The curious Boyden defenders who seem to think it's okay to be a White Man pretending to be Indigenous, read the article in APTN:
http://aptn.ca/news/2016/12/23/author-joseph-boydens-shape-shifting-indigenous-identity/
His novels are fiction. Well written fiction. But so is his author's biography. And that's supposed to be fact. If you don't care about fact, fine. But Boyden has taken jobs, received grants, been given interviews, and had certain awards given to him based on the fraudulent claim that he was indigenous. That's not cool.

His claim to indigenous ancestry has shifted dramatically over the past decade. He now seems to be Native in spirit only. Which is not good enough. He makes a rather feeble claim to have connections on both sides of his family tree to indigenous people in the 19th century. But it would fail any genealogical test. His uncle claimed to be an "Injun" to make a buck. He wasn't. And neither, so it would seem, is Joseph Boyden.