy Sky. A historian and novelist, he was also an anthropologist, Bureau of Indian Affairs official during the heady days of the Indian New Deal, teacher, and founding member of the National Congress of American Indians. The child of a Métis mother and white father, he was an enrolled member of the Flathead Tribe of Montana. But first, and largely by choice, he was a Native American who sought to restore pride and self-determination to all Native American people.

Based on a wide range of previously untapped sources, this first full-length biogrpahy traces the course of McNickle's life from the reservation of his childhood through a career of major import to American Indian political and cultural affairs. In so doing it reveals a man who affirmed his own heritage while giving a collective Indian voice to many who had previously seen themselves only in a tribal context.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Historian Parker has written a well-documented account of the life of D'Arcy McNickle (1904-77), an enrolled member of the Montana Flathead tribe, an anthropologist, teacher, novelist ( Runner in the Sun , 1954; Univ. of New Mexico Pr, 1987. reprint); The Surrounded , 1936; Univ. of New Mexico, 1978. reprint); Wind from an Enemy Sky , 1978; Univ. of New Mexico, 1988. reprint), and founding member of the National Congress of American Indians. The biography, depicting a life in two cultures, begins with a family history and look at reservation life. Next emerges McNickle's career from the 1920s to the 1970s. Sections on his association with the "Indian New Deal" and the Bureau of Indian Affairs under John Collier are especially interesting. McNickle set precedents in whatever he touched: as an early Pan-Indianist and, in 1971, when he became the first director of the Newberry Library's Center for the History of the American Indian. His literary works, once ignored, are now considered seminal Native American novels. This is an account of a unique American whose contributions were many and varied. Recommended for Native American collections.
- Margaret W. Norton, Hoffman Estates H.S., Hoffman Estates, Ill.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Dorothy R. Parker is an assistant professor of history at Eastern New Mexico University. Her publications include Phoenix Indian School: The Second Half-Century and articles and reviews in the American Indian Culture and Research Journal and elsewhere.

Product Details

• Paperback: 317 pages
• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press (November 28, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0803287305
• ISBN-13: 978-0803287303
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,336,913 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good biography of a fascinating person, December 7, 2000

By 

LaLoren - See all my reviews

This review is from: Singing an Indian Song: A Biography of D'Arcy McNickle (American Indian Lives) (Paperback)

I first became familiar with D'Arcy McNickle through his two novels-The Surrounded and Wind from an Enemy Sky. I did not know that despite his lack of a college degree, he was also a respected anthropologist; he was the right-hand-man to John Collier during his tenure as head of the BIA; he was asked to chair the new Anthropology Dept. at a University; and he was instrumental in organizing some of the programs which led to the pan-Indian movement and activism of the seventies.

Dorothy Parker does a very good job of covering the life of this fascinating and highly respected man. While she had ample information to draw from regarding his professional life, there was scant information regarding his personal life. Even though McNickle kept a diary and wrote many letters during his lifetime, he made little reference to his personal relationships. Happily Parker respects this. Certainly a life that included two failed marriages and a possible affair, not to mention estrangement from his nuclear family, might have led other authors to go "digging for dirt." Instead Parker engages in some slight speculation, simply to flesh things out, but she does not dwell on these aspects.

If there is a fault here, however, it is that Parker perhaps focuses too much on the positive. For example, one would wonder why a person who tried to represent Indians in a White world would not have had some doubts regarding the Indian Reorganiztion Act, or some questions as to the way it was implemented. Also, while McNickle became known as an authority on Indian issues, he actually spent very little time living as an Indian. He basically went from the boarding school into a life of government work, and spent very little time on the reservation. While this does not necessarily detract from his accomplishments, I would have liked Parker to address these issues more.

Over all,however, this is a book worth reading, both for the way it is written, and the person it is about.