1926-79

American author and fraud

Carter is included here specifically to debunk his "autobiography," The Education of Little Tree. In this he claimed to be a Cherokee boy, raised by his grandparents in the 1930s after being orphaned when he was five. The book is redolent with "Native American" lore and wisdom, written in an imitation folksy style. But in fact Carter was a white supremacist agitator, probably a member of the Ku Klux Klan and speech writer for the notorious racist Governor George Wallace of Arkansas.

When it was published the book fooled a great many white people, who believed it was genuine, and it even won awards, but the entire work is fiction. There is still some controversy about whether or not it is nevertheless a valuable book (it is worthless as a guide to Cherokee culture) or whether is it sentimental, pernicious rubbish which should be ignored by serious readers. Many people still do not know the book is a fabrication.

References

Carter, Forrest. The Education of Little Tree. (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1976)
Bollman, Amy Kallio. "The Education of Little Tree and Forrest Carter: What Is Known? What Is Knowable?" Available at: http://www.nativeweb.org/pages/legal/carter.html

Indexes

20th Century
Figures Whose Adoption or Fostering Is Fictitious, Disputed or Unconfirmed
Child Removed from Home by Social Services
Parent(s) Died, Disappeared or Became Incapacitated