"Boyden's claims to Indigenous heritage subsequently became the subject of public dispute when an APTN National News article, "Author Joseph Boyden's shape-shifting Indigenous identity" by Jorge Barrera, was published December 23, 2016. Barrera's article investigates Boyden's past claims of Mi'kmaq, and Métis ancestry as well as his current claims of being Nipmuc and Ojibway. Barrera brought to light facts surrounding Boyden's uncle Earl Boyden, who went by the name "Injun Joe". Earl Boyden was an artist in Algonquin Park and was the subject of a 1956 Maclean's article titled, "The Double Life of Injun Joe", in which the author reports that he has no "Indian blood." Barrera's search of Boyden's family tree could not locate any Indigenous ancestry. Boyden' mother was briefly interviewed via telephone by Barrera. She said that her son was researching her family's history... Boyden, who had refused an interview with APTN for the article, responded by Twitter on December 24. Boyden admitted he'd called himself Métis, but only meant the term to mean mixed blood. He continued to assert his maternal Ojibway and paternal Nipmuc roots. On January 12, 2017, Boyden gave his first public interviews since the appearance of the APTN article. He personally selected the interviewers who were both friends of his, Mark Medley of The Globe and Mail, and Candy Palmater a comedian who occasionally works at CBC. Boyden now admitted he had erroneously identified himself as Mi'kmaq in the past. He continued to identify as a "white kid with native roots", Ojibway on his mother's side and Nipmuc on his father's side. Boyden denied that he had relied on his identity as an Indigenous person to popularize his books, and he stated he had only won one literary prize based on heritage and little money. He did, however, apologize for taking up too much of the "air space" and stated he would do less public speaking, thus allowing for Indigenous voices to be heard in the media"--Wikipedia contributors, "Joseph Boyden," Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Joseph_Boyden&oldid=900632377 (accessed June 17, 2019).