D'Arcy McNickle and Michif?

[David Robertson]

Lhush tEnEs pulakli!  Qhata mEsayka?

D'Arcy McNickle, who wrote some splendid novels ("The Surrounded", "Wind
from an Enemy Sky"), was an enrolled member of the Confederated Salish and
Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation in northwestern Montana.

He considered himself Salish, his biographers say, but he had a mother who
was apparently Metis and a father who was of Irish background.

Because I know that the mixed language Michif has interested several of
our list members for very good reasons, I'd like you to know that one of
McNickle's short stories, "En Roulant Ma Boule, Roulant..." describes a
community of reservation people speaking a mix of French and Cree.  Most
tantalizing; did McNickle hear such a mixture spoken when he was growing
up on the Flathead?

The story was handwritten around perhaps 1930, and was never published
during the author's lifetime.  It appears in a collection of his short
stories, "The Hawk is Hungry", edited by Birgit Hans, U. of Arizona Press,
1992.  This is volume 22 of the series Sun Tracks:  An American Indian
Literary Series.

Pi alta na lhatEwa.
Dave

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