Jan. 18 – On this day in Montana history in 1904 D’Arcy McNickle was born at St. Ignatius on the Flathead Indian Reservation to a Métis mother and an Irish father. Perhaps reflecting those mixed roots, McNickle went on to become  a major force in changing how all Americans viewed Native American issues. He was an internationally known author, director of American Indian Development Inc., a community organizer, professor of anthropology, historian, and program director of the Newberry Library Center for the History of the American Indian. His 1936 novel, “The Surrounded,” remains a classic on the clash of Indian and white cultures.