The Surrounded

The Surrounded (1936), a novel by American Cree Metis author and activist D'Arcy McNickle, tells the story of Archilde Leon, a half-Salish, half-European young man who returns to the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana where he was raised after working and living in white society in Portland, Oregon. In addition to setting the standard for modern indigenous coming-of-age stories, The Surrounded offers a valuable glimpse of what life was like on Native American Reservations during the Great Depression.

After making his way as a fiddle-player in Portland, Oregon, Archilde returns to his father's ranch on the Flathead Reservation in Montana, located in the Sniel-emen Valley, which means "mountains of the surrounded." His father, Max Leon, is a Spaniard who married Catherine LaLoup, Archilde's mother and the daughter of a Salish chief. Before marrying Max, Catherine had already converted to Christianity. As her husband feels little affection for the Salish people, Catherine feels largely cut off from her traditional heritage.

As Catherine plans a feast in honor of her son's return, Archilde is reluctant to see Max, who in turn resents his son for leaving the ranch in the first place. Meanwhile, Achilde learns that his brother, Louis, has become a notorious horse thief and is currently hiding out in the Salish Mountains from Pariseau, a man who owns one of horses Louis stole. Archilde also has a sister, Agnes, who is mother to two boys of her own, Mike and Narcisse. Eager to avoid a confrontation with his father, Archilde goes for a walk along the creek of his family's property. There, he discovers Louis and warns him that Pariseau has sought help from Sheriff Dave Quigley, a notoriously racist lawman who frequently goes out of his way to terrorize indigenous locals.



Max frets to his priest, Father Grepilloux, about the return of his son. Father Grepilloux suggests that Archilde might enjoy—and prolong—his stay on the ranch if he is invited to play the violin at the Church. However, it turns out that Archilde is less interested in his father's European and Catholic roots than in his ancestors' Salish traditions. Enraptured, he listens to stories shared by the Salish elders attending the feast Catherine throws in her son's honor. Meanwhile, Max skips the feast. Rather than reconnecting with his son, he hatches a plot to draw his grandsons, Mike and Narcisse, closer to his European-Christian heritage by fooling them into enrolling at the church-run boarding school.

The next day, Archilde accompanies Catherine on a hunting trip into the mountains where they encounter the treacherous Sheriff Quigley, hot on Louis' trail. After escaping a confrontation with Sheriff Quigley, Archilde and Catherine come upon Louis. The three agree to set up camp for the night and continue their hunt the next day. But when Louis kills a deer and brings it back to the camp, the three are accosted by a game warden who threatens to arrest them for violating local hunting statutes. Louis impetuously draws his gun and is shot and killed by the game warden. In the ensuing chaos and violence, Catherine cleaves the game warden's head in two with an ax. Devastated but resolute, Archilde and Catherine dig a shallow grave and bury the game warden in it. They return home with Louis' body, claiming to have discovered him dead like that.

Unfortunately, the Government Indian Agency is skeptical of Archilde's and Catherine's story. In concert with Sheriff Quigley, Agent Parker interrogates Archilde about the death of his brother and the missing game warden. Eventually, Parker accepts Archilde's story and releases him from custody, against Sheriff Quigley's strong objections. Suddenly and acutely aware of the fleeting nature of life and family, Archilde visits Max and learns that his father is dying. As Max drifts off into death, he apologizes to both Archilde and Catherine for not being a better father and husband.



Having lost both her son and her husband, Catherine feels alienated from the Christian rites and rituals that once provided her with solace. She seeks out penance from the tribal elders, demanding that she be whipped for killing the game warden and indirectly causing the death of Louis. Though she renounces her Christian faith, Catherine fears that she will not be able to enter Salish heaven because she was baptized. Meanwhile, Archilde falls in love with Elise La Rose, the granddaughter of the Salish tribal chief.

When Catherine becomes deathly ill, she is torn between her two faiths. In the end, it is a Catholic priest, Father Jerome, who Archilde calls upon as his mother slips from this world. To ensure her passage into heaven, Father Jerome tells Archilde he must tell the truth about the game warden's murder to Parker on behalf of his mother, so that she may be absolved of the sin of murder. Archilde complies, and rather than arresting Archilde immediately for his role in the murder, Parker permits him to stay with Catherine until she passes.

Rather than return to Parker upon Catherine's death, Archilde escapes into the mountains with Elise. They rescue Mike and Narcisse, who have been suffering traumatic episodes of abuse at the church-run boarding school. Sheriff Quigley pursues the four of them and is shot by Elise. Shortly thereafter, Parker apprehends Archilde and Elise, while Mike and Narcisse successfully disappear into the woods, their futures uncertain.



According to the Chocktaw and Cherokee scholar Louis Owens, The Surrounded helped launched an indigenous literary movement on par with the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s.