{"id":12561,"date":"2025-11-26T01:20:49","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T04:20:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/2025\/11\/26\/indigenous-writers-academics-say-they-arent-shocked-to-hear-thomas-kings-not-cherokee\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T01:20:49","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T04:20:49","slug":"indigenous-writers-academics-say-they-arent-shocked-to-hear-thomas-kings-not-cherokee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/2025\/11\/26\/indigenous-writers-academics-say-they-arent-shocked-to-hear-thomas-kings-not-cherokee\/","title":{"rendered":"Indigenous writers, academics say they arent shocked to hear Thomas Kings not Cherokee"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>IndigenousAfter author Thomas King\u2019s revelation Monday that he is not part Cherokee, some Indigenous writers and academics say the statement was a good first step, while others believe it lacks accountability.   \u2018We are not bereft of Cherokee writers,\u2019 says Daniel Heath JusticeCandace Maracle  \u00b7 CBC News  \u00b7 Posted: Nov 25, 2025 7:10 PM EST | Last Updated: 1 hour agoListen to this articleEstimated 4 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.Author Thomas King said in an essay Monday for The Globe and Mail he had learned he has no Cherokee ancestry. (Trina Koster)After author Thomas King\u2019s revelation Monday that he is not part Cherokee, some Indigenous writers and academics say the statement was a good first step, while others believe it lacks accountability.Author of books like The Inconvenient Indian and Indians on Vacation, King said in an essay Monday for The Globe and Mail he learned he has no Cherokee ancestry after meeting with the Tribal Alliance Against Frauds (TAAF) a U.S.-based organization.Daniel Heath Justice, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and a professor in 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 shocked to learn of his genealogy. But he said this wasn\u2019t a surprise to many Cherokee citizens, who were aware King was not Cherokee for a long time. He said while King is absorbing things, his \u201cstatement is a first step but it can\u2019t be the only step\u201d toward accountability.Heath Justice added it\u2019s an opportunity to learn \u201cfrom different voices and voices who\u2019ve been doing a lot of work.\u201dDaniel Heath Justice said he\u2019s less concerned about thinking about the impact of King\u2019s legacy and more focused on the legacies of Indigenous writers. (Submitted by Daniel Heath Justice)\u201cThis doesn\u2019t have to be a time of despair; it can actually be a time of reaffirming our commitment,\u201d Heath Justice said.\u201cThere are so many really amazing Cherokee citizens. We are not bereft of Cherokee writers who are writing from Cherokee perspectives, who have Cherokee relations, who have Cherokee connections.\u201dHe encourages people to read writers like Twila Barnes, Andrea L. Rogers, Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle, Gladys Cardiff, Mary Leauna Christensen, and Wilma Mankiller.Burden is with King, says writerAnishnaabe writer Jesse Wente said it was King\u2019s students who first came to mind when he heard the news.\u201cI think of all the people that have been in relationship with him, what they\u2019re feeling today,\u201d he said.Wente said he was aware of rumours surrounding King\u2019s heritage and distanced himself from him after his experience working with director Michelle Latimer on a film adaptation of The Inconvenient Indian.\u201cThis should have been taken care of long ago,\u201d Wente said.\u201dI can\u2019t speak to why people don\u2019t resolve their own issues if they\u2019re going to represent themselves in ways publicly.\u201dHe said his experience working with Latimer felt like a deep betrayal but prepared him for this moment.  \u201cThe last time that happened, it nearly cost me my life, you know, because depression and anxiety and all those things are gonna kill you,\u201d Wente said.Jesse Wente says the burden is with King to repair relationships, not his community. (Submitted by Jesse Wente)\u201cThis time, in large part because of that, I\u2019ve gone on a real big healing journey and that has changed my life.\u201dWente said he doesn\u2019t understand how King could be shocked because this is not new to many in his circle and that the burden is with King to repair those relationships, not his community.\u201cI don\u2019t feel like I\u2019m taking on any of the weight that Tom should be carrying himself, and that\u2019s a relief this time around,\u201d he said.\u201dSo my message to all those students, the folks hurt, is know that you can emerge in a better place.\u201dWente said empathy for the colonial disconnect many Indigenous people have endured prevents many from asking about peoples\u2019 identities.\u201cWe stop questioning because we understand that it\u2019s painful,\u201d he said.\u201cI refuse in all of this time to lose the generosity of being Anishinaabe, which is that I want to believe you when you present yourself to me.\u201dSupport Indigenous students, says professorCeleste Pedri-Spade, an Anishinaabe associate professor in anthropology at McGill University in Montreal, said King\u2019s revelation felt \u201clike Groundhog Day.\u201dShe said King\u2019s statement feels \u201cdisingenuous\u201d because \u201cpeople have been asking him to clarify his claims for many years now.\u201dCeleste Pedri-Spade calls on King to donate his royalties to support Indigenous artists. (Submitted by Celeste Pedri-Spade)Pedri-Spade called on King to act upon the part of his statement about continuing to support Indigenous causes and Indigenous artists.\u201cYour book royalties, the money that you make off of these Indigenous stories, donate them to some initiative to support Indigenous students, to support the future of brilliant Indigenous writers,\u201d she said.ABOUT THE AUTHORCandace Maracle is Kanien\u2019keh\u00e1:ka, Wolf Clan from Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory. She has a master\u2019s degree in journalism from Toronto Metropolitan University. Her latest short film, \u201cTsi n\u00ed:yoht yonkwayent\u00e1:\u2019on ne \u00f3hses\u201d (How We Got Maple Syrup) is completely in the Kanien\u2019k\u00e9ha language.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>IndigenousAfter author Thomas King\u2019s revelation Monday that he is not part Cherokee, some Indigenous writers and academics say the statement was a good first step, while others believe it lacks accountability. \u2018We are not bereft of Cherokee writers,\u2019 says Daniel Heath JusticeCandace Maracle \u00b7 CBC News \u00b7 Posted: Nov 25, 2025 7:10 PM EST | [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12562,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118,1],"tags":[116],"class_list":["post-12561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-indigenous","category-uncategorized","tag-indigenous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}