tour 2 of 10
Native North America: The Stonyhurst Collection
Map of buckskin
This map shows a vast drainage basin at the
confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. It may have been
used in negotiations involving the cession of land by the Wea and
Piankashaw (subgroups of the Miami) to the Illinois and Wabash Land
Companies. It was brought to Stonyhurst College by Bryan Mullanphy
in 1825.
Natives played an
essential role in the exploration and mapping of North America.
Indians acted as guides, and naturally would also have provided
maps. These now act as important records of Native cognition and
spatial awareness. Many of these maps were ephemeral. During the
California Gold Rush of 1848-50, miners were amazed and delighted
to be shown maps outlined in sand, with the mountains heaped up.
The Hudson's Bay Company, active between Alaska and Oregon,
to Labrador, has records of 800 manuscript charts and maps made
between 1670 and 1870. Many of these were created using Native
information.
In the Arctic,
Inuit acted as pilots, interpreters and cartographers (map-makers);
some, such as John Sacheuse or Hans Zakaeus, came from Greenland,
and used their linguistic skills far to the west in what is now
Canada. In East Greenland maps, showing shore outlines, were carved
in wood. Birchbark was also used as a medium.