Wind from an Enemy Sky is D’Arcy McNickle’s final novel, published posthumously in 1978. The novel follows the tribal members of Little Elk, a fictional Northwestern tribe, as they attempt to navigate encroaching white colonization. The Little Elk people find themselves confronting United States government agents, anthropologists, U.S. marshals, and one very disruptive dam. Wind is McNickle’s eighth book and third novel and is considered a meaningful addition to Native fiction.
According to Louis Owens, the novel was initially not picked up for publishing due to the poor sales of McNickle’s previous novel, The Surrounded, and also due to the fact that the novel was not considered “Indian” enough. McNickle worked on the manuscript for nearly forty years, from its initial conception in the late 1930s to its final publication in 1978.
Plot
Wind from an Enemy Sky begins with the Little Elk tribe's reaction to United States government presence and the construction of a dam on reservation land. While not explicitly mentioned in the text, the Seli’š Ksanka Qlispe’ Dam, located within the Flathead Reservation is believed to provide the model for the fictional dam.
Wind concentrates on the mistrust between the Little Elk people and the United States government and the colonization efforts toward the tribe. In the novel, the Little Elk people argue that the US government destroys their sacred land for worthless gain. At the same time, the US government believes that the land must be "modernized" and refuses to consult the tribe before breaking ground. Such action represents just one of the various ways in which the government imposes on the tribe's traditional way of life.
Solely written in third-person narration, the story features several points of view through the eyes of Natives and Non-Natives. Bull, the patriarch of the Little Elk tribe, attempts to restore their land multiple times, which results in trouble with the government. In the novel, Adam Pell, a prominent American figure, is the builder of the forsaken dam that Bull despises. Pell is convinced that his actions are justified. He attempts to mend the issues created between himself and the tribe, but his actions are ineffective.
A second plot line in the novel centers around Henry Jim and his reconciliation efforts with the Little Elk tribe as he nears death. He had given away the tribe's most sacred object, the Feather Boy medicine bundle, and recognizes that its repatriation represents the only way for him to mend his wrongs.
The meeting of these two plot lines leads to the climax of the novel as the Little Elk attempt to accept these unforgiving truths, ultimately culminating in tragedy.
Major themes and motifs
Regarding Wind from an Enemy Sky, D’Arcy McNickle wrote, “I would like the reader to see the Little Elk episode not as an isolated episode of tragedy, about which one need not get too concerned, but as a critical statement about the quality of human behavior when people of different cultures meet.” Through references to historical and political context, McNickle addresses themes that center on Native-White relations.
Assimilation
The U.S. government-led project of assimilation is alluded to frequently throughout Wind from an Enemy Sky. One example is government boarding schools, which play a role in generational conflict in the novel. Bull asks his grandson, “Am I talking to you or a piece of paper?” after Antoine tells his grandfather that he read about the dam construction in a newspaper. As Daniel Duane notes, this quote illustrates a clear gulf between Antoine, who was formally educated at a government boarding school and can speak English, and Bull, who is beginning to feel the full effects of linguistic colonialism. Jay Hansford C. Vest also comments on the pervasive effects of boarding schools in the novel, arguing that the dam is a reflection of the decades-old quarrel between Bull and Henry Jim over Henry Jim's supposed indoctrination at boarding school. Henry Jim subsequently chooses to live as a white man, and consequentially the Little Elk's most sacred object, the Feather Boy medicine bundle, is sold to a museum that happens to be owned by the constructor of the dam, who allows the medicine bundle to rot in a storage box in the museum.