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Essay on "Native Roots. How the Indians Enriched America" by Jack Weatherford
In Native Roots, Jack Weatherford speculates about why Americans are so drawn to the beautifully restored colonial city. Americans, he says, come to escape a world of pollution, violence, drugs, television chatter, and traffic jams, to experience the way life is supposed to be, the way it supposedly once was in colonial America (116).
They marvel over the simplicity and ingenuity of the city, and the fact that it was built by simple folk who just wanted to start a new life. "This is a view of American history that suits us very well," Weatherford says. "Our European ancestors arrived at nothingness and, through diligence and their natural cleverness, made a beautiful city" (117). However, Weatherford continues, they did not create that prosperity, but rather all that prosperity resulted from the highly profitable sales of the export of one single Indian crop-tobacco. American Indian crops formed the basis on which the powerful agricultural economy of the United States developed and matured, and, even today, crops of Indian origin still supply some of our most desired exports (128).
Although the clarity of some of his writing is a little fuzzy, Weatherford uses his expansive knowledge of Native American history as the basis of his work in a manner that is quite intriguing. However, I believe that while the basic premises of Weatherford's thesis are sound, his assertions frequently overstate the Indian's influence on the settlers. For a number of his references, he has relied on secondary sources, some of which are incomplete or even controversial in regards to the validity and reliability of their factual assertions. For instance, Weatherford frequently refers to historical documents and journals of various explorers (i.e. - DeSoto, Schoolcraft, Columbus), missionaries and other early settlers as sources for his "facts", without having the benefit of being able to interview any of them first-hand.....
