Thomas King 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. His writing often uncovers the complex issues facing Indigenous communities with a unique voice. King has become one of the foremost writers of fiction about Canada's Native people, and his works offer deep insight into their lives and cultures.
Wily trickster Coyote is having his friends over for a little solstice get-together in the woods. A little girl unexpectedly arrives, and leads the friends through the snowy woods to the mall. Coyote shops with abandon, only to discover that filling a shopping cart with goodies is not quite the same thing as actually paying for them, in this witty critique of consumerism and consumption.
With a totally fresh voice--carefully controlled yet without artifice--Thomas King presents a complex web of character, myth, folklore, and very contemporary experience. Green Grass, Running Water is a rich tale that ranges from a Blackfoot reservation to Hollywood, weaving magical humor, revisionist history, nostalgia and sacred humanity into one bright fabric.
A Curious Account of Native People in North America
In The Inconvenient Indian, Thomas King offers a deeply knowing, darkly funny, unabashedly opinionated, and utterly unconventional account of Indian–White relations in North America since initial contact. Ranging freely across the centuries and the Canada–U.S. border, King debunks fabricated stories of Indian savagery and White heroism, takes an oblique look at Indians (and cowboys) in film and popular culture, wrestles with the history of Native American resistance and his own experiences as a Native rights activist, and articulates a profound, revolutionary understanding of the cumulative effects of ever-shifting laws and treaties on Native peoples and lands. Suffused with wit, anger, perception, and wisdom, The Inconvenient Indian is at once an engaging chronicle and a devastating subversion of history, insightfully distilling what it means to be “Indian” in North America. It is a critical and personal meditation that sees Native American history not as a straight line but rather as a circle in which the same absurd, tragic dynamics are played out over and over again. At the heart of the dysfunctional relationship between Indians and Whites, King writes, is land: “The issue has always been land.” With that insight, the history inflicted on the indigenous peoples of North America—broken treaties, forced removals, genocidal violence, and racist stereotypes—sharpens into focus. Both timeless and timely, The Inconvenient Indian ultimately rejects the pessimism and cynicism with which Natives and Whites regard one another to chart a new and just way forward for Indians and non-Indians alike.
"One Good Story, That One" is a captivating collection by Thomas King that blends native oral tradition with humor and imagination. It weaves together Native and Judeo-Christian myths, contemporary pop culture, and literature, offering a rich tapestry of perception and experience.
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…
Freshly illustrated and reissued as a chapter book, this volume contains two tales, set in a time "when animals and human beings still talked to each other," which display King's cheeky humor and master storytelling skills. Includes Coyote Sings to the Moon and Coyote's New Suit. 5 5/16 x 7 13/16.
From two celebrated Indigenous creators comes a powerful graphic novel about a family caught between nations. Borders is a masterfully told story of a boy and his mother whose road trip from Alberta to Salt Lake City is thwarted at the border when they identify their citizenship as Blackfoot. Refusing to identify as either American or Canadian first bars their entry into the US, and then their return into Canada. In the limbo between countries, they find power in their connection to their identity and to each other. This much-anthologized story has been adapted into a gripping graphic novel by award-winning artist Natasha Donovan. A beautifully told tale with broad appeal, Borders resonates deeply with themes of identity, justice, and belonging.
