Jean Maria O'Brien (born February 2, 1958) is an American historian of White Earth Band of Ojibwe ancestry who specializes in northeastern Woodlands American Indian history.
She received her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, where she studied with the anthropologist Raymond D. Fogelson.
She teaches History and American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota.
She has been a McKnight Distinguished University Professor since 2015.
[1] O'Brien is married to the economist Timothy J. Kehoe.