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- The Indigenous Maps and Mapping of North American Indians
The Indigenous Maps and Mapping of North American Indians
- By The Map Collector
- Published 1 December 1979
- Maps
- Unrated
There is no doubt that before they were exposed to examples of European cartography the native peoples of north America made maps. After contact they continued to do so for any of four indigenous purposes: to express cosmological ideas; to record migrations, battles and other events; to brief war parties; and to leave as directions for others. John Smith described how in 1607 Powhatan Indians of Virginia used meal and corn to construct three concentric circles about a fire to represent their country, the coastline and the edge of the supposedly circular world and how they placed a pile of sticks between the coastline and the edge of the world to depict the country from which he had come (Fig. 1) [8]
A reconstruction of a model of the world made on the ground by Powhatan Indians
A reconstruction of a 'map' on skin of the locations of the former, current and after-life habitats of the Deleware Indians in 1762.
In 1762 a Delaware Indian preacher used as a visual aid a map drawn on deer skin, of which he made copies for trade, thus making him one of North America's earliest native commercial cartographers (Fig. 2). [9] It consisted of two concentric squares, the outer of which enclosed the land and the inner the habitat of Indians in their after life. The area between the two squares was further divided into the habitat of the Indians in this life and their former habitat, which had been lost to the whites. Opposite corners of the inner square represented a former avenue to after life, access to which had been closed by the whites, and a newly opened but dangerous alternative. Less cosmological and less abstract than either of these are certain of the birch bark scrolls of the Southern Ojibway of Minnesota whose religion, the Mide, they believe came to them when they lived on or near the Atlantic coast. Some of their scrolls record the migration of their religion. [10] All of these are vague towards the right (east) in their representation of the area of origin and early migration but towards the left (west), where they depict the later and more clearly recollected migrations, topographic detail becomes increasingly recognizable, especially for the area between the head of Lake Superior and Leech Lake, Minnesota (Figs. 3a and b).
Drawing of Red Sky's migration chart. The original birchbark scroll (103' lomg and in 6 sections) was collected at Shoal Lake, Ontario, in 1966 and is now in the Glenbow-Alberta Institute, Calgary. (Reproduction from Dewdney (1975) fig. 47).
From 'The Sacred Scrolls of the Southern Ojibway' (c. Univ. of Toronto Press 1975)
Geographical Interpretation of Red Sky's migration chart
[click on map for larger version]
A reconstruction of a model of the world made on the ground by Powhatan Indians
A reconstruction of a 'map' on skin of the locations of the former, current and after-life habitats of the Deleware Indians in 1762.
In 1762 a Delaware Indian preacher used as a visual aid a map drawn on deer skin, of which he made copies for trade, thus making him one of North America's earliest native commercial cartographers (Fig. 2). [9] It consisted of two concentric squares, the outer of which enclosed the land and the inner the habitat of Indians in their after life. The area between the two squares was further divided into the habitat of the Indians in this life and their former habitat, which had been lost to the whites. Opposite corners of the inner square represented a former avenue to after life, access to which had been closed by the whites, and a newly opened but dangerous alternative. Less cosmological and less abstract than either of these are certain of the birch bark scrolls of the Southern Ojibway of Minnesota whose religion, the Mide, they believe came to them when they lived on or near the Atlantic coast. Some of their scrolls record the migration of their religion. [10] All of these are vague towards the right (east) in their representation of the area of origin and early migration but towards the left (west), where they depict the later and more clearly recollected migrations, topographic detail becomes increasingly recognizable, especially for the area between the head of Lake Superior and Leech Lake, Minnesota (Figs. 3a and b).
Drawing of Red Sky's migration chart. The original birchbark scroll (103' lomg and in 6 sections) was collected at Shoal Lake, Ontario, in 1966 and is now in the Glenbow-Alberta Institute, Calgary. (Reproduction from Dewdney (1975) fig. 47).
From 'The Sacred Scrolls of the Southern Ojibway' (c. Univ. of Toronto Press 1975)
Geographical Interpretation of Red Sky's migration chart
[click on map for larger version]
