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Following author Thomas King’s revelation Monday that he is not part Cherokee, some Indigenous writers and scholars say the statement was a good first step, while others believe it lacks accountability.
Author of books like The uncomfortable Indian and Indians on vacationKing said in an essay Monday for The Globe and Mail that he learned he does not have Cherokee ancestry after meeting with the Tribal Alliance Against Fraud (TAAF), a U.S.-based organization.
Daniel Heath Justice, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and professor at the Institute of Critical Indigenous Studies and the Department of English Languages and Literatures at the University of British Columbia, was on the Zoom call between TAAF and King.
Heath Justice said King seemed genuinely surprised to learn of his genealogy. but he saidThis was not a surprise to many Cherokee citizens, who had known that King was not a Cherokee for a long time.
He said that while King is absorbing things, his “statement is a first step but cannot be the only step” toward accountability.
Heath Justice added that it’s an opportunity to learn “from different voices and voices that have been working hard.”
“This doesn’t have to be a moment of despair; it can actually be a moment of reaffirming our commitment,” Heath Justice said.
“There are so many truly amazing Cherokee citizens. We have no shortage of Cherokee writers who write from Cherokee perspectives, who have Cherokee relationships, who have Cherokee connections.”
Encourage people to read writers such as Twila Barnes, Andrea L. Rogers, Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle, Gladys Cardiff, Mary Leauna Christensen, and Wilma Mankiller.
Burden falls on King, says writer
Anishnaabe writer Jesse Wente said it was King’s students who first came to mind when he heard the news.
“I think about all the people who have had a relationship with him, what they feel today,” she said.
Wente said he was aware of the rumors surrounding King’s estate and distanced himself from him after his experience working with director Michelle Latimer on a film adaptation of The uncomfortable Indian.
“This should have been fixed a long time ago,” Wente said.
“I can’t explain why people don’t solve their own problems if they are going to represent themselves publicly.”
He said his experience working with Latimer felt like a deep betrayal, but it prepared him for this moment.
“The last time it happened, it almost cost me my life, you know, because depression and anxiety and all those things are going to kill you,” Wente said.
“This time, largely because of that, I’ve been on a huge healing journey and it’s changed my life.”
Wente said he doesn’t understand how King could be surprised because this is not new to many in his circle and that the burden of repairing those relationships falls on King, not his community.
“I don’t feel like I’m taking on the weight that Tom should be carrying, and that’s a relief this time,” he said.
“So my message to all those students, to the hurting people, is to know that you can emerge in a better place.”
Wente said empathy for the colonial disconnection that many indigenous people have suffered prevents many from asking about the people’s identities.
“We stop questioning ourselves because we understand that it is painful,” he said.
“I refuse all this time to lose the generosity of being Anishinaabe, which is that I want to believe you when you come before me.”
Support indigenous students, says teacher
Celeste Pedri-Spade, an Anishinaabe associate professor of anthropology at McGill University in Montreal, said King’s revelation felt “like Groundhog Day.”
He said King’s statement appears “false” because “people have been asking him to clarify his claims for many years.”
Pedri-Spade called on King to act on part of his statement about continuing to support Indigenous causes and Indigenous artists.
“The royalties from your books, the money you make from these Indigenous stories, donate them to some initiative to support Indigenous students, to support the future of brilliant Indigenous writers,” he said.
