Author of Inconvenient Indian discovers he has no indigenous roots

Thomas King, an 82-year-old acclaimed Canadian-American author who built his career believing he had Cherokee heritage, recently discovered through genealogical research that he has no indigenous ancestry whatsoever. The revelation came after King met with the Tribal Alliance Against Frauds, a group that investigates false claims of Native American heritage, and their genealogist found no Cherokee roots in his family lineage. King, who won major literary awards and worked as an Indigenous studies professor, had believed a family story about his paternal grandfather being part Cherokee, though he acknowledges rumors about his ancestry had followed him throughout his career.