FICTION · INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
Thomas King
Thomas King was born in 1943 in Sacramento, California and is of Cherokee, Greek and German descent. He obtained his PhD from the University of Utah in 1986. He is known for works in which he addresses the marginalization of American Indians, delineates "pan-Indian" concerns and histories, and attempts to abolish common stereotypes about Native Americans. He taught Native American Studies at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada, and at the University of Minnesota. He is currently a Professor of English at the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada. King has become one of the foremost writers of fiction about Canada's Native people.
IT WAS COYOTE who fixed up this world, you know.
— from A Coyote Columbus Story
Most acclaimed
Green grass, running water
1993
Strong, Sassy women and hard-luck hardheaded men, all searching for the middle ground between Native American tradition and the modern world, perform an elaborate dance of approach and avoidance in this magical, rollicking tale by Cherokee author Thomas King. Alberta is a university professor who would like to trade her two boyfriends for a baby but no husband; Lionel is forty and still sells televisions for a patronizing boss; Eli and his log cabin stand in the way of a profitable dam project. These three—and others—are coming to the Blackfoot reservation for the Sun Dance and there they will encounter four Indian elders and their companion, the trickster Coyote—and nothing in the small town of Blossom will be the same again…
Truth & Bright Water
1999
"This summer for Tecumseh and Lum, two young Native men coming of age, will be a summer of mysteries and returns. It opens with a distraught woman throwing things into the river out of a suitcase - then jumping in after. Tecumseh and Lum go to help, but she and her truck have disappeared. On the bluff overlooking the river, Tecumseh's dog discovers a child's skull. Other mysteries also puzzle Tecumseh - if his mom will take his dad back; if his rolling-stone Auntie Cassie is home to stay this time, and why she's brought a suitcase full of baby clothes; why no one protects Lum from his father's rages.". "Then Tecumseh gets a job helping an artist - Monroe Swimmer, Bright Water's most famous son, returned home and living in a vacant church - with the project of a lifetime. As the tourists - buckskin-clad Germans, drunk Americans, and a ghostly little Cherokee girl from Georgia - begin to arrive for the annual Indian Days festival, the secrets of Truth and Bright Water come together in a climax of tragedy, reconciliation, and love."--BOOK JACKET.
Coyote tales
Two tales, set in a time when animals and human beings still talked to each other, display Thomas King's cheeky humor and master storytelling skills. Freshly illustrated and reissued as an early chapter book, these stories are perfect for newly independent readers.