Jack Weatherford

Jack Weatherford is the author of Native Roots: How the Indians Enriched America and is the Dewitt Wallace Professor of Anthropology at Macalester College. He is a well-known popular historian whose work on the Native Americans and the Mongol Empire are particularly popular. Weatherford is arguably the most important person in the book for two reasons. First, he is its author and second, he sometimes figures as a minor character in the book. His only appearances are in descriptions of his visits to various tribes and of how his experiences with the Native Americans make him feel connected to his past.

But Weatherford's opinions suffuse the book. While Weatherford is by no means the first to rehabilitate the often negative and racist stereotypes that most Americans have historically associated with Native Americans, he aims to continue the project. The main goal of Native Roots is to document...