Product Description

As this book opens, Archilde Leon has just returned from the big city to his father's ranch on the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana. The story that unfolds captures the intense and varied conflicts that already characterised reservation life in 1936, when this remarkable novel was first published. Educated at a federal Indian boarding school, Archilde is torn not only between white and Indian cultures but between love for his Spanish father and his Indian mother, who in her old age is rejecting white culture and religion to return to the ways of her people. Archilde's young contemporaries meanwhile are succumbing to the destructive influence of reservation life, growing increasingly uprooted, dissolute, hopeless. Although Archilde plans to leave the reservation after a brief visit, his entanglements delay his departure until he faces destruction by the white man's law.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #507330 in Books
• Published on: 1978-02-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 315 pages

About the Author
D'Arcy McNickle

Customer Reviews

Often fiction can convey an idea better than non-fiction.
I read Peter Mathieson's book "In the Spirit of Crazy Horse," and while I felt for the protagonists, I couldn't help wonder-why so much violence? Why so many weapons? Why were they constantly jumping bail, when they knew all this could only make their situations worse? This novel written some 30 years before these incidents occurred gave me much more incite than any piece of non-fiction could.

McNickle depicts a culture of fear and distrust, where the Indian population automatically feels at a disadvantage, like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar, even when he has done nothing wrong. For me to try to describe it here would be impossible. You must read the book to understand it, and I strongly suggest that you do. In addition, you should read some background information on McNickle himself-a true Renaissance man.