Inconvenient Indian Author Gets a Big Jolt Over His Ancestry

An acclaimed author long celebrated for his work exploring Indigenous issues in North America has publicly acknowledged that he is not, in fact, of Cherokee descent as he had believed for decades. Thomas King, a writer, academic, and activist who was born in California and has lived in Canada since 1980, says he accepted the findings of a genealogist associated with the Tribal Alliance Against Frauds, a North Carolina-based group that investigates false claims of Indigenous identity, per the Guardian.

"At 82, I feel as though I've been ripped in half, a one-legged man in a two-legged story," King, author of The Inconvenient Indian, writes in a Globe and Mail essay. "Not the Indian I had in mind. Not an Indian at all." He said he never intentionally misled anyone, and instead lived his life believing he was "mixed-blood Cherokee." He said he plans to return his National Aboriginal Achievement Award, but noted that his other honors were for his writing, not his ethnicity. He remains a Companion of the Order of Canada, one of the highest honors bestowed on Canadian civilians.