Indigenous peoples and European/Western mapping

This entry focuses on a case study of the relationships between indigenous peoples and European mapping in North America in the long nineteenth century—a time period that has not been extensively researched.

This entry has three objectives. First, it investigates mapping practices that emerged as explorers pushed into the interior of North America. This includes both maps that were produced by indigenous peoples but indicating European influence and European maps indicating evidence of native agency. Second, the tradition of salvage anthropology is outlined—a trend that involved data collection (including maps) from supposedly vanishing tribes. Finally, the development of the Public Land Survey in the United States is explored. This survey converted native space into ordered and privately owned tracts of land, excluding indigenous groups from extensive areas in the process.