The cover of Warhus' "Another America" features the third section of Sitting Rabbit's map of the Missouri River.
Another America: Native American Maps
Big River Villages At Cannonball River
Big River Villages At Cannonball River
A Book Review By Dakota Wind
Bismarck, ND – In 1997, Mark Warhus,
published his work Another America:
Native American Maps And The History Of Our Land. Warhus carefully examined
and researched Native American maps from a variety of mediums from petroglyphs
and bark to animal hide and paper, from pre-contact to post-reservation.
In the pre-contact days and through post
contact, when maps were drawn, it was only at great need. Mapping the land was through
language (both oral and sign), before it was ever drawn. When a map was
rendered, it was also done with a unique world view. For some tribes, east, the
direction of the sunrise was the direction to orient oneself. For others it was
the mountains to the west. For the Lakȟóta it was the south, the direction upon
which pulls the water.
According to Warhus, “When a map was
needed to show the way or convey a message, it would be drawn out on the
ground, in the snow, or in the ashes of a campfire. These drawings were
transitory illusions for the oral documents.” The oral document to which Warhus
refers to is the sense of time it might take to reach an objective. How many
days or nights it might take, or how many “sleeps.” The oral document may
include tribal entities in a landscape, and whether one was on friendly terms
with them. The oral document certainly included rivers, streams, and bodies of
water.
Western maps are oriented to the north,
and detail things like miles, elevation, latitude, and longitude, as if the
landscape were nothing without being measured. The native maps, oral and drawn,
are maps of experience.
Warhus details the dispossession of the
landscape and the renaming of it. His work doesn’t serve as an apology for what
happened, but exclaims at the loss of historical and cultural information,
while rejoices in the maps that have survived calling them “documents of
resilience and survival.”
Another
America includes the
Mandan Indian Sitting Rabbit’s map of the Missouri River that depicts an old Mandan
town south of present-day Fort Yates, ND on the south bank of what is known variously
today as Ókaǧa Wakpá (“Floater’s Creek”), Akíčhita Haŋská Wakpá (“Long Soldier
Creek”), or the Four Mile Creek. The Mandan town was known as Mida Oduk Kua
Atis (“Village Of Woods Confluence”).
A picture from page 47 of Warhus' "Another America" features the third section of Sitting Rabbit's map of the Missouri River. Note: the Big River is the Cannonball River.
Sitting Rabbit’s map goes as far north
as the confluence of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers. The map does more
than just mention place, but details history and names of sites from hundreds
of years ago, places the Mandan don’t live at anymore. One such site in particular
deserves to be mentioned here in light of current energy interests and that is the two Mandan villages on both the
south and north banks of the Cannonball River. The historic Mandan referred to the
Cannonball River as the Big River. The two villages there were known as As Irtia
Athis [transcription may be incorrect] (“Big River Villages”).
Sitting Rabbit’s map tells us that the
Mandan regularly crossed the river to hunt bison along Beaver Creek, chasing
them to a location they called Mysterious Corral, or what is today known as Little
Beaver Creek. This method of hunting bison fell out of practice after the
arrival of the horse. The map also names the hill, upon which the water tower
rests in the community of Cannonball, as Bison Ear Hill.
Warhus’ book, and all the maps therein,
are treasures. They detail inter-tribal conflicts, inter-tribal trade and
commerce, hunting and fishing, and history reaching back hundreds, if not a
thousand years or more.
Many of the illustrations and maps are in
color. One almost wishes that this book were published in a larger format to really
appreciate the detail and texture of the maps, but don't let this stop you from adding this to your home or work library. Get your copy of Mark Warhus’ Another America: Native American Maps AndThe History Of Our Land.
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