Julia A. Jordan holds a master's degree in anthropology from the University of Oklahoma. As a research anthropologist, she conducted extensive fieldwork among Indians of western Oklahoma as a part of the Doris Duke Indian Oral History Project at the University of Oklahoma. Later at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History she served as consultant and co–principal investigator for several anthropological projects. Now retired, she lives in Norman, Oklahoma.
Paul E. Minnis, Professor of Anthroplogy at the University of Oklahoma, is the editor of Ethnobotany: A Reader and coeditor of Biodiversity and Native America.
Wayne J. Elisens, Professor of Botany and curator of the Bebb Herbarium at the University of Oklahoma, is coeditor of Biodiversity and Native America.