We’ve Known About Thomas King for Over Ten Years.

Canada has had a Pretendian problem for a long while now. Every couple years (sometimes more frequently) a new story breaks. Somebody investigated. Fraud uncovered. Lies exposed.

But this is not simple. This is not something you can point to and grasp all at once, fully formed.

In this case in particular, on November 24, 2025, Thomas King, the 82-year-old award-winning author of *The Inconvenient Indian* and *Green Grass, Running Water,* Companion of the Order of Canada, and one of the most prominent voices in Indigenous literature for over four decades, published an essay in *The Globe and Mail* titled [“A most inconvenient Indian.”](https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-a-most-inconvenient-indian/) In it, he revealed that genealogical research found no Cherokee ancestry in his family tree, despite his lifelong belief and public identification as Indigenous. King’s work has shaped how generations of Canadians understand Indigenous issues. His books have been taught in universities across North America. He has received grants, awards, and positions designated for Indigenous voices. What is there to do about this?

To begina a response to this, I need to start with positionality. I’m a [card-carrying MMF member, Red River Métis from Winnipeg](https://writeclub.ca/halfbreed-place/), though largely detached from my culture and heritage. I have light skin and I often read as white. When I was in university, I spent months researching and reading Indigenous literatures. I was trying to understand myself, trying to excavate who I really am. That work included reading the works Thomas King.

So, let me steelman both sides of this.

King’s work has done good insomuch as it opened the eyes of many Canadians toward Indigenous issues. He opened a door in CanLit for Indigenous authors to enter the canon. There’s the possibility he genuinely didn’t know (though this is murky at best) and carried “a good heart” even without the blood. And what is blood, anyway?

Yt people treat these revelations like bloodsport. Foaming at the mouth, eyeing it as cancel-culture drama, reveling in another fraudster called out. This is blood quantum fetishism wearing a progressive mask.

When in reality this is tragedy. Heartbreak. Frustration. Rage.

This is not discourse for you. This is not idle debate. This is erasure, this is nullification of Indigenous work. This is embarrassment and shame and the particular exhaustion of eye-rolling at predictable harm. How many awards and funds went to King that could have gone to someone else? This perpetuates the Pretendian story, feeding this poisonous culture within Canada and beyond. How many conversations about Indigenous Peoples and their work have yt people derailed by bringing up one of these controversies, simply becaus