Thomas King: The Inconvenient Indian

[bibliogramma]

In The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America, Thomas King writes about the history of relations in North America between (mostly) white invader/settler culture and the indigenous cultures with wit and anger. The result is brilliant but uncomfortable for the white reader - which is as it should be.

Not so much a history itself as an examination and re-interpretation of history as it has been written by the dominant (i.e., white) culture, The Inconvenient Indian exposes the false stories that white North Americans have told themselves about Aboriginal peoples, and speaks instead of truths that have been forgotten, or never told - at least, not in settler stories. King is very conscious of how the kinds of narratives that a culture retains affect the perceptions and actions of its people, and makes very clear how the master narratives about Indians support and justify the ongoing colonial project to deceive, steal from, disenfranchise, disentitle, assimilate and ultimately exterminate Native peoples.

As reviewer Hans Tammemagi notes:

Most of all, he builds an impressive case regarding how Natives have been treated. King scathingly debunks the role given to Natives in contemporary history and convincingly shows that Natives have been duped, massacred, assimilated, and dealt with deceitfully since the start of colonization — and, he stresses, this continues today. Although The Inconvenient Indian takes a lighthearted approach, beneath the surface it seethes with rage.(http://www.canadashistory.ca/Books/Lire-sur-l%E2%80%99histoire/Reviews/The-Inconvenient-Indian-A-Curious-Account-Of-Nativ)

This is a book that every non-Aboriginal North American should read.