Discipline: Literature

D'Arcy McNickle

Discipline: Literature
MacDowell Fellowships: 1937
D'Arcy McNickle (1904-1977) was a writer, Native American activist, college professor, and anthropologist. McNickle worked under Commissioner of Indian Affairs John Collier during the 1930s and 1940s. The Bureau of Indian Affairs first hired him as an administrative assistant, but by 1950 he had been appointed chief of the tribal relations branch, and he soon became an expert. He was appointed the director of the University of Colorado's American Indian Development, Inc. in 1952, and received an honorary doctor of science degree in 1966. Later that year, he moved to what is now the University of Regina, to create the anthropology department. In 1972, he helped create the Center for the History of the American Indian in Chicago's Newberry Library; the center was named in his honor in 1984. Also named in his honor was the library at the Salish Kootenai College on the Flathead Reservation. McNickle was also instrumental in drafting the "Declaration of Indian Purpose" for the 1961 American Indian Chicago Conference, helped found the National Congress of American Indians, and was named a fellow of the American Anthropological Association.