Jack R. Williams

Jack R. Williams was born in 1924 and raised on a cattle ranch in Medano Creek Canyon in southern Colorado. He became interested in Native American history at the age of ten and went on to study Southwestern Archaeology. He attended Adams State College in Alamosa, Colorado, putting his education to good use during a thirty-year career in the National Park Service. In addition to his time with the Nez Perce people of Idaho, he was assigned to Chaco Canyon, Bandelier, Aztec Ruins, and Navajo National Monuments in New Mexico and Arizona.

Williams’ adoption into the Mohawk Nation, as well as continued interactions with many treasured friends from Taos, San Juan, San Ildefonso, Chiti, Zia and Hopi Pueblos, and Papago, Siuox, Yani, Nez Perce, Jicarilla Apache and Southern Ute Reservations, have offered over sixty-five years of extraordinary exposure to Native American cultural arts, enabling Williams to write with greater authenticity. One special collaborator was his close friend, tribal elder Angus Wilson, who, via correspondence by mail, provided crucial assistance with Nez Perce vocabulary, an essential aspect of “Be Brave, Tah-hy!.”

Despite his long career, the author asserts he is not an expert; he remains a student of Native American cultural arts.

In addition to the work listed below, Jack R. Williams is the author or co-author of numerous archaeology-related reports and articles, as well as a noted photographer.

Books/Papers:
Indians of Carlsbad Caverns
Indians of the Guadalupes
American Indian Culture Trees
Jicarilla Apache, The Forgotten People of Pike’s Peak