Thomas King, the Canadian-American author who built a prolific career on telling Indigenous stories, has revealed that he is not part Cherokee.

In an essay published by the Globe and Mail on Monday, King, 82, said he learned about his true ancestry after meeting with the Tribal Alliance Against Frauds (TAAF), an American Cherokee organization that exposes individuals who falsely claim to have Indigenous heritage.

“I feel as though I’ve been ripped in half, a one-legged man in a two-legged story. Not the Indian I had in mind. Not an Indian at all,” King wrote in the essay.

The writer, perhaps best known for the novel “Green Grass, Running Water” and the book “The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America,” was born in California, but has lived in Canada f

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