Mixed Heritage in The Surrounded

In The Surrounded, Archilde's identity is (obviously) central to placing McNickle's work in context of the greater picture. As we explored in "The Hungry Generations" and "Red Road to Nowhere," McNickle condemns the future of the American Indians in the West because of the force of the authority and the general social praxis that the Americans have imposed there during Westward expansion. This remains true for Archilde, who, though only half Salish, cannot find success at the end of the novel and instead is arrested for crimes he did not commit. Something that I found particularly interesting in the novel is the tension that results from Archilde's mixed-race heritage exists even between Archilde and his parents -- whom, you would think, would be most accepting of Archilde's identity struggle than compared to any other characters in the novel (because they did produce him, after all). The parents' discomfort with Archilde's identity is spotlighted, for example, in the scenes surrounding money, when both parents are uncomfortable either accepting money or asking for it. Not only does this tension play into how Archilde perceives and accepts his own identity, but also about the larger statement that the novel makes about the future of the West. By including Archilde's parents in the forces putting pressure on Archilde to choose between his two cultures, McNickle deepens his stance that the West is not a place where the indigenous population will be able to thrive while Whiteness moves in.