From Back Cover

After 500 years, the world's huge debt to the wisdom of the Indians of the Americas has finally been explored.  In Indian Givers, anthropologist Jack Weatherford tells the utterly compelling story of how the cultural, social, and political practices of the Indians have transformed the way life is lived throughout the world.

In vividly dramatic chapters, Weatherford traces the crucial contributions made by the Indians to our federal system of government, our democratic institutions, modern medicine, agriculture, architecture, and ecology.  The Indians set a sophisticated urban trading economy in motion when they unearthed undreamed-of quantities of gold and silver.  And foods discovered by the Indians, such as potatoes, chocolate, and chilies, revolutionized the cuisines of Europe and Asia --- in fact, some 60 percent of the foods eaten in the world today were first harvested by the Indians of the Americas.

Writing in a lucid style that plays up the human drama at the heart of this great story, Weatherford documents the amazing sophistication on Indian cultures.  "Columbus arrived in the New World in 1492," he writes, "but America has yet to be discovered."  His astonishing, ground-breaking book takes a giant step toward recovering a true American history.