Thomas King, the author whose books often focus on Native American themes, has revealed that he is not, as he previously thought, part Cherokee.
King, a California native who now lives in Ontario, had been raised to believe that he was partly Indigenous. He earned a Ph.D. in English from the University of Utah, writing his dissertation on Native American oral literature.
He has published more than 20 books for adults and young readers, many exploring Indigenous characters and themes. They include the novels Green Grass, Running Water and Truth & Bright Water; the children’s books Borders and Coyote Tales; and the nonfiction book The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America. He has also written a series of mystery novels under the pen name Hartley GoodWeather.
In an article for the Canadian newspaper the Globe and Mail, King wrote that he’d heard rumors that he was not in fact Indigenous and contacted the organization Tribal Alliance Against Frauds to “put the matter to rest.” A genealogist working with the group found that King had no Cherokee ancestry.
“At 82, I feel as though I’ve been ripped in half, a one-legged man in a two-legged story,” King wrote. “Not the Indian I had in mind. Not an Indian at all.”
Niigaan Sinclair, an Anishinaabe author, told the CBC, “It’s not only painful. It’s also, I think, a blemish on the entire Canadian literary industry as a whole to not check and to not ask questions and let a person...take up so much space.”
And in the Toronto Star, Kwantlen and Nooksack journalist Robert Jago wrote, “Outing King was the first step. Now his work needs to be moved to the fantasy section—and instead, the space King’s work took up on bookshelves, court decisions and in the minds of Canadians needs to be instead filled by the words and thoughts of authentic, grounded and real Indigenous people.”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
