474 Making It New: 1900–1945interwoven with the histories of the Cree, Metis, and Salish (Flathead) tribes. After
his parents were divorced, McNickle was sent, as many other Native American
children in the same situation were, to a federal boarding school in Oregon. He was
to write about this experience in several of his books, including two novels, since it
illustrated, for him, the fundamental conflict that Native American peoples had
faced ever since the arrival of the Europeans between the indigenous culture and the
modern, the old pieties and the new habits and beliefs that whites were trying
assiduously to impose on those whom they had conquered. Torn as he himself was
between Indian traditions and white education, McNickle continued his studies in
Montana and England. He then became an influential academic and activist, writing
books on Native American history (They Came Here First (1949), Indian Man: A Life
of Oliver La Farge (1972), Native American Tribalism: Indian Survival and Renewals
(1973)), numerous stories (The Hawk is Hungry and Other Stories (1992)), and three
novels (The Surrounded, Runner in the Sun: A Story of the Indian Maize (1954), Wind
From An Enemy Sky (1978)). He was also appointed the first director of the Newberry
Library’s Center for the History of the American Indian, helped found the
Department of Anthropology at the University of Saskatchewan, and became
a founding member of the Congress of American Indians. What his many activities
have in common is pride in Native American traditions and a persistent belief in the
right of Native Americans to self-determination, to be left alone to pursue their
future in their own way. His fiction, in particular, combines a critique of Anglo-
Americans, and their myopic attempts to impose their values, with a detailed portrait
of Native American resistance. In The Surrounded, for instance, all the major Native
American characters renounce their Catholicism and return to the life they lived
before the missionaries arrived. The account of Anglo-American ethnocentrism is
often humorous; the portrayal of Native people trying to resist “reeducation” is,
however, deeply serious, passionate, and sometimes tragic. As McNickle insists time
and again in his work, what Native Americans want is a basic human right. But it is
a right that is often denied them. And, in trying to assert it, they may be branded by
white society as criminals.
Like Whitecloud and McNickle, John Joseph Matthews was of mixed-blood status,
having both white and Osage origins. For him, too, the conflict between tribal and
dominant cultures was an intense personal experience, felt in the pulses and the
blood. Born in the Indian Territory later to become Oklahoma, he was intensely
aware of the alterations taking place in reservation life. And, after a youth full of
incident and wandering that included study in America and England and work as
a flight instructor during World War I, he devoted his life to public service and to
writing. His first book, Wah’kon-tah: The Osage and the White Man’s Road, was
published in 1929 and was immensely successful; his only novel, Sundown, appeared
five years later. As the title suggests, Sundown is colored by the melancholy reflection
that the old tribal life is passing away in Oklahoma. Founded in the experiences of
its author, the novel tells the story of young Challenge “Chal” Windzer, the son of a
progressive, optimistic man who believes Chal will become strong and talented
enough to deal with change and an uncertain future. Chal starts off well. EducatedGGray_c04.indd 474ray_c 04 .indd 474 8 8/1/2011 7:54:02 AM/ 1 / 2011 7 : 54 : 02 AM