Why I am no longer recommending books by Thomas King? Because I am no longer confident that he is Cherokee.
When I was teaching at the University of Illinois (as a grad student, a post doc, and then an assistant professor from mid 1990s to 2010), I assigned "Borders" -- one of his short stories. It came out in 1993. It isn't written for children but was recently published as a graphic novel for young readers. Borders is about a twelve-year-old boy and his mother and their attempt to cross the Canadian border to visit his sister who was living in Salt Lake City, Utah. When they pull up to the booth and the border guard asks his mother about her citizenship, she says "Blackfoot." He asks "Canadian?" and she replies "Blackfoot." He asks again and the same thing happens. He asks them to wait and another guard comes out and asks if she's Canadian or American-side Blackfoot. She still replies, "Blackfoot."
The story introduces the fact that Native peoples state their nationhood as being whatever tribal nation they are from, and how that can play out when crossing a border. When I taught that story, I believed he was Cherokee.
Since the year that I taught that story, I learned that Thomas King's claim to being Cherokee is much-discussed within Native networks. As far as I know, he never said the name of a specific Cherokee Nation (there are three with federal recognition in the US). Today, I'd look for statements he made about his identity and I'd look for other sources that confirm his claim. Until I feel confident in what I find, I will not recommend his books.
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