Another America: Native American Maps and the History of Our Land

Rating:
Summary: can't seize the land before it's been described
Review: This is a story of dispossession and of cultural memory. Mark Warhus reveals an astonishing legacy of native American cartography. Most of the maps are snapshots of important moments in the collision of two cultures. Some of these maps are the absolute last artifacts of tribes who have disappeared, such as the maps of Shanawdithit (Nancy) the last surviving member of the Beothucks (or Red Indians of Newfoundland).

Other maps demonstrate the deep ties to tribal lands once lost but more recently regained.

Native American mapmaking is almost indistinguishable from oral history. Therefore, these maps are also historical treasures.