Great Plains Studies, Center for
Date of this Version
2006
Abstract
Plains Indian cultures have left numerous forms of Native drawings in the form of painted and drawn clothing, robes, tipis and tipi liners, shields and shield covers, calendars, ledger books, religious and historical drawings, and maps. Native drawings of geographic features are distinguished from other forms of drawings by their focus on the concept of territory rather than on occasional individual features such as a hill or river. Native maps predate European contact and are recorded for every major region of North America. Although most extant Native maps are from the Plains and Arctic regions and date to the nineteenth century, others range from 1540 to 1869. De Vorsey and Harley demonstrate that nearly every major North American explorer through the late nineteenth century used geographic information and/or maps obtained from Native inhabitants of their respective areas.
Comments
Published in GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY 26:4 (Fall 2006). Copyright © 2006 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln.