-D'Arcy McNickle(1904-1977) x the writer who devoted his life to improving the lot of his fellow American Indians Singing a MCNickle was a half-breed. born to a cree DArcy McNickle mother and a white father and adopted into the Flathead Indian tribe. He grew up on a reservation and attended the University of Montana. Later he sold his allotment on the reservation in order to enroll in Oxford University. As a young man he rejected his heritage, but later he came to embrace it and did his best to better the lives of his fellow Indians he wrote a number of nonfiction workS, the most important of which is Native American Tribalism: Indian Survivals and Renewals(1973). But he is best known as the author of the novel The surrounded (1936), a milestone in the history of Native American literatureD'Arcy McNickle (1904-1977) ＊the writer who devoted his life to improving the lot of his fellow American Indians. McNickle was a half-breed, born to a Cree mother and a white father and adopted into the Flathead Indian tribe. He grew up on a reservation and attended the University of Montana. Later he sold his allotment on the reservation in order to enroll in Oxford University. As a young man he rejected his heritage, but later he came to embrace it and did his best to better the lives of his fellow Indians. He wrote a number of nonfiction works, the most important of which is Native American Tribalism: Indian Survivals and Renewals (1973). But he is best known as the author of the novel, The Surrounded (1936), a milestone in the history of Native American literature