The book The Education of Little Tree was written by a former Ku Klux Klan member
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Historical sources and reference materials establish that The Education of Little Tree was written by Asa Earl Carter under a pseudonym, who was a segregationist and former Ku Klux Klan member.
This paper presents a cultural/historical interpretation of "The Education of Little Tree," a children's book by the late Forrest Carter. The 1976 book, which sold over 700,000 copies and was widely used in classrooms to present Native American values and lifestyles, is the story of an orphaned boy named Little Tree, raised by his Cherokee grandparents in the Tennessee mountains during the Depression. Because the book's cover carried the subtitle "A True Story by Forrest Carter," critics charge that the author presented the book as an autobiography and true representation of Native American culture. In 1991, Forrest Carter was exposed as the late Asa Earl Carter, a Ku Klux Klan terrorist and right-wing radio announcer. The revelations caused an upheaval among readers and proponents of Carter's work. This paper suggests that Carter's representation of the book as a "true story" simply reflects a cultural tradition of storytelling in the South and that the author did not intend to misrepresent his work. For example, it is apparent that the Native American themes in the book are not the "truth" and are simply added to make the story more interesting. Carter's story does not accurately reflect Cherokee beliefs about creation and the natural order, nor their hunting, farming, and social practices. Although Carter's themes are more representative of Appalachian culture than Cherokee culture, the "truth" in the story is that Carter is portraying his own beliefs and experiences. What
Asa Earl Carter (September 4, 1925 – June 7, 1979) was an American segregationist and Ku Klux Klan organizer who was prominent in the 1950s for his activism and later as a Western fiction novelist. He was particularly known for his work as a co-writer of George Wallace's well-known pro-segregation line of 1963, "Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever." He ran in the Democratic
Asa Earl Carter (September 4, 1925 – June 7, 1979) was an American segregationist and Ku Klux Klan organizer who was prominent in the 1950s for his activism and later as a Western fiction novelist. He was particularly known for his work as a co-writer of George Wallace's well-known pro-segregation line of 1963, "Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever." He ran in the Democratic primary for governor of Alabama as a white supremacist. Later, under the pseudonym of supposedly Cherokee writer Forrest Carter, he wrote The Rebel Outlaw: Josey Wales (1972), a Western novel that was adapted into a 1976 film featuring Clint Eastwood that was added to the National Film Registry, and The Education of Little Tree (1976), a best-selling, award-winning book which was marketed as a memoir but which turned out to be fiction.
In 1976, following the success of The Rebel Outlaw and its film adaptation, The New York Times revealed Forrest Carter was actually Asa Carter. His background became national news again in 1991 after his purported memoir, The Education of Little Tree (1976), was re-issued in paperback, topping the Times paperback best-seller lists (both non-fiction and fiction) and winning the American Booksellers Book of the Year (ABBY) award.
Prior to his literary career as "Forrest", Carter was politically active for years in Alabama as an opponent of the civil rights movement. In the mid-1950s, he had a syndicated segregationist radio show, and worked as a speech writer for segregationist Governor George Wallace of Alabama. He also founded the North Alabama Citizens Council (NACC), an independent offshoot of the White Citizens' Council movement formed by Carter when the White Citizens' Council tried to moderate Carter's antisemitism. He also formed the militant and violent Ku Klux Klan group known as the Original Ku Klux Klan of the Confederacy, and started a monthly publication titled The Southerner which spread white supremacist and anti-communist rhetoric.
After losing the election, Carter moved to Abilene, Texas, where he started over. He began work on his first novel, spending days researching in a public library in Sweetwater, Texas. He…
was not Cherokee at all but a former Ku Klux Klan member. "According to those who knew … 219-20 The Education of Little Tree betraying non-Native voice, 20-21 former Ku Klux Klan … defined as Native literature, The Education of Little Tree was written as the autobi¬ ography
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