False Claims: Choctaw and Cherokee descent.
Determination: There is no genealogical connection to these claims.
Colby Wilkens, an author, claims to be white and of Cherokee and Choctaw descent. The Tribal Alliance Against Frauds investigated her claims and found no Native ancestry at all. The full report is available on the Tribal Alliance Against Frauds’ website under the tab on the upper right part of the page labeled “More,” then under the heading “Investigations.” https://tribalallianceagainstfrauds.org.
Wilkens signed a three book deal with St Martin’s Press valued between $100k and $249k, according to Publishers Marketplace. Her first book in this series, If I Stopped Haunting You, goes on sale on Tuesday, October 15th. It features Native themes and Amazon marked it as an Editor’s Choice for Romance. The second book, If I Dig You, comes out next spring and the third book, This is How We Roll, comes out in the fall.
TAAF genealogists searched over 1,900 ancestors in Colby Wilkens family, reaching up to ten generations back. Wilkens claimed on X that her great-great grandpa “lied on several documents and he was born on the rez in 1888.” This would be Jack Alford Adams, who was born in November 1887 in Texas. We looked at Jack Alford Adams’ father, William Henry Adams (1861-1917), and found someone of the same name on the 1898 Cherokee Dawes Roll, but it is a different person. The William Henry Adams registered on the Dawes Roll (number 4276) was 9 years old in 1898 and had different parents. Though they had the same name, they were different people. This is a common challenge for Pretendians.
We looked further back and found several relatives living in North Georgia, where there were several Cherokee communities. They were there both before and after Removal. If they were Cherokees, they would have registered on the Dawes or the Guinon Miller Rolls. None did. Her Georgia ancestors also identified as white and paid taxes.
We also searched for Choctaw connections but found none. Colby’s great-great grandfather, Jack Adams did marry a woman named Annie Lee Francis Taylor in Stringtown, Oklahoma in the Choctaw Nation in December 1909. We looked at Annie’s history too, in case she was Choctaw. She wasn’t. Annie was born in Stephenville, Texas, which is west of Fort Worth and well away from the Choctaw Nation.
The couple lived in Weleetka, Oklahoma in the Mvskoke Creek Nation for several years and had six children in this time. Jack and Annie lived in Bowie, Texas in 1930, according to that year’s census. Jack identified as a white man and was a farm laborer. Annie died in nearby Red River County, Texas in April 1932.
Jack remarried to a woman named Elizabeth and they moved to Henryetta, Oklahoma in the Mvskoke Creek Nation around 1935. The 1940 Census again describes Jack as a white man. The 1950 Census found the family in California, where Jack was a fruit worker. Jack died in Marysville, California on March 5, 1960.
It is clear that Colby’s family were white settlers.
Why this matters: Fewer than 2.5% of children’s and Young Adult books were published by or about Native peoples in 2023, according to the Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. This means that any books representing Native Americans have an outsize influence on how others view Native peoples. This is especially the case for books published by major publishers with the promotion these books will likely have. This drowns out attention to genuine Native voices who are already working hard to counter centuries of oppression and misrepresentation.
We call on book stores and events organizers not to support this book.
The Tribal Alliance Against Frauds is an intertribal anti-fraud non-profit whistleblower organization comprised of allies and citizens of Tribes whose sovereignty has been formally acknowledged.