Wind From an Enemy Sky Resources & Study Guide
D'Arcy McNickle

Reading Schedule

Jan 14 Chap 1-2 (1-25)
Jan 15 Chap 3-4 (26-39)

Jan 18 Chap 5-6 (40-52)
Jan 19 Chap 7-8 (53-65)
Jan 20 Chap 9-10 (66-85)
Jan 21 Chap 11-12 (86-100)
Jan 22 Chap 13-14 (101-111)

Jan 25 Chap 15-16 (112 - 128)
Jan 26 Chap 17-18 (129-151)
Jan 27 Chap 18-20 (152-173)
Jan 28 Chap 21-22 (174-187)
Jan 29 Chap 23-24 (188-198)

Feb 1 Chap 25-26 (199-215)
Feb 2 Chap 27-28 (216-226)
Feb 3 Chap 29-30 (227-241)
Feb 4 Chap 31-32 (242-258)

Basic Chronology for Flathead Reservation

1812: Canadian trapper David Thompson reaches Flathead Lake
1841: Jesuits (blackrobes) establish mission in this region
1846: Fort Connah (Hudson Bay Company) established
1855: Hellgate Treaty
1882: Railroad right-of-way agreement for Northern Pacific
1891: Removal of Charlo and his Salish band from the Bitterroot
1910: Opening of the Reservation to homesteaders
Flier published by Great Northern Railroad advertising the opening of the Reservation

Local Historical Background

1. First whites in area were fur traders and trappers. Angus McDonald built Fort Conah. This was part of the Hudson Bay Company, which was a Canadian company.The fort, which can be seen to the east of Highway 93 on Post Creek Hill, was closed after the northern border of the U.S.A. was established.

Angus was married to Catherine, a Nez Perce woman. Many fur traders and trappers married Indian women, for the usual reasons of companionship but also for business reasons.

2. The Blackfeet in mid-19th century were powerful and had access to rifles from traders in Canada. They worked at suppressing access to trade among the Flatheads. The Flatheads had heard of the Jesuits whom they called “Blackrobes” and they wanted their power. So they sent two delegations to St. Louis to ask the Blackrobes to come. This led to Father DeSmet coming west and establishing a mission at St. Mary’s in the Bitterroot.

3. The discovery of gold at Alder Gulch in Montana in the 1860s triggered a burst of whites entering the state. The presence of gold camps created a market for agriculture.

4. The Treaty of 1855 at Council Grove west of Missoula established the Flathead Reservation. It was one of several “Stevens” treaties negotiated at about the same time in the Pacific Northwest. Governor Isaac Stevens was sent to this area to establish peace between various tribes and the increasing numbers of settlers by formalizing the territory of each tribe.

5. For decades after the 1855 treaty, the Salish continued living in the Bitterroot. James Garfield came and negotiated an agreement that the Reservation would be established in the Flathead, but Chief Charlo claimed his “mark” had been forged on that negotiation and he continued living in the Bitterroot with his followers, until near starvation forced him to move. His rival was Chief Arlee, who forged better relations with the U.S. Government.

6. The Dawes Act of 1887 allowed reservations to be divided into individual alotments and the surplus land to be opened to nontribal homesteaders. This took affect on the Flathead Reservation in 1910. Before that happened, the free roaming herds of cattle, bison, and horses needed to be rounded up.

Rep. Joseph Dixon (Missoula attorney and owner of the Missoulian) argued in Congress that Article 6 of the 1855 Hellgate Treaty allowed dividing the Flathead Reservation. This is the language of the treaty: “The President may from time to time, at his discretion, cause the whole or such portion of such reservation as he may thing proper to be surveyed into lots, and assign the same to such individuals or families of the said confederated tribes as are willing to avail themselves of the privilege and will locate on the same permanent home.”

Dixon had relatives and business associates on the Reservation. Hundreds of letters of support from Montana businessmen were received. Tribal leaders fought the allotment policy every way they could.

A new roll of the confederated Flatheads was completed in anticipation of Allotment. It listed 2,133 persons entitled to allotments, including 640 Pend O’reilles (242 full bloods, 387 mixed, 7 adopted Indians, and 4 adopted whites); 557 Flatheads (233 fullbloods, 305 mixed, 16 adopted Indians, and 3 adopted whites); 556 Kutenais (210 fullbloods, 342 mixed, 2 adopted Indians, and 2 adopted whites); 197 Lower Pend Oreilles (161 fullbloods, 35 mixed, and 1 adopted white); 135 Spokanes (55 fullbloods, 80 mixed); and 48 other tribes (14 fullbloods and 34 mixed). Based on the enrollment, Indians were allowed allotments of 80 acres of farmland or 160 acres of grazing land. Except for further reserves for such things as townsites, a bison range, and power installations, the remaining lands were to be sold with the money to be used for the benefit of the tribes.

The Place of Falling Waters
Notes, part 1
Notes, part 2
Notes, part 3

The Author

D’Arcy McNickle, an enrolled Salish Kootenai on the Flathead Reservation, became one of the most prominent twentieth-century American Indian activists. He was born on January 14, 1904, to an Irish father, William McNickle, and a one-quarter Cree Métis mother, Philomene Parenteau. He grew up on the Flathead Reservation in St. Ignatius and went to mission and non-reservation boarding schools. In 1925 McNickle sold his land allotment on the Flathead Reservation so that he could raise the money necessary to study abroad at Oxford University. After returning to the United States, McNickle lived in New York City until he was hired by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1936.

McNickle’s narrative is set in the fictionalized territory of the Little Elk Indians, presumably modelled after his own experiences on the Salish-Kootenai (Flathead) reservation in Mission Valley, Montana. As an adopted member of this tribe, with a Metis or mixed-blood Cree ancestry, McNickle moved easily between New York City and the Flathead reservation. Passing as white in New York City, McNickle provided a unique perspective on Western culture as well as a complex, or hybrid, vision of life with the Salish-Kootenai.

Set in the early 1900s, the novel represents the struggle over the construction of a dam on the Little Elk reservation as an allegorical--or dehistoricized--struggle between colonizer and colonized. Just as the names in the novel are fictionalized, so the time period is hard to determine, though certain cultural signifiers (like the emergence of the automobile) help the reader to loosely place the narrative in time. Overall, however, there is a certain timeless feel to the narrative, depicting a seemingly eternal struggle between two antagonists.

D’Arcy 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 on Native American issues.

Study Guide

Chapter 1
1. What is Bull’s reaction to hearing that a dam has been built across the river?

2. From the side of the mountain, Bull gets a view of the valley, which is now “a white man’s world.” He says it is “a world he sometimes passed through but never visited.” What is the difference between “passing through” and “visiting”?

3. Where has Antoine been and what was his experience like?

4. Understanding the ideas of sacred and profane is important to understanding this story. The place where the dam has been built is sacred to Bull’s people. This means the building of the dam was profane.

It had been a holy place, this mountain-locked meadow. “Be careful what you do here,” the boy had been told by his relatives. “This is a place of power. Be careful of what you think. Keep your thoughts good.... Don’t have angry thoughts here,” he was told....

“How can a man do this?” He raised his head and stared at the far-away ribbon of white water leaping down the high rock from its glacial bed. That had not disappeared. The water tumbled its way over stony passages to the head of the forested basin--but the basin was no more. The place where anger was to be left out of men’s thoughts was drowned (5-6).

What do you imagine the dam meant to those who built it?

5. What does Bull do when he sees the dam? What effect does this have?

6. How does his reaction affect Antoine?

7. Compare what Bull believes his grandson is thinking at the dam with what Antoine was really thinking. What does this suggest about their relationship?

8. What detail about Bull do you remember most vividly from this chapter?

Chapter 2
1. How and where did the government men want Bull to live? Why do you think they wanted this?

2. Find at least one detail about both Basil and Louis. Explain how the men are related to Antoine, in both the white and tribal relationship.

3. Who is Two Sleeps and where did he come from?

4. Who is the man who comes into the camp at night singing? How do the other men feel toward him? Why has he come?

5. It has been 30 years since Bull and his brother have talked. Why? How has the land changed since the men’s earlier years when they got along?

6. What is Henry Jim’s plan, and how does Bull feel about it?

Chapter 3
1. Contrast the way Bull and Henry Jim relate to white men.

2. Who is Toby Rafferty and why has Henry Jim come to see him?

3. What are four of the things the “men from afar countries, from somewhere east of the mountains” tell the Indians to do? What effect did these things have on the Indian families?

Chapter 4
1. How would you rate Toby Raferty’s effectiveness on the Little Elk Reservation? Explain.

2. How does the Indian tradition of the “midsummer dances"affect their farming? What would you do about this dilemma if you worked for the BIA?

3. Who is Edwards and what kind of person is he?

4. What is Raferty’s opinion of the training Washington DC gives the people they send to work with the Indians?

5. Compare Raferty’s description of Henry Jim with the earlier description about him from the book? What is similar? Different? What do you think accounts for the variance?

Chapter 5
1. How are Pock Face and Theobold described? After being introduced, do you like these men or not? Explain.

2. What do Pock Face and Theobold do in this chapter, and how do they pull Bull into their actions? Do you think their actions are justifiable?

Chapter 6
1. How is Wells involved with the medicine bundle and how does he think the Little Elk people would have acted differently if they had never lost the bundle? Do you agree with his speculation? Why or why not?

2. What involvement did Henry Jim have with the bundle 30 years ago?

3. Why won’t Wells help Raferty get the bundle back? What is the right thing to do?

Chapter 7
1. Where is Henry Jim going on Red Son at the beginning of the chapter? Why?

2. How do all Henry Jim’s kinsmen react to the message he is bringing them?

3. Why is Henry Jimand--then everyone else--singing?

4. Why won’t the US Marshall let the group of Indians inside the agency?

5. Who is already inside the agency?

Chapter 8
1. What does Two Sleeps tell the women when he’s ask to decide what should be done about Pock Face and Theobold? How do the women react to his answer?

2. What happens with the whiskey? Why do you think this section is included in the book?

3. What did Bull do to fool Antoine as Antoine was trying to find him? According to Veronica, why does he do this?

4. How does Bull react when Pock Face tells him what he has done? How does this compare with what you would expect?

Chapter 9
1. After they find the body, what is the tension between Rafferty and Grant? How are they approaching the crime differently?

2. What do we learn about the man who was killed?

3. What seems to be Sid Grant’s opinion of the Indian community? Find specific examples to back up your opinion.

4. What does Antoine do as he translates?

Chapter 10
1. Who is The Boy? What do you think are the most important pieces of information we get about him in this chapter?

2. What is confusing to Rafferty about the situation with the murder and how Bull and his people are involved?

3. Who is singing in this chapter and what is the significance of that singing?

Chapter 11
1. Where are Bull and his men kept and why is this location chosen instead of the jail?

2. What does The Boy think working for the government does to an Indian man’s relationship with his own people? Why do you think he continues his job if he believes this?

3. What problem does Bull have with the white man’s law that is keeping him at the agency?

4. What does Pock Face tell his people when he decides to speak?

5. How does Pock Face’s dad, Louis, react to his son’s announcement?

6. How does Bull react?

Chapter 12
1. What do Catherine and Lucille have in common?

2. What are all the women in camp doing or getting ready for?

3. What is Marie Louise’s predicament and how does it turn out?

4. If you were a woman in camp, whose actions would probably most closely resemble your own? Why?

Chapter 13
1. Who arrives on the train?

2. Who is Adam Pell?

Chapter 14
1. Where does Antoine plan to go after leaving the women at his Uncle Jerome’s camp?

2. What plan for the Indians does the Long Armed man explain to Antoine at the boarding school?

3. Describe Antoine’s experience at boarding school.

4. What brings Antoine back to the Little Elk Reservation?

Chapter 15
1. What disturbs Antoine about Henry Jim’s place, and what does he see once he gets there that makes him feel better?

2. What is strange about Henry Jim lying on the ground? Why has Henry Jim moved out of his house? Does this make sense to you? Why or why not?

3. What did the government man tell Henry Jim that turned out not to be true?

4. How does Henry Jim seem to feel now about the decisions he’s made in his life?

Chapter 16
1. What is Edward’s evaluation of Henry Jim’s health?

2. What is Rafferty concerned about? What is the Boy’s advice when Rafferty questions him about how to proceed with the murder investigation?

3. What conclusion has Henry Jim come to about why his tribe just left him behind? Assuming his conclusion is correct, do you think they did the right thing?

4. How does Rafferty decide to handle the situation with Bull and the murder accusations as well the fact that Henry Jim needs his family near him as he is growing weaker?

Chapter 17
1. What happened many years ago that first caused Bull to become angry? What changed? How?

2. What types of things were the settlers doing at first that just made the natives laugh?

3. Initially, what did natives think would eventually happen to the settlers? How did things actually progress? What does Bull think his people’s mistake was in dealing with the settlers?

4. Explain Bull’s experience with the white school.

Chapter 18
1. What is the relationship between Adam Pell and Gen (or Ms. Thomas Hendricks Cook) and how is the boy who was murdered related to them?

2. What did Adam’s friend Carlos do with his family’s land, and how did people react?

3. What was Adam Pell’s promise to Carlos that caused him to miss his sister’s Christmas gathering to go to Cuno, Peru? What did living in Cuno make Adam begin to think about?

4. What decision does Thomas Cooke make after listening to Adam and how does Gen react?

Chapter 19
1. Why is the design of the dam impressive to the engineer? He uses the word “beautiful” in his description. What adjective would you use?

2. How did the US Marshal and his men find the gun? What two questions are still left unanswered even after the gun is discovered?

Chapter 20
1. What is the first thing Bull says to the group when he arrives at the agency? How is this received?

2. How are the settler’s laws and native ways of handling crimes different? What are the benefits and drawbacks of each system?

3. Why is Bull afraid of Sid Grant?

4. What are the contents of the two packages from Bull’s camp?

5. What two reasons does the Marshall give for his belief that Bull is not the murderer?

6. Who interrupts the meeting at the agency, and what is his message?

7. What stops Bull from rising to confront Adam Pell when he realizes he was the one responsible for the dam?

8. How does Thomas Cooke react to Pock Face’s declaration, and what does he recommend?

9. What realization has shocked Adam Pell? In what way, besides the trouble over the dam, is Adam Pell involved in the trouble on the Little Elk Reservation? After the discussion, what does he want to do and why?

Chapter 21
1. What story did Rafferty and Doc Edwards make up to explain to the government men at Henry Jim’s funeral who asked why his body was taken from a teepee and not his “elegant house,” and why they were taking his horse along to the burial?

2. What did Henry Jim’s burial service entail?

3. How long was Rafferty on the Little Elk Reservation before any natives actually started taking to him? Does this seem a long or short amount of time? Explain.

4. What does Henry Two Bits come to ask Rafferty? What does he have that surprises Rafferty?

5. How have things changed between The Boy and the rest of the Little Elk people?

6. What does Bull ask The Boy to do for him?

Chapter 22
1. How does it seem things are going to turn out for Pock Face? What leads you to this conclusion?

2. What behavior of Bull’s, in his younger days when he was still drinking, sometimes scared others? What ended Bull’s drinking days?

Chapter 23
1. What does Adam Pell realize American laws made legal that he feels is wrong (though none of his important friends seem to agree)? What did the law allow that Rafferty considered “thievery”? How does he think the white men who came to the reservation were also “exhorted”?

2. What two things resulted from the dam?

3. How does Adam react to the judge’s claim that these exploits against the Indians were “hasty and not well considered”?

Chapter 24
1. What happens to Two Sleeps?

Chapter 25
1. The Little Elk people always get together for storytelling and remembering in the winter, but there are some things different this winter from the last. What are they?

2. Describe the circumstances that led to Antoine going to a boarding school.

3. Describe how Celeste, Antoine, Veronica and Bull are related and how their relationships have changed over the years.

4. Why does Bull want to tell old stories “those his father knew” instead of telling stories from his own life? Do you think anything similar happens in today’s society?

5. Who is Featherboy really? What does he bring the Little Elk people and why is the bundle important, or why do the people need to protect it?

Chapter 26
1. Why does Adam Pell want to bring the Little Elk people a gift? What does he plan to give them? Where did this come from and why does he think it is a good gift? Do you think his gesture is appropriate? Explain.

Chapter 27
1. What messages does The Boy bring to Bull’s camp?

2. How does Louis feel about the current situation they are all in? What does he think they should do? What is Bull’s reply?

Chapter 28
1. How has the Little Elk Valley changed over the last few years? Which changes are positive? Which are negative?

2. What does Pock Face think they should do about the requests they receive? What does Louis think? What does he want to do?

Chapter 29
1. What problem does Adam Rafferty think would arise if all 2,000 Indians actually decided they wanted to farm, as the government wants them to?

2. How does Adam Pell feel about the government’s Indian policy now he is aware of it?

3. What do Doc Edwards and Rafferty want Pell to do instead of telling Bull what actually happened to the bundle? Why? Do you think their plan is wise? Explain.

4. Why does Adam think his object is a good substitute for the bundle?

Chapter 30
1. Where are Bull and his group going, and what makes Bull suspicious?

Chapter 31
1. Where is Veronica going?

2. What do Veronica and Two Sleeps end up doing?

3. What does Veronica see that Two Sleeps seems to miss?

4. What does Two Sleeps see and understand?

Chapter 32
1. What does Rafferty think of The Boy? Of Bull?

2. What does Rafferty confront Adam about, then then warn him about again a few pages later?

3. What chance does Rafferty think they’ve missed by telling the Little Elk people their sacred object is gone?

4. Why has Adam Pell brought Mr. Davis?

5. What does Adam Pell tell Bull and his men? How do Bull’s men react?

6. What does Louis do that effectively ends the meeting?

7. Whose acts would you say are noble in the end? How do you decide?

8. What do you think of the ending of the book? Is it strong or weak? Interesting? Regardless of whether your like or dislike it, does it seem appropriate? Why or why not?

9. Go back to the first sentence of the book: “The Indian named Bull and his grandson took a walk into the mountains to look at a dam built in a cleft of rock, and what began as a walk became a journey into the world."After finishing, what do you think this means?

10. What parts of the book seems to reflect historical events?