Indian Givers: How the Indians of the Americas Transformed the World

Jack Weatherford is an ethnographer and cultural anthropologist. He was the DeWitt Wallace Professor (now Emeritus) at Macalester College. While his earlier works, including Indian Givers, concentrated on the role of tribal societies in the modern day, the latter half of his career focused on Genghis Khan and Mongolia; in 2006 he was awarded the Order of the Polar Star, Mongolia’s highest honor, for his research there.

Weatherford’s approach to anthropology is notably hands-on. In an interview with travel blog MIR about his book on Genghis Khan, Weatherford said, “By standing in the place where [Genghis] stood, tasting the water, hearing the birds, smelling the horse sweat, and breathing the air, I began to understand the experiences recorded in the ancient chronicles.” This approach is reflected in his earlier work, Indian Givers, for which he traveled extensively to unveil the impact of Native American culture on the world at large.

Despite the great success of his work on Native Americans and his impressive academic credentials, Weatherford does not think of himself as an expert. In a 1991 interview with The Christian Science Monitor, he said, “I’m just a person with an opinion. I’m not a Columbus scholar—or an Indian scholar.” He added, “I’m not trying to tear down the Europeans—I’m trying to build up the Indians.