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The Indigenous Maps and Mapping of North American Indians
- By The Map Collector
- Published 1 December 1979
- Maps
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The Map Collector
The Map Collector, initiated by Peter Scott and Valerie G. Newby, was a journal on historical cartography published every quarter. The first issue appeared in 1997 and continued for nearly 20 years. After 74 issues the last copy appeared in Spring 1996. Mrs. Valerie G. Newby, is presently editor of the IMCoS Journal.
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More numerous, though perhaps less significant, are the maps solicited from the Indians by whites. Most of these are on paper, though some of the earliest are on skin. Prior to the mid nineteenth century they were solicited by explorers, traders, soldiers and missionaries in the course of their activities on the fringes of the continent's vast terra incognita. Thereafter, field scientists became the most assiduous class of collectors and, because of their systematic training and institutional support, it is their collections which have tended to survive. In most cases they were interested in the information content of the maps rather than in the maps as artefacts and they therefore tended to make transcripts rather than preserve the originals. Though less significant in terms of what they reveal about the ways in which Indians viewed and represented their world, solicited maps are important as historical evidence in general and as sources which were often included, albeit unacknowledged, in the mixes of data from which pre-survey printed maps were compiled. Indeed, they are so important that they merit separate treatment.
Given the significance of Indian maps and mapping activities and of the mapping of pre-literate peoples in general it is surprising that scholars have aevoted so little attention to it. German scholars from Alexander von Humboldt in 1836 to Georg Friederici in 1936 were a partial exception and Bruno Adler's 350 page global review of 1910 (in Russian but best known through an inadequate eleven page abridgement in English [18]) remains the best single source. Friederici was specifically concerned with American examples[19] but in common with other German scolars he was content to cull the literature of exploration for references to aboriginal mapping activities without searching in archives and museums for examples of the art. For approximately half a century the Germans also lost interest in the topic. In a global survey of the history of cartography which exceeded 500 pages Bagrow's three and a quarter pages on the maps of primitive peoples may well have adequately reflected the relative status of research but was a grave injustice to the topic.[20] Within the last ten years there have been signs of renewed interest, at least within North America, where geographers in particular have begun to make significant contributions [21] Work on a provisional cartobibliography of both Indian and Inuit maps is nearing completion [22] In a five volume survey of the history of cartography which it is proposed to publish in the early 1980s a major section on the cartography of pre¬literate cultures will contain a substantial contribution relating to North America. [23] However, many maps and references to mapping still remain unknown, unrecorded or unreported. Collectors, custodians as well as scholars share a responsibility to discover, record and report them. In doing so they will extend the still too narrow base which will lead, among other things, to a fuller understanding not only of the maps themselves but of the cognitions and skills which created them, the purposes for which they were intended, and their significance in the exploration and mapping of North America.
References:
NB The research upon which this paper is based was supported by financial assistance received at various times from the Newberry Library, the British Academy, the Social Science Research Council (UK) and the University of Sheffield Research Fund.
COPYRIGHT December 1979 The Map Collector, All rights reserved.
No portion of this article nor the accompanying illustrations can or may be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
Given the significance of Indian maps and mapping activities and of the mapping of pre-literate peoples in general it is surprising that scholars have aevoted so little attention to it. German scholars from Alexander von Humboldt in 1836 to Georg Friederici in 1936 were a partial exception and Bruno Adler's 350 page global review of 1910 (in Russian but best known through an inadequate eleven page abridgement in English [18]) remains the best single source. Friederici was specifically concerned with American examples[19] but in common with other German scolars he was content to cull the literature of exploration for references to aboriginal mapping activities without searching in archives and museums for examples of the art. For approximately half a century the Germans also lost interest in the topic. In a global survey of the history of cartography which exceeded 500 pages Bagrow's three and a quarter pages on the maps of primitive peoples may well have adequately reflected the relative status of research but was a grave injustice to the topic.[20] Within the last ten years there have been signs of renewed interest, at least within North America, where geographers in particular have begun to make significant contributions [21] Work on a provisional cartobibliography of both Indian and Inuit maps is nearing completion [22] In a five volume survey of the history of cartography which it is proposed to publish in the early 1980s a major section on the cartography of pre¬literate cultures will contain a substantial contribution relating to North America. [23] However, many maps and references to mapping still remain unknown, unrecorded or unreported. Collectors, custodians as well as scholars share a responsibility to discover, record and report them. In doing so they will extend the still too narrow base which will lead, among other things, to a fuller understanding not only of the maps themselves but of the cognitions and skills which created them, the purposes for which they were intended, and their significance in the exploration and mapping of North America.
References:
- Prentice G. Downes, Sleeping Island ... (London, 1943?), p.82; Richard Hakluyt, The third and last volume of the voyages ... (London, 1600), p. 438.
- Untitled manuscript map of the east coast of North America (the 'Velasco' map), 1611, in the Archivo General de Simancas. Reproduced in colour in William P. Cumming et. aI., The Discovery of North America (London, 1971), pp. 266-7.
- William Hole, engr., 'Virginia' in John Smith, A Map of Virginia (Oxford, 1612). Reproduced in William P. Cumming, et. al., The Discovery ... , p. 259.
- Smith, op. cit., p. 10.
- 'A relatyon ... written ... by a gent. of ye Colony' , in 1607, in the Public Record Office, London. Reprinted in Philip L. Barbour ed., 'The Jamestown voyages under the first Charter 1606-1609', vol. 1, Hakluyt Society, 2nd Series, no. 136 (Cambridge, 1969), p. 82.
- Smith, op. cit., p. 46.
- Description of a petroglyph map near Warm Spring Ferry, Idaho, in a letter of 14 January, 1897, from Edmund T. Perkins Jr. to J. Wesley Powell, now in the National Anthropological Archives, Washington, D.C.
- John Smith in Samuel Purchas, Hakluytus Posthumus or Purchas His Pilgrimes (London, 1625), pt. 4, pp. 1708-9.
- John Heckewelder, 'An account of the history, manners, and customs of the Indian natives ... ' Transactions of the Historical and Literary Committee of the American Philosophical Society 1 (1819), pp. 286-90.
- Selwyn H. Dewdney, The Sacred Scrolls of the Southern Ojibway (Toronto, 1975), ch apt. 5.
- Un titled manuscript map presented by Non Chi ning a (No Heart) now in the National Archives, Cartographic Branch, Washington D.e., originally accompanying 'Journal of proceedings of a council held in the city of Washington D.e. with a delegation of Chiefs and braves ... Oct. 7, 1837 at 10 o'clock A.M.', also in the National Archives.
- Five manuscript sketch maps drawn by Shanawdithit in 1829, Newfoundland Museum, St. Johns. Reproduced in James P. Howley, The Beothucks or Red Indians ... (Cambridge, 1915), sketches I-V.
- Richard r. Dodge, The Hunting Grounds of the Great West (London, 1877), p. 414.
- Gilbert M. Sproat, Scenes and Studies of Savage Life (London, 1868), p. 192.
- Map incised on birch bark and accompanied by the explan¬ation 'Map drawn by Indians ... found by Capt. Bainbrigge RI. Engineers at the 'ridge' between the Ottawa and Lake Huron. May 1841', British Library Map Room.
- Map supplied by Sapiel Selmo, a Passamaquoddy Chief, in 1887, incised on birch bark and depicting the activities of two Indians on a hunting expedition, National Anthropological Archives, Washington, D.e. Redrafted version with explanation in Garrick Mallery, 'Picture writing of the American Indians', 10th Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology 1888-9 (Washington, D.e., 1893), fig. 458 and pp. 349-50.
- Frank H. Stewart, The Haddon Gazette (Haddonfield, New Jersey), 15 February, 1945.
- Bruno F. Adler, translated and abridged by H. De.Hutorowicz, 'Maps of primitive peoples', Bulletin of the American Geographical Society 43 (1911), 669-79.
- Georg Friederici, Der Charakter der Entdeckung und Eroberung Amerikas durch die Europiaer (Stuttgart, 1936), v. 1,157-61.
- Leo Bagrow, revised and enlarged by R.A. Skelton, History of Cartography (London, 1964),25-28.
- For example, recent publications by D. Wayne Moodie, David H. Pentland, Richard I. Ruggles, John Spink and Louis de Vorsey and forthcoming publications by G. Malcolm Lewis and Thomas D. Thiessen et. al.
- G. Malcolm Lewis, 1977-79, with financial support from the Social Science Research Council and the British Academy.
- To be edited by J. Brian Harley and David Woodward for the University of Chicago Press. Volume 1, which is provisionally scheduled to go to press in 1982, will contain a 50,000 word global review of the cartography of pre-literate peoples.
NB The research upon which this paper is based was supported by financial assistance received at various times from the Newberry Library, the British Academy, the Social Science Research Council (UK) and the University of Sheffield Research Fund.
COPYRIGHT December 1979 The Map Collector, All rights reserved.
No portion of this article nor the accompanying illustrations can or may be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
