Peter d'Errico: Thomas King wins with 'The Inconvenient Indian'

Thomas King (Cherokee and Greek) is an amazing, funny, provocative writer. His award-winning fiction works, some under pseudonyms, explore the worlds of Native life in North America. His writing is full of psychological and sociological insight, expressed through a wide range of characters and settings.

King's latest book, The Inconvenient Indian (UMinn Press), steps away from fiction, but maintains and intensifies his trenchant approach to the cultural divide that separates Native peoples from Western civilization. Amazingly, his non-fiction prose is as sharply humorous as his fiction, while yielding nothing to those who laugh at Native cultures. The humor is not by way of cheap laughs at the white man, but rather a tool by which King manages to cut into the absurdities of the long and continuing Anglo invasion of the continent.

If there were a Vine Deloria Jr., Award for the writer most talented in presenting Native theology, history, and activism, Thomas King should surely get it. From the first page to the last, The Inconvenient Indian shoulders the American Indian burden of helping the White Man understand what it means to be a natural person, a human being. This was Deloria's work and King carries it forward with spirit and enthusiasm.