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Great Plains Quarterly Great Plains Studies, Center for
Summer 1997
Mapping The Marias The Interface Of Native And Scientific Cartographies
Barbara Belyea University of Calgary
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Belyea, Barbara, "Mapping The Marias The Interface Of Native And Scientific Cartographies" (1997). Great Plains Quarterly. 1946. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly/1946
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Great Plains Studies, Center for at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Great Plains Quarterly by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. MAPPING THE MARIAS THE INTERFACE OF NATIVE AND SCIENTIFIC CARTOGRAPHIES
BARBARA BELYEA
In early June 1805, as they traveled up the the most direct & practicable water commu· Missouri toward the continental divide, nication across this continent."! Punctilious Meriwether Lewis and William Clark came to to a fault, the captains interpreted this man a fork where two rivers of apparently compa date narrowly: for them this order meant fol rable width and force flowed together. The lowing the Missouri itself to its source, where captains paused at this junction, unable to a portage across the continental divide would decide which river was the "main stream" of lead to the Columbia watershed, a pattern that the Missouri and which was the tributary. They would mirror the upper Missouri and flow west were determined to fulfill Thomas Jefferson's to the sea. After nine days of reconnaissance, instructions as exactly as possible: "to explore they decided that the river approaching them the Missouri river, & such principal stream of from the southwest should be declared the it, as, by it's course and communication with Missouri. Lewis named the other river Marias, the waters of the Pacific ocean ... may offer and called it one of the Missouri's "most inter esting branc[h]es."2 The days of observation and definition at the Missouri/Marias confluence exemplify the survey work to which Lewis, Clark, and contemporary European explorers were com mitted. All were field agents in a larger pro cess of scientific classification by which Barbara Belyea is professor of English at the University of Calgary. She is the editor of David Thompson's "unknown" regions of the earth were mapped Columbia Journals (1994) and is preparing a text and described. But as Lewis and Clark moved and hypertext edition of Anthony Henday's voyage west across the North American continent, west from Hudson Bay. their contact with Native informants re vealed spatial and topographical concepts at variance with their own. Native geographical [GPQ 17 (Summer/Fall 1997): 165.84] knowledge was not simply sketchy, provisional
165 166 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SUMMER/FALL 1997 information that scientific survey could con Without exception, the captains' reasoning at firm, correct, or supersede. the Missouri/Marias junction has been admired as characteristic of the expedition's scientific HISTORIES OF THE LEWIS AND CLARK achievement. EXPEDITION The expedition's mapping procedures are of particular interest in understanding the Historians of the Lewis and Clark expedi problem facing Lewis and Clark at the Mis tion have been accepting and uncritical of souri/Marias junction. These procedures are the captains' mandate and what they achieved. described and judged within a geographical In 1952 Bernard DeYoto praised expedition context clearly outlined in Passage Through members as heroes because "they had filled the Garden. Allen suggests a progressive shift out the map" and had pursued "scientific ob from the hearsay of Natives and traders, to jectives" during two years of hardships, dan speculative mapping, and finally to scientific gers, and adventures. Specifically, De Yo to geography: called the Missouri/Marias decision "a remark able act of the mind [that] must be conceded a There are really three ways of knowing distinguished place in the history of thought. about areas geographically: a system of co It is the basic method of science."3 More than herent knowledge based on accurate data twenty years later, John Logan Allen con and long acquaintance, a system of more or trasted Clark's field surveys with earlier geo less coherent knowledge based on simple graphical "lore" gleaned from speculative logical and theoretical constructions, or a cartography and "sketchy native data." In Pas system which is largely incoherent and sage Through the Garden, published in 1975, based on desires, ambitions, long-standing Allen considers the expedition leaders to have myths and traditions, or pure rumor and been "a pair of trained and intelligent observ fantasy .... The captains [Lewis and Clark] ers [who] gathered and analyzed geographical would replace conjecture and speculation, information in what can only be described as wild reasonings of theoretical and logical a scientific method." Allen echoes De Yo to in frameworks, with scientific observation. calling the decision at the Marias "a brilliant They would fill in many blank spaces on piece of deduction from a fuzzy set of facts the maps of the Northwest with facts re [that] illustrates ... the competence and in corded and verified rather than guessed at telligence of its commanders."4 In a comple or hoped for. 8 mentary work published within a few years of Passage Through the Garden, Paul Russell Allen's progression, rather confusingly pre Cutright established Lewis and Clark as "pio sented in reverse order, is to be understood as neering naturalists" who charted flora and three levels of geographical knowledge rang fauna according to Linnaean categories.s Al ing from the least reliable ("desires, ambitions though James P. Ronda's studies of the ... myths and traditions, ... rumor and fan expedition's contact with Native groups have tasy") to logical deduction ("more or less co tempered earlier interpretations of the cap herent ... theoretical constructions") to field tains' success, Ronda continues to see the ex survey ("accurate data and long acquaintance pedition as a scientific breakthrough and ... scientific observation"). The captains' job Clark as mastering not only European carto was to replace the first two levels, inherited graphic skills but those of Native mapping.6 from Native "lore" and earlier maps, with the Gary E. Moulton's recent re-edition of the third. This process of discovery separated Lewis expedition's journals and maps praises the and Clark from "lesser men and less capable captains' science and specifically endorses explorers." As the captains ventured beyond Allen's account of the decision at the Marias.7 the lower Missouri, "from an area ... actually MAPPING THE MARIAS 167 well known into one ... less known (in a real pilations consulted by Lewis and Clark, but, or empirical sense)," they found themselves in he too defines the captains' achievement at the frontier region of speculative cartography, the Missouri/Marias junction as a triumph of faced with inadequate "data" and obliged to science: "these critical few days in the expe replace this reported knowledge with their dition can stand as the mark where the con own observations. 9 The three-step progres jectures of Fidler and Arrowsmith were swept sion can be reduced to "two kinds of geographi aside and replaced by accurate factual de cal knowledge": tail."12 Thus, although the expedition's en during achievement was political, historians The first is "real knowledge," or actual in have followed Jefferson's lead; to fellow Ameri formation obtained through active commer cans and foreign diplomats alike, the US presi cial, diplomatic, military, or scholarly dent promoted the venture as a scientific enterprises or from the accounts of travel investigation. Paraphrasing his instructions to ers and observers, evaluated in the light of Lewis three years before, he announced to what is presently accepted as geographical Congress in 1806 that Lewis and Clark had reality. The second and more important "traced the Missouri nearly to it's source, de kind of knowledge is "perceived knowl scended the Columbia to the Pacific ocean, edge," or lore which is evaluated on the ascertained with accuracy the geography of basis of accuracy as it is understood by the that interesting communication across our explorers themselves.1o continent, [and] learnt the character of the country ..." 13 "Real knowledge" was gathered from official European and American sources; "perceived LEWIS AND CLARK As SCIENTIFIC knowledge" was based on fur-trade and Na OBSERVERS tive reports. "Real knowledge" was confirmed by Lewis and Clark during their expedition; As scientific observers, Lewis and Clark "perceived knowledge," though "more impor were provided with instruments, manuals, tant" to the explorers themselves, was replaced blank tables, base maps, and questionnaires by the captains' "field operations." Thus the that determined objects worthy of note, the process of discovery is that by which "invented categories of their inscription, and the stan geography is perceived as real until proven dards by which they would be evaluated. The unreal by exploration and observation."ll In captains' instruments were far from "crude and defining the achievement of Lewis and Clark, unreliable," as Moulton maintains: Lewis and Allen maintains a distinction that has become Clark were as well equipped as any contem a tradition in histories of the expedition. porary surveyors working on the British Ord "What is presently accepted as geographical nance Surveyor on Napoleon's map of Egypt. 14 reality" quickly loses its tentative quality, and The scientific categories of their enquiry were becomes simply "reality," as the expedition's inherited from the Royal Society in London, "actual observations" are set against "myths reinforced by Jefferson's connections with the ... traditions ... rumor ... conjecture and Academie des Sciences in Paris, and specifi speculation." Specifically, Allen categorizes cally suggested by members of the American Native contributions to "geographical lore" Philosophical Society in Philadelphia. The as different in kind from the contribution of overland expedition was vaguely imitative of "capable explorers" such as Lewis and Clark. the voyages of Cook and Vancouver, but Like Allen, Warren Heckrotte has studied Jefferson saw a closer model for his project in the map sources of the expedition's geograph the fur trade opportunist Alexander Mac ical knowledge. Heckrotte is more aware than kenzie. The trader's record of his transconti Allen of the complexity of the map com- nental crossing, published in 1801, was well 168 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SUMMER/FALL 1997 received in scientific circles despite his igno they asked leading questions, tried to copy rance of botany and his shaky surveying skills. IS Native relief maps onto the flat pages of their Like Mackenzie's venture, but in contrast to notebooks, and failed to record the dialogue the British maritime voyages, the American and gestures that were integral aspects of this expedition would not include trained scien transmission of knowledge, they reduced in tists. Observations taken and specimens col digenous maps to isolated, poorly grasped de lected would be handed over to experts on the tails to be inserted into their own geographical expedition's return. Jefferson's acknowledg images. The price of such assimilation was de ment that Lewis was not "regularly educated" struction of the integrity, and on many occa tends to be overlooked in most recent histo sions the sense, of Native maps. Indigenous ries of the expedition, as it was by Lewis him cartography has to be understood as provid self. The president's former secretary assured a ing (for its Native users) a complete, efficient future reading public that he and Clark could geographical notation, not merely crude provide "accurate information" on the geo sketches from which (in the view of non-N a graphy, mineralogy, botany, and zoology of tive users) essential features are missing or the trans-Mississippi West-despite incon expressed in odd ways. Native mapping chal clusive astronomical observations, uncat lenges us to regard scientific geography in rela alogued biological collections, and years of tive terms-to admit that all geographies are delay in publishing any account of the west "conceptual" rather than "actual," imposed on ern "tour."16 rather than inherent in the landforms they Whatever the proven level of their accom describe. 18 The nine days of indecision at the plishment, both Lewis and Clark aspired to Marias illustrate the conflict between the cap scientific discovery and subscribed to the aims tains' loyalty to scientific mapping and their and biases of contemporary empirical investi simultaneous recognition that their own base gation. Clark's previous training and Lewis's maps were confusing and misleading. The rea crash course in surveying ensured that their son for confusion at this point is more specific maps would be based on route traverses con than the discovery process of replacing "lore" firmed by astronomical observations and would with "actual observations" that Allen outlines. be drawn according to European cartographic Lewis and Clark were trying to locate Native convention. But as Lewis and Clark filled in landmarks on a map that represented several blanks of their tables and base maps, both lead earlier stages of assimilation of Native "infor ers were constrained as much as empowered mation." by the disciplines and concerns they were rep When they set out from Fort Mandan in resenting in the field. Even Lewis's landscape the spring of 1805, Lewis and Clark appar descriptions drew on a standardized vocabu ently took with them a copy of Aaron Arrow lary of the picturesque, and the expedition's smith's Map Exhibiting all the New Discoveries scientific records were equally reflective of in the Interior Parts of North America . .. Addi prescribed ways of seeing. 17 tions to 1802. Although Nicholas King's map The choice point at the Marias demon of the West had been commissioned for the strates the way in which Lewis and Clark expedition in 1803, and although it shows, in operated within a network of scientific inves Allen's words, "enough differences ... to sug tigation, analysis, and interpretation that dic gest that Arrowsmith's representation of the tated what routes they selected and what they Northwest was not evaluated as the best avail observed. Only partial, provisional assimila able without some reservations," there is no tion of Native mapping was possible or desir record in the journals of Lewis and Clark that able; instead explorers of the western interior they ever consulted King's map in the field. 19 attempted to make foreign knowledge com The captains would appear to have chosen a ply with their own aims and categories. When faulty Arrowsmith map over King's improved MAPPING THE MARIAS 169 version. Allen offers no explanation for this sources were selected, rationalized, and trans curious discrepancy. An answer might be found formed to fit the purpose, projection, and con in the map's complex publication history, of ventional detail of the composite map under which Allen seems unaware.20 Allen refers to construction.22 two versions of the Map Exhibiting all the New As they headed west from the Great Bend, Discoveries: the original issue dated 1795, and the captains reviewed the pattern of tribu "a revision of the 1795 map ... published in taries that the British cartographer had drawn 1802," and provides illustrations for both in to represent the upper Missouri and compared his book. Unfortunately, his illustration of the it once again with Native landmarks they "1795 map" is not of the original first state had learned about at Fort Mandan. Promi but of its fourth state, dated 1796, water nent on Clark's map drawn during the winter marked 1798 and published no earlier than of 1804-05 is the north branch of the Missouri 1799. In any case, both of the Arrowsmith and its tributary, copied from Arrowsmith and maps referred to in Jefferson's pre-expedition called by "the Indians ... the River which ary correspondence are to be understood as scolds at all others." Hidatsa visitors to the the "Additions to 1802." One of these served fort had also told them that farther upstream, as King's base map; the other was purchased in close to the continental divide, they would June 1803 and is likely the Arrowsmith map pass a series of falls and come to a division of that Lewis carried with him. What Allen does the Missouri into three tributary forks. Two not explain is that the Map Exhibiting all the cartographic conventions can be seen in un New Discoveries . .. Additions to 1802 exists in easy alliance on the maps that Lewis and Clark two versions, a first issue (the fifth state of consulted and produced. The European sci the map), which came out early in 1802, and entific convention, featuring precise location a second issue (the sixth state), which could on an astronomical grid, is made up of what not have appeared until the last weeks of 1802 Moulton calls "actual observations"; the Na or early in 1803. Heckrotte argues conclu tive convention is more or less assimilated sively that King used the first issue dated 1802 into the scientific convention and appears as as his base map, less convincingly that Lewis a swath of reported, unverified details bor and Clark carried another copy of the first dering the blank space of the West. 23 Hesi issue with them.2! But the captains' reliance tating at the Missouri/Marias junction, on Arrowsmith rather than King might be ex "examining [their] maps," the captains tried plained by the purchase, in June 1803, of a to rationalize imperfectly assimilated details very recent update, easily recognized as such from their Native informants with their scien by Jefferson, Albert Gallatin, and Lewis, all tifically authorized image of the western inte of whom had studied the first issue carefully rior. The long pause at the Marias, maintains the purchase, in other words, of the second Allen, was due to "the failure of the Indians issue dated 1802 (the sixth state). to mention the outliers of the Rockies or to Also indicative of the captains' prior knowl tell them about the Marias River."24 Just as edge of the upper Missouri is Clark's own map plausibly, it was due to the captains' failure drawn at Fort Mandan. During the winter of to understand the cartographic image of the 1804-05, descriptions and maps furnished by upper Missouri that Mandans and Hidatsas traders and Native leaders had supplemented had presented to them. At any rate, Lewis and in some instances modified the Arrow and Clark continued their efforts to rational smith/King picture. As Anne Godlewska ize Native and scientific geographies: they points out in her study of the contemporary looked for Native landmarks above the Napoleonic survey of Egypt, map compilations Marias, and they tried to fit these into a topo provided "information of varied nature and graphical scheme inherited from European quality" in a single image; elements from many mapping. 170 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SUMMER/FALL 1997
THE "TRUE GENUINE MISSOURI" of the great falls on the ninth day of their investigation confirmed this choice. Ronda We can pause here with Lewis and Clark, points out that "despite misunderstandings weighing their decision. The captains were about the identity of the Marias River, ... the convinced that the watershed portage they Indians' information proved not only accu sought lay at or very near the source of the rate but invaluable." Allen, on the other hand, "true genuine Missouri." They had passed the qualifies the advice offered by Mandans and south branch and the "River which scolds at Hidatsas as "sketchy native data," concluding all others," both of which their informants at that "their [the captains'] estimation of the Fort Mandan had described; now they were accuracy of their [the Native informants'] data looking out for the great falls,2s Clark's route was excessive."28 maps show the Marias as a smaller river flow Lewis and Clark themselves, and historians ing into the larger Missouri but widening con ever since, have considered the decision at siderably at its entrance into the main stream. the Marias as having a purely scientific impor The captains had not anticipated a river flow tance: it was grounded in the logic of the "main ing from the northwest, muddy like the lower stream" and the mountain portage of their in Missouri, swollen with runoff so that it was a structions. Since the captains were following considerable size: an unexpected river that cast the Missouri to its source, since the Missouri doubt on the identity of the others they had was said to have its source in the Rocky Moun already passed. 26 Nonplussed, Lewis and Clark tains, and since the southwest fork was with spread out their most authoritative reference, out the turbidity that betrayed a long course the one in which they invested the greatest through the prairies, therefore the river from faith: they consulted Arrowsmith. the southwest was the Missouri and the other The Arrowsmith map seemed worthy of the must be a tributary that might or might not captains' confidence because it showed the originate as a mountain stream. Allen sug recent explorations of Peter Fidler, a Hudson's gests that by this point in the journey Lewis Bay Company surveyor who had wintered with and Clark were demonstrating "a growing abil a Peigan band along the front ranges of the ity ... to differentiate between the geography Rockies in 1792-93 and who had supplied the as it had been imagined ... and the geography British cartographer with information about as it actually was." Moulton supports Allen's the upper Missouri. Lewis and Clark were pre interpretation: "the captains' keen geographic pared to believe the findings of a fellow ob intuition led them to distinguish correctly be server in the field; moreover, the second issue tween the Marias and Missouri rivers. More dated 1802 (if this is the one they carried) than a week's worth of investigation at the provided names for all of the Missouri's moun rivers' confluence proved the leaders correct."29 tain tributaries. The two American leaders No change of method; ultimately no challenge assumed that the Missouri as charted on to science. According to Allen and Moulton, Arrowsmith's map was derived from Fidler's the captains were "correct" because they dis own surveys, but they could not identify the cerned the Missouri watershed pattern "as it mysterious river from the northwest in Arrow actually was." smith's depiction of the watershed. When they were faced with the uncharted, unexpected CONVENTIONS OF REPRESENTING river, they felt obliged to discount the Arrow WATERSHEDS smith representation of the Missouri water shed and to doubt Fidler's "varacity."27 Instead In preferring to emphasize field observation they chose to believe Native accounts of the rather than the explorers' declared faith in Na upper Missouri over Arrowsmith's representa tive directions,3° Allen and Moulton remain loyal tion of Fidler's reports, and Lewis's discovery to the empirical axioms that dictated the MAPPING THE MARIAS 171
,;\ \ I ~ "' ~rn'. ~~~' \
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FIG. 1. William Clark Route Map 1805: "Sketch of the Missouri from Fort Mandan to the Rocky Mountains from the 7th April to 15th July, 1805" (section). Courtesy of Yale Collection of Western Americana, The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. 172 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SUMMER/FALL 1997 expedition's choices and evaluated its dis tary streams . . . [a] refinement of earlier coveries. But the captains did not simply lore."32 But the "rearrangement" was simply a progress from "conjecture and speculation" to variation on the watershed theme. Science proof by field observation. Instead they re conceived of rivers in terms of watersheds, jected the details of Arrowsmith's Missouri in each river gathering volume from a number of favor of the details provided by their Native smaller streams and flowing down to another informants. At the same time, they continued river or the sea. Map signs were established on to adhere to the pattern of the Missouri that the basis of generally held geographical con Arrowsmith had suggested. As Allen himself cepts such as those in John Playfair's popular admits of the expedition's geographical un Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of the Earth, derstanding generally, though not of its car published in 1802. In describing rivers that tography, "the strength of a preconception ... "descend over the most rapid slope"-rivers allowed [Lewis and Clark] to diminish, in their that are "most subject to irregular or tempo assessments of the region, those features of rary increase and diminution"-Playfair reit the western environment which did not match erates the concept of a system that divides and the pre-exploratory image."3! The expedition subdivides in a proliferation of smaller and leaders' preconceptions included not only the smaller streams. "When we trace up rivers and shapes and functions of geographical features, their branches toward their source, we come such as mountains and rivers, but also their at last to rivulets, that run only in time of cartographic notation. The captains did not rain," he remarks, emphasizing the watershed perceive the Missouri watershed "as it actu or collection basin as the operating principle ally was" but as it was scientifically repre of this pattern. Even small rivulets, Playfair sented on authoritative maps: they identified argues (following James Hutton's geological the stream they saw before them by matching theory), can carve deep valleys by the force of it with the pattern of flow and drainage ac their sudden descent. Playfair states "this great cording to which river systems were imaged/ fact" in italics: "rivers have, in general, hollowed imagined in European cartography. Allen sum out their valleys."33 This pattern of rivers and marizes the conception of the Missouri that valleys was implicit in Jefferson's instructions Lewis and Clark arrived at during the winter to Lewis: at Fort Mandan: Beginning at the mouth of the Missouri, three major channels were understood as you will take
Consulting Arrowsmith's map at the Mis except Heckrotte has leapt to the conclusion souri/Marias junction, Lewis and Clark tried that Arrowsmith's image of the Missouri is to balance the Native information they had based on the Native maps Fidler had col been given at Fort Mandan with a European lected a few months before. Heckrotte notes source that drew on Fidler's reports. Heckrotte that as early as the fourth state, dated 1796 explains the American explorers' repeatedly but probably issued in 1799, "new informa voiced doubt of Fidler's surveying abilities by tion on the geography south of 50° must have referring to the successive states of the map: come from the Indians, through Fidler, since the first three issues had noted the extent of there is no record of any explorations to these Fidler's survey in 1792-93, but this note, re regions." Only the second issue dated 1802 moved as of the fourth issue, "could leave a (the sixth state) could have incorporated de reader of the map with the impression that tails from the five Native maps that Fidler Fidler had travelled as far south as Bear's solicited. Heckrotte remarks that the sixth Tooth, shown on later states as the source of state "corrects and adds to the information the Missouri's south branch."39 Heckrotte is which served as the basis for the Rocky Moun too generous: the 1802 states still clearly show tain region south of 50° on the two previous Fidler's route to the Rocky Mountains in 1792 issues."42 and his return the following year. Nor was the In fact, transmission of Fidler's own sur pattern of the upper Missouri and its tributar veys and Native geographical knowledge to ies, marked by the dotted lines that conven Arrowsmith extended over a period of several tionally signified conjecture, to be understood years. The Native maps drawn for Fidler in as anything more than a hypothetical connec 1801 and 1802 by Ackomokki, Kioocus, tion of the mountain sources to the surveyed Ackoweeak (three "Blackfoot chiefs") and an lower river. King had understood the hypo unnamed "Fall Indian" were the last stage of thetical nature of this image; on his map, the this transmission. Fidler copied them into his dotted lines are reinforced by the indication own journals, and also redrew one of them, "Conjectural," in very large letters. Quite sim Ackomokki's 1801 map, as a separate sheet. ply, Lewis and Clark misread the Arrowsmith The stages of drawing another map of his route map. What they found deceptive was the fa to the Rockies ten years earlier are noted in miliarity of Arrowsmith's Missouri-the "main Fidler's journal entries for March 1802. In July stream," the proliferating tributaries, the sci of that year, he sent both maps with a cover entifically acceptable pattern of a river sys ing letter to the Hudson's Bay Company's tem. This pattern was so plausible that the board of directors: captains ignored the indication of Fidler's route, overlooked the dotted lines, and The enclosed is a Map of my Journey from doubted the surveyor's "varacity."4o Buckingham House to the Rocky Moun Apparently Lewis and Clark were not aware tain in the Years 1792 a 3; in Six sheets. of Fidler's own reliance on Native visitors. There is also an extra Sheet and half an Fidler's information about the Missouri River nexed to the above, shewing the Rivers and was not first-hand; it was derived instead from other remarkable places to the Mis sis sury Native geographical knowledge. There is some river, which is takertsolely from Indian in confusion among historians over the source formation.43 and nature of this knowledge. During the win ter of 1802, Fidler solicited five maps from Fidler's "Maps & Papers" arrived in London in "Blackfoot" and "Fall Indian" (Siksika and late October 1802. Alexander Lean, the HBC Atsina) visitors to his trading post on the South Governor, forwarded them to Arrowsmith, Saskatchewan River. Fidler's copies of these writing of the transfer to Sir Joseph Banks, Native maps surviveY Every commentator president of the Royal Society, and to MAPPING THE MARIAS 175
\ I ,.f,,/,l. \, I \ ." ------I ~:-- _'~" 4 ~:7f ~ l...... \ .....
FIG. 2. Ackomokki 1801: "An Indian map of the Different Tribes that inhabit on the East & West Side of the Rocky Mountains with all the rivers & other remarkbl. places, also the number of Tents etc. Drown by the Feathers or Ac ko mok ki-a Blackfootchief-:-7th Feb' . 1801-reduced 1/4 from the Original Size-by Peter Fidler." HBCA 0.1/25 (N4157). Courtesy of Hudson's Bay Company Archives, Provincial Archives of Manitoba. 176 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SUMMER/FALL 1997
",."' .. , ..... ,.,':. L. - .
"/ -\- t r .1 FIG. 3. Arrowsmith 1802: Aaron Arrowsmith. Map Exhibiting all the New Discoveries in the Interior Parts of North America, Inscribed by Permission to the Honorable Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading into Hudson's Bay, In Testimony of their liberal Communications. 1795. Additions to 1802. (detail). Courtesy of the National Archives of Canada NMC 19687.
Alexander Dalrymple, the Admiralty's hydrog You will perceive some little difference be rapher, both of whom were well known for twixt this Map [drawn in 1802) and my their interest in exploration.44 Arrowsmith former one; which I think I sent to your seems to have used Fidler's two maps, received Honours in the Year 1795; but this [1802 some time between late October and mid-De map) is much the most compleat and exact cember 1802, for the second issue dated 1802 of the two ... I have put down the Rivers (the sixth state) of his Map Exhibiting all the &c in the Indian Names, which is black New Discoveries. feet & have translated all that I was ca In sending his two maps to Lean in 1802, pable of into English in the Indian mapY Fidler was anxious to correct and supplement an earlier report on the sources of the Mis The first three states of Arrowsmith's map, souri that he claims to have sent to the HBC dated 1795 and 1796, show Fidler's journey Committee seven years before. with the Peigan band and do not extend the MAPPING THE MARIAS 177
Rocky Mountains south of the farthest point his tacit recognition that Native mapmakers of his survey.46 The fourth state extends the were drawing more than he could interpret Rockies south to the Bear's Tooth and shows and incorporate into his own cartographic eight streams flowing east from the moun imageY The most he would acknowledge was tains. Fidler's 1802 letter seems to contrast that Ackomokki's map, forwarded with his the maps he sent to London at that time with own in 1802, the image of the Rockies shown on the first three states of Arrowsmith's map. These conveys much information where European source streams reappeared on the fifth state, documents fail, and on some occasions are the first issue dated 1802, but now they were of much use, especially as they shew that connected by dotted lines with the Missouri such & such Rivers & other remarkable River at the Mandan villages. The second places are, tho' they are utterly unac issue dated 1802 omits the northernmost quainted with any proportion in drawing tributary, but the pattern of the watershed, them.48 together with the kind of Native information solicited and assimilated, remains the same. The ephemeral nature of the originals, like Thus the cartographic image of the Missouri the maps made for Clark at Fort Mandan that Lewis and Clark attributed to Fidler was "rough maps [drawn] in the dirt," and "rude not based on the English trader's own survey, drawings on animal skins or stick scratches in as the expedition leaders thought, nor, as his the dirt" according to Allen and Moulton49- torians have since claimed, was it based points not to their insufficiency but to the uniquely on the Native maps that Fidler had way these maps were preserved and commu solicited in 1801 and 1802. Moreover, the nicated. They were given graphic realization authorship of the conjectural watershed pat only in the context of specific situations, terns is in doubt: possibly Fidler drew the drawn from memory, accompanied by speech dotted lines, possibly Arrowsmith himself. and gesture. Neither Fidler nor Clark made By his own admission in his letter of July more than a cursory note that such conversa 1802, however, Fidler's copying of the Na tions had taken place; their copies of Native tive maps had already begun the process of maps are uncommented visual transcripts of assimilation of Native "information" into the an exchange that must have been much theoretical framework of aims, acceptable de richer. tails, and conventional signs that defined Of Fidler's copies of the maps drawn for European scientific cartography. The maps him in 1801 and 1802, Ackomokki's first map Fidler solicited underwent three transforma (forwarded to London), the undated "Fall In tions: Fidler's transcription of the originals, dian" map, and a plan of journeys drawn by Fidler's correlation, rationalization, and in Kioocus in 1802 share largely unmodified sertion of their images onto his own maps, and conventions of Native cartography. 50 River Arrowsmith's incorporation of Fidler's image routes are drawn as straight or gently curved into his series of updates. By these accommo (not wavy) lines that connect with the central dations, Native knowledge of the upper Mis line of the Missouri. The trellis pattern on souri, however and whenever acquired, was these Native maps is unlike the scientific transformed into a scientifically plausible model described by Playfair and visualized by river system inscribed on an authoritative Eu European cartographers. All of the river lines ropean map. At the same time, Fidler's own are given equal importance; all connect with copying and re-copying of the five maps he the bar of the Rockies without the diminish solicited in 1801-02 (as well as' many others ing proliferation that is characteristic of riv during his fur-trade career) may well indicate ers on the Arrowsmith and King maps. This is 178 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SUMMER/FALL 1997 because the lines on the Native maps depict PRECONCEPTIONS AND WAYS OF SEEING not only water channels but the avenues or obstacles these rivers become for travelers But so insistent an intrusion as the arc of moving east-west or north-south respectively. "Clark's River" remains exceptional in Clark's The even, firm lines indicate all the rivers as cartography. Similarly, there were moments access roads into the mountains or fords along such as the pause at the Missouri/Marias the front ranges; none of the rivers is privi junction when Lewis and Clark were driven leged over the others. The central line of the to suspect the insufficiency of their own under Missouri River may indicate its importance as standing, but such moments did not last. "Ac the subject of the maps in so far as they are tual observations" were used to fill in blanks, responses to Fidler's request for knowledge not to revise conventional images. It is diffi about the MissouriY Scientific cartography cult to appreciate just how wide a gap there intrudes even on Fidler's copies. The rivers of must have been between the Native people's Ackoweeak's map, though still in a trellis pat way of seeing water- and landforms, and the tern, are drawn in the regularly undulating explorers' insistence on their own standard lines that were sometimes used for unknown geographical patterns. Like Fidler and Lewis, coasts and rivers on European maps and that like Arrowsmith, like Allen and Moulton, we appear on Clark's transcripts of Native maps.52 tend to assume that our perception of geo On both of Ackomokki's maps, the upper graphic patterns is a direct understanding of Saskatchewan assumes a tributary pattern, and natural phenomena-that we are accurately Ackomokki's second image also shows tribu seeing what is there. A hint of this bias comes taries of the Missouri. from explorers' tendency to rename geographi Like Fidler, Clark requested and collected cal features, and historians' acceptance of these maps from Native leaders he consulted. And names as the "real" ones. Lewis identified the like Fidler's, Clark's copies of Native maps are "River which scolds at all others" with the hybrids that initiate the process of reformula river he had named for its "peculiar white tion and assimilation in which Arrowsmith's ness"; according to Allen, this was "the Milk published images also played shifting, repeat River of reality."54 We need to remember that edly modified parts. An early example sur Lewis and Clark came west laden with scien vives from the captains' outward journey, tific baggage, the chief elements of which were drawn by the Mandan chief Sheheke in Janu not their instruments but their preconcep ary 1805. The Native trellis pattern persists tions: their "logical and theoretical construc on Clark's copy, but the explorer has tran tions," to use Allen's phrase again. We have scribed each of these rivers as a regularly un inherited this way of seeing, as demonstrated dulating line, a compromise between Native by our scientifically correct topographical design and European convention that is re maps and geographical information systems. peated many times on his 1810 map. It is in But the Native cartographers that Fidler en teresting to note, on the maps he requested gaged were under no constraint to depict the west of the divide, the importance assumed by upper Missouri as a watershed. Instead their the Clark Fork river ("Clark's River"), which maps show the Missouri as a web of equal was transferred to Clark's composite maps streams, a series of fords, a multiplicity of ac drawn in late 1806 and in 1810. The course of cess routes to the mountains. The logic of the "Clark's River" arcs from the Rocky Moun captains' choice at the Marias occasioned the tains to its junction with the Columbia: one expedition's long detour past the Missouri's river is not immediately identifiable as the great falls to its three forks, across Lemhi Pass, tributary of the other. The original of this and north along the Bitterroot trail. Yet strange arc can be found on a Nez Perce map shorter, easier routes could have been found drawn for Clark in May 1806.53 by following well-worn Native trails to the MAPPING THE MARIAS 179 buffalo. The captains' reliance on scientific patterns. His great map of the West, drawn in geography actually slowed their progress, and 1810, was engraved by Samuel Lewis and pub for good reason: although they had great faith lished in 1814 with the Biddle/Allen text. in details of Native "information" gained at Arrowsmith was to extend the process by one Fort Mandan, they were less curious about the more stage when he selectively copied infor patterns of Native geographical knowledge. mation from the Samuel Lewis map onto his A more "remarkable act of the mind" than next update of the Map Exhibiting all the New that of Lewis and Clark is left for us to accom Discoveries. plish: to realize that river shapes and "connec With Arrowsmith's 1814 update, the pro tion with other rivers" are not limited to the cess of scientific enquiry that had prompted watershed pattern we unthinkingly accept. the Lewis and Clark expedition came full This is very hard to do, since our vocabulary circle. As he had Fidler's maps, Arrowsmith of rivers (source, branch, mainstream, affluent, gave Clark's work the imprimatur of scientific tributary, watershed) reflects the hegemonic authority and made it available for yet fur model of empirical science. We do not have ther correction in the field. In their journals appropriate words to describe or explain what Fidler, Lewis, and Clark expressed a qualified is traced on the maps Fidler and Clark solic awareness of and confidence in Native knowl ited. But we can at least acknowledge that edge; on their maps, whatever the Native visi Native maps were not simply "rude drawings," tors to Fort Mandan had said about the as Moulton calls them-sketchy, approximate, Missouri upstream, whatever they had drawn, crude designs that European and American pointed to, and named was transformed out explorers felt obliged to revise, pulverize into of recognition or rejected in favor of a "cor "data" and insert into their own "correct" ge reet" scientific view. At best we can recon ography.55 The captains' dilemma at the Mis struct this cultural frontier as a tentative, souri/Marias junction was the dilemma of all fragmented, one-sided account of the explor exploration, and especially of frontier cartog ers' attempt to assimilate this knowledge into raphy: the coexistence of two cultural veri their own image of the West. The other voice ties-that of the Native inhabitants, and the of the dialogue is missing, and that absence is explorers' own. In the end, one kind ofknowl~ our loss. edge could not be integrated, rationalized, re duced to the other, despite the partial inclusion NOTES of details learned from Native informants on scientific maps that the explorers carried with I would like to thank Edward H. Dahl, early them. Lewis suspected Fidler's "varacity" cartography specialist at the National Archives of Canada, for guidance in working through the states when the periphery of Arrowsmith's map be of Arrowsmith's map, and Theodore Binnema, de came his own center of interest. The captains partment of history at the University of Alberta, were intent on replacing both Native knowl for very helpful suggestions. edge and "erroneous" constructions with their own "actual observations," according to the 1. Thomas Jefferson, Instructions to Lewis (20 June 1803), in Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expe progression outlined by Allen. But as we have dition, ed. Donald Jackson (Urbana: University of seen, their mapping simply continued the Illinois Press, 1962), p. 61. patchwork compilation that had produced 2. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark (2-8 the Arrowsmith 1802 update and Clark's own June 1805) in Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expe Fort Mandan map. On his return Clark con dition, ed. Gary E. Moulton, 13 vols. (Lincoln: Uni versity of Nebraska Press, 1983-98): 4: 242, 246-47, tinued the same process of combining his own 265-66: Here are the high points of Lewis's ac surveys with reports from Native informants count: "we came too ... opposite to the entrance and traders, selected and rationalized to con of a very considerable river ... An interesting form with scientifically acceptable ideas and question was now to be determined; which of these 180 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SUMMER/FALL 1997 rivers was the Missouri ... to mistake the stream at Indian Cartography and the Lewis and Clark Ex this period of the season ... would not only loose pedition," in Mapping the North American Plains, us the whole of this season but ... might defeat the ed. Frederick C. Luebke, Frances W. Kaye and Gary expedition altogether. convinced we were that the E. Moulton, (Norman: University of Oklahoma utmost circumspection and caution was necessary Press in association with the Center for Great Plains in deciding on the stream to be taken.... The Studies at University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 1987); whole of my party to a man except myself were James P. Ronda, "Exploring the Explorers: Great fully peswaided that this river [flowing from the Plains People and the Lewis and Clark Expedi northwest] was the Missouri ... I determined to tion," Great Plains Quarterly 13, no. 1 (1993): 81- give it a name and ... called it Maria's River ... it 90; James P. Ronda, "Dreams and Discoveries: is a noble river ... one of the most interesting Exploring the American West, 1760-1815," Will brances of the Missouri in a commercial point of iam and Mary Quarterly 46, no. 1 (1989): 145-62; view." In the following discussion, a few phrases James P. Ronda, "A Knowledge of Distant Parts: from these entries are quoted without further ac The Shaping of the Lewis and Clark Expedition," knowledgment. Montana 41, no. 4 (1991): 4-18. The article on 3. Bernard De Voto, The Course of Empire (Bos Native cartography ('''A Chart in his Way''') is of ton: Houghton Mifflin, 1952), pp. 422-553 (quoted greatest interest here; in it Ronda claims that "de passages, pp. 553, 482). De Voto waxes eloquent spite arbitrary symbols not part of their learning on difficulties and uncertainties of the route, hos and lore, and despite divergent ways of understand tile Indians, and the manliness of the Corps of ing the physical world, Lewis and Clark did suc Discovery: "Men who by guts and skill had mas ceed in gaining important information from Indian tered the farthest wilderness, they must have had a maps" (87). way of standing and a look in their eyes" (541). De 7. In his introduction to the] ournals, Moulton Voto also mentions, but does not elaborate on, the confirms the emphasis of recent historians on the expedition's scientific aspect: "A great deal of its scientific achievement of Lewis and Clark: "[Lewis fruitfulness stemmed from the scientific objectives and Clark] were to observe the whole range of natu set for it ... by Jefferson in consultation with ral history and ethnology of the area, and the pos [members] of the American Philosophical Soci sible resources for future settlers. Jefferson expected ety" (426). Lewis and Clark have always been seen a great deal of two infantry officers, but they met as heroes: heroism is a continuous thread in the the challenge. Lewis, a student of plants and ani soberest scholarly texts. The shift in emphasis from mals since boyhood, made significant additions to adventure to science can first be seen in William zoological and botanical knowledge ... Only in H. Goetzmann, Exploration and Empire (New York: recent decades have his contributions been fully Knopf, 1966), pp. 3-8, 24-29. Goetzmann suggests appreciated" (Journals, ed. Moulton [note 2 above] that "Lewis and Clark might almost be considered 2: 5). In his introduction to the Atlas, Moulton's a logical extension of the American Philosophical praise of Clark's mapping skills is generous: "One Society," contending that "the most important fact is ... amazed at his drafting capabilities .... [His about the Lewis and Clark expedition ... is the 1810 map] was the beginning of a new generation degree to which it was 'programmed,' or planned of maps-maps that would accurately portray the in advance, down to the smallest detail by Jefferson American West because they were based on actual and his scientific associates in Philadelphia" (5). field sightings and acute topographic inference" Another thread that can be traced in historical (Journals, ed. Moulton [note 2 above] 1: 4, 13). commentary on the expedition is that of its impe Moulton acknowledges his reliance on Allen's Pas rial mission. sage Through the Garden, and in a note to the Mis 4. John L. Allen, "Lewis and Clark on the Up souri/Marias sequence, he states that "the episode per Missouri: Decision at the Marias," Montana 21 at the Marias is ably covered" in Allen's article, (Summer 1971): 3-17; John Logan Allen, Passage "Lewis and Clark at the Upper Missouri" (Journals, Through the Garden (Urbana: University of Illinois ed. Moulton [note 2 above] 4: 253 n. 7). See also Press, 1975). The quoted passages are from Allen, Gary E. Moulton, "On Reading Lewis and Clark: "Lewis and Clark on the Upper Missouri," p. 15, The Last Twenty Years," Montana 38, no. 3 (1988): and Passage Through the Garden, pp. 261, 241, 210, 28-39: Moulton's review of recent studies of the and 89. expedition claims that "among specialized books 5. Paul Russell Cutright, Lewis and Clark: Pio about the trail, John L. Allen's Passage Through the neering Naturalists (Urbana: University of Illinois Garden will remain a classic" (35). Historians of Press, 1979). the Lewis and Clark expedition have built on each 6. James P. Ronda, Lewis and Clark among the other's work, so that although there have been Indians (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, shifts in emphasis, especially to acknowledge Na 1984); James P. Ronda, "'A Chart in his Way': tive assistance, there has been no radical break or MAPPING THE MARIAS 181 opposition over the last four decades. Each contri topography as other than a series of landscapes. At bution adds to or extends previous arguments. the great falls of the Missouri he noted (13 June 8. Allen, Passage Through the Garden (note 4 1805): "after wrighting this imperfect discription I above), p. 180. again viewed the falls and was so much disgusted 9. Ibid., p. 254. with the imperfect idea which it conveyed of the 10. Ibid., p. 253. scene that I determined to draw my pen across it 11. Ibid., pp. 253, 225. and begin agin ... I wished for the pencil of Salvator 12. Warren Heckrotte, "Aaron Arrowsmith's Rosa ... or the pen of Thompson ..." (Journals, ed. Map of North America and the Lewis and Clark Moulton [note 2 above] 4: 285). Cf. Lewis's "Sum Expedition, The Map Collector 39 (Summer 1987): mary view of the Rivers and Creeks" (Journals, ed. 16. Moulton [note 2 above] 3: 336-69). 13. Thomas Jefferson, Annual Message to Con 18. Matthew Edney, "Cartography without gress, revised draft (2 December 1806), in Letters, 'Progress': Reinterpreting the Nature and Histori ed. Jackson, (note 1 above), p. 352. cal Development of Mapmaking," Cartographica 30, 14. Moulton, Introduction to the Atlas (Jour nos. 2 and 3 (1993): 54-68. Edney applies to car nals, ed. Moulton [note 2 above] 1: 4); Silvio A. tography what Michel Foucault declared charac Bedini, "The Scientific Instruments of the Lewis teristic of empirical science generally, in Les Mots and Clark Expedition," in Mapping the North Ameri et les choses (Paris: Gallimard, 1966): 144-45: can Plains (note 6 above), pp. 93-110. Cf. Anne "l'histoire nature lie n' est pas devenue possible parce Godlewska, "The Napoleonic Survey of Egypt," qu'on a regarde mieux et de plus pres. Au sense Cartographica 25, nos. 1 and 2 (1988): 17-28, and strict, on peut dire que \'age classique s'est ingenie, J. S. O. Jelly, "Early Methods of Topographical sinon a voir Ie moins possible, du moins a restreindre Survey," in A History of the Ordnance Survey, ed. volontairement Ie champ de son experience. W. A. Seymour (Folkestone: Dawson, 1980), pp. L'observation, a partir du XVIIe siecle, est une 1-17. connaissance sensible assortie de conditions 15. Philip Tumor, who taught Peter Fidler the systematiquement negatives. Exclusion, bien sur, elements of surveying and whose work for the duoul-dire ... privilege presque exclusif de la vue, Hudson's Bay Company Arrowsmith acknowledged, qui est Ie sens de l'evidence et de l'etendu." ["Natu met Mackenzie returning from the Arctic in 1789 ral history did not become possible because men and wondered if the explorer knew exactly where looked harder and more closely. One might say, he had been. See Aaron Arrowsmith, Companion strictly speaking, that the classical age used its in to a Map of the World (London: George Bigg, 1794), genuity, if not to see as little as possible, at least to p. 18, and The Journals of Samuel Hearne and Philip restrict deliberately the area of its experience. Ob Turnor, ed. J. B. Tyrrell (Toronto: Champlain So servation, from the seventeenth century onward, ciety, 1934), p. 317. is a perceptible knowledge furnished with a series 16. Jefferson to Benjamin Smith Barton (27 Feb of systematically negative conditions. Hearsay is ruary 1803), Jefferson to Caspar Wistar (28 Febru excluded, that goes without saying ... which leaves ary 1803), and Jefferson to Benjamin Rush (28 sight with an almost exclusive privilege, being the February 1803); Lewis to the Public, printed in the sense by which we perceive extent and establish National Intelligencer (14 March 1807), the Conrad proof." Michel Foucault, The Order of Things (a Prospectus (1 April 1807 ) and the Biddle Prospec translation of Les Mots et les choses) (New York: tus (May 1810); cf. [David McKeehan] to Lewis, Pantheon Books, 1970), pp. 132-33.] printed in the Pittsburgh Gazette (7 April 1807), 19. Allen, Passage Through the Garden (note 4 Conrad & Co. to Jefferson (13 November 1809), above), pp. 97-98. Clark to F. R. Hassler (26 January 1810), Clark to 20. Allen, ibid, p. 78, refers to "the group of Benjamin Smith Barton (22 May 1810) and Biddle's maps. that Gallatin called 'the three maps of correspondence (1810-14) in Letters, ed. Jackson, Arrowsmith.' Aaron Arrowsmith ... had produced pp. 16-19, 385-86, 394-97, 546-48, 468-69, 491- many maps of North America that were available 92, 548-49, 494-599. Basing his analysis on Paul in the United States, either as separate sheets or as Russell Cutright, A History of the Lewis and Clark smaller versions included in many of the published Journals (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, works on North American geography. Although it 1976), Moulton devotes a long section of his in cannot be definitely known just which of troduction (Journals, ed. Moulton [note 2 above] Arrowsmith's many maps Gallatin was referring to, 2: 35-42) to the many problems of publication and it is most likely that at least two of them were the preservation of the expedition's documents and widely circulated 1795 and 1802 editions of the collections. British cartographer's large map ofN orth America." 17. Lewis himself was dissatisfied with pictur By 1803 Arrowsmith had published six states of A esque descriptions, but he could not see western Map Exhibiting all the New Discoveries in the Interior 182 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SUMMER/FALL 1997
Parts of North America as well as the map of North is in reallity such an one, ought agreeably to their America illustrating Mackenzie's Voyages from account, to have fallen in a considerable distance Montreal. Maps based on Arrowsmith's but drawn below, and on the other hand if this right-hand or by other cartographers (the King 1803 map of North N. fork be the Missouri I am equally astonished at America is a good example) would not be counted their not mentioning the S. fork ... " (Journals, ed. as Arrowsmith maps. Heckrotte, "Aaron Arrow Moulton (note 2 above) 4: 248). smith's Map" (note 12 above), p. 20, explains 27. Much quoted, Lewis's journal entries (8-9 Gallatin's "three maps of Arrowsmith" as the three June 1805) register the explorers' loss of confi sheets of first issue dated 1802 of the Map Exhibit dence in Arrowsmith's depiction of the Missouri: ing all the New Discoveries. The second issue dated "I now began more than ever to suspect the varacity 1802 comprised six sheets since the map was ex of Mr. Fidler or the correctness of his instruments. tended south to N30°. for I see that Arrasmith in his late map of N. 21. Heckrotte, "Aaron Arrowsmith's Map" (note America has laid down a remarkable mountain in 12 above), pp. 16-20. Heckrotte's identification of the chain of the Rocky mountains ... said to be the "River which scolds at all others" with the from the discoveries of Mr. Fidler ... The informa- Marias River (rather than the Milk River) seri tion of Mr. Fidler incorrect ... for if he has been ously weakens his argument that Lewis and Clark along the Eastern side of the rocky mountains as carried the first issue with them. far as even Latd. 47° ... and saw only rivulets 22. Godlewska, "Napoleonic Survey" (note 14 making down from those mountains the presump above), p. 1; see also pp. 13,36-40. Like Lewis and tion is very strong that those little streams do not Clark, who consulted Arrowsmith's and King's com penetrate the rocky Mountains . . . The Indian posite maps of western North America, at least one information also argued strongly in favor of the of the French surveyors carried D' Anville's "office South fork ..." (Journals, ed. Moulton [note 2 compilation" of Egypt with him in the field (141), above] 4: 266-67,269-70). Cf. Godlewska, "Napo despite the fact that it had been drawn and pub leonic Survey" (note 14 above), who reviews the lished in Paris forty years before. Lewis was also exactly contemporary attempt of French military prepared to rely on a D'Anville map as one of the officials to standardize government mapping pro sources of King's compilation-see Lewis to cedures: reliance on previous maps was recom Jefferson (29 May 1803) in Letters, ed. Jackson mended as long as the user read them critically, (note 1 above), p. 53. The recent, even very re always skeptical and on the lookout for error cent, updating of Arrowsmith's Map Exhibiting all (pp. 39-40). Nicholas Biddle's notes record Clark's the New Discoveries . .. Additions to 1802 would criticism of Broughton's survey of the Columbia have been seen as affording Lewis and Clark an River mouth: "Vancouver wrong in placing an is unusual advantage. land off Cape Adams-there is a shoal ... Haleys 23. Moulton, introduction to the Atlas (Jour bay badly put in Vancouver. The course pretty nals 1, ed. Moulton [note 2 above]: 10; Ronda, much as he says of the river." (Letters, ed. Jackson Lewis and Clark among the Indians (note 6 above), [note 1 above], pp. 540-41). pp. 67-132. Allen, Passage Through the Garden (note 28. Ronda, Lewis and Clark among the Indians 4 above), p. 312, distinguishes between "the real (note 6 above), p. 129; Moulton, introduction to world of geographical knowledge, as mapped and the Atlas (Journals, ed. Moulton [note 2 above] 1: surveyed" (in that order), and "the fantasy of geo 5); Allen, Passage Through the Garden (note 4 graphical unknowns." above), pp. 211-14, 231-51. No one would dis 24. Allen, "Lewis and Clark on the Upper Mis agree with Allen's statement that "inaccuracies souri" (note 4 above), pp. 5-8, and Passage Through and distortions present in the view from Fort the Garden (note 4 above), pp. 226-51, 283. Mandan were there not because of the reliance on 25. The south branch can be identified with the concepts drawn from pure conjecture, but because Yellowstone River, the "River which scolds at all of the deformations that appear in any geographi others" with the Milk River. Cf. Allen, Passage cal image, however rationally derived, that is based Through the Garden (note 4 above), p. 244. on less than full information and therefore subject 26. Lewis's journal (3 June 1805) records the to interpretation and interpolation from the lore captains' uncertainty as they tried to reconcile that is available" (231). It should be kept in mind, Arrowsmith's Missouri with what Mandans and however, that the "information" of Native maps Hidatsas had told them over the previous winter: and reports was not only "less than full" but of a "what astonishes us a little is that the Indians who different kind from that of the explorers' "geo appeared to be so well acquainted with the geogra graphical image." When Allen refers to "rough phy of this country should not have mentioned maps ... [drawn] in the dirt floors" (211), and this river on wright hand if it be not the Missouri; explains the way in which these maps were under the river that scolds at all others, as they call it if there stood-"Clark incorporated the data of the MAPPING THE MARIAS 183
Minitari war chief into the 'Map of the Countrey the captains' background was relative familiarity on the Missouries .. .' [Clark's Fort Mandan map]" with the basic distinctions between rivers of the (214)-the reader infers that Native cartography plains and those which flowed through the various was crude and valued only for details that were ranges of the Rockies. Such unfamiliarity was un provisionally placed on the explorers' own maps. derstandable: Lewis and Clark had yet to see a Ronda, in '''A Chart in his Way'" (note 6 above), mountain stream, and the Yellowstone was the first pp. 87-89, recognizes that "beneath those lines, river in their image of the trans-Missouri region marks, and heaps of sand was a different way of which was even understood to be a stream which seeing the world," and suggests that Lewis and flowed through mountains for great distances be Clark respected the difference, even went some fore passing out onto the plains." way towards understanding the other way. But in 36. Lewis, "A Summary view of the Rivers and accepting Lewis's claim that he and Clark learned Creeks which discharge them[selves] into the Mis this "different way" easily enough to employ it con souri," in Journals, ed. Moulton (note 2 above) 3: vincingly, Ronda perhaps underestimates the ex 336-369, quoted passage 359. Moulton groups tent of the difference and certainly attributes to Lewis's "Summary view" and Clark's correspond the explorers a much finer understanding than ing table under the title "Affluents of the Mis any historian has so far demonstrated. souri" Gournals, ed. Moulton 3: 335). 29. Allen, Passage Through the Garden (note 4 37. Ibid., pp. 363-64. above), pp. 275, 282, and Moulton, "On Reading 38. Ibid., p. 365. Lewis and Clark" (note 7 above), p. 35. 39. Heckrotte, "Aaron Arrowsmith's Map" (note 30. Cf. Clark's report of Lewis's arrival at the 12 above), p. 18. falls, which emphasizes confirmation of Native re 40. Neither Allen nor Moulton comments on ports (14 June 1805): "Capt Lewis dates his letter the American explorer's misreading of the carto from the Great falls of the Missouri ... Capt. L. graphic conventions of Arrowsmith's map. This is informs the [party?] that those falls; in part an all the more surprising, since Arrowsmith was un swer the discription given of them by the Indians, usually scrupulous in noting what had been ex much higher the Eagles nest which they describe is plored by Europeans and what was reported or there; from those Signs he is Convinced of this conjectural. Cf. Godlewska, "Napoleonic Survey" being the river the Indians call the Missouri" Gour (note 14 above), pp. 135-36: "A variety of historical nals, ed. Moulton [note 2 above] 4: 295, Moulton's sources were used by the compiler. The most valu interpolation) . able were maps by explorers who had visited the 31. Allen, Passage Through the Garden (note 4 region about which information was needed .... above), p. 225. The compiler used these sources critically and 32. Ibid., p. 245. comparatively to fill lacunae left by the fieldwork. 33. John Playfair, Illustrations of the Huttonian It is clear that historical sources were accorded Theory of the Earth (1802; rpt. New York: Dover, great respect. Indeed, although the compiler 1956), pp. 350-53. Recommended map signs for claimed that the details about which he was un rivers and streams can be seen, for example, in certain were drawn on the maps with broken lines, the French government's regulations issued to its this did not apply to information derived from cartographic departments in 1803-05: see God historical sources. Thus, information must have lewska, "Napoleonic Survey," (note 14 above), pp. been considered of sufficient quality in this period 24-25, 12}, 129, who provides tables and illustra to be placed, unacknowledged, on the map along tions of the ways in which geographical features side and integrated into surveyed data." Despite were to be drawn on maps for the Napoleonic sur their indignation concerning Fidler's "varacity," vey of Egypt. Lewis and Clark themselves participated in carto 34. Jefferson, Instructions to Lewis (20 June graphic speculation. Allen, Passage Through the 1803), in Letters, ed. Jackson (note 12 above), pp. Garden (note 4 above), p. 242, describes how they 61-62 (Jackson's emendation). "hypothesized the river" they named White Earth: 35. Cf. Allen, Passage Through the Garden (note "By amalgamating misconstrued data that had 4 above), pp. 234, 243: "Combining the best previ probably been given them regarding other north ous knowledge on the area from both written and ern tributaries of the Missouri, the captains 'in oral sources with their own firsthand observations, vented' [why quotation marks?] a stream to match the American explorers came up with a highly re their conceptions of idealized [sic] western geogra alistic picture of the lower reaches of the rivers phy." that flowed into the Missouri between its mouth 41. HBCA G.1/25, B.39/a/2, E.3/2, Hudson's Bay and the Great Bend. The accuracy of their view Company Archives, Provincial Archives of declined toward the interior, however. ... The Manitoba (PAM). See A Country So Interesting: critical lack, both conceptual and experiential, in the Hudson's Bay Company and Two Centuries of 184 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SUMMER/FALL 1997
Mapping, 1670-1870, ed. Richard Ruggles (King pretation of Amerindian Information as a Source ston and Montreal: McGill-Queen's University of Error on Euro-American Maps," Annals of the Press, 1991), pp. 63-64, 199-200, and plates 19, Association of American Geographers 77 (1987): 20; see also D. W. Moodie and Barry Kaye, "The 542-63; and "Metrics, Geometrics, Signs, and Lan Ac Ko Mok Ki Map," Beaver 307, noA (1977): 4- guage: Sources of Cartographic Miscommunica 15, and Judith Hudson Beattie, "Indian Maps in tion between Native and Euro-American Cultures the Hudson's Bay Company Archives: A Compari in North America," Cartographica 30, no. 1 (1993): son of Five Area Maps Recorded by Peter Fidler, 98-106. Cf. Barbara Belyea, "Amerindian Maps: 1801-1802," Archivaria 21 (1985-86): 166-75. Cf. The Explorer as Translator," Journal of Historical Allen, Passage Through the Garden (note 4 above), Geography 18, no. 3 (1992): 267-77; Mark Warhus, p. 19: "Peter Fidler ... apparently followed in Another America (New York: St Martin's Press, structions received from natives during his travels 1997); Barbara Belyea, "Inland Journeys, Native in the Canadian West ... Fidler's map was avail Maps," Cartographica 33, no. 2 (1996): 1-16; The able to cartographers of the last few years of the History of Cartography, ed. J. B. Harley and David eighteenth century.... " Fidler's two maps sent to Woodward, 6 vols. (Chicago: University of Chi London in 1802 were not circulated; the HBC made cago Press, 1987-), III, forthcoming; and Carto them available only to Arrowsmith. Any subse graphic Encounters, ed. G. Malcolm Lewis (Chicago: quent cartographic copying would have been from University of Chicago Press), forthcoming. Arrowsmith's map, not Fidler's. 51. See G. Malcolm Lewis, "An Early Map on 42. Heckrotte, "Aaron Arrowsmith's Map," pp. Skin of the Area Later to Become Indiana and 18,20. Illinois," The British Library Journal 22, no. 1 (Spring 43. Peter Fidler to the HBC London Commit 1996): 66-87. tee, dated Oxford House, 10 July 1802, HBCA 52. Christian Jacob, "II faut qu'une carte soit A.ll/52, Hudson's Bay Company Archives, PAM. ouverte ou fermee: Ie trace conjectural," Revue de 44. Alexander Lean to Alexander Dalrymple, la Bibliotheque Nationale 45 (1992): 39: "II est dated Hudson's Bay House, 17 December 1802; certains cas OU Ie trace se designe lui-meme comme Alexander Lean to Sir Joseph Banks, dated conjectural ... [Ce] trace est beau coup plus simple Hudson's Bay House, 17 December 1802, HBCA que celui des regions deja explorees ... un contour A.5/4, Hudson's Bay Company Archives, PAM. prospectif, qui anticipe sur l'exploration a venir. See also Saskatchewan Journals and Correspondence, La ligne suffit ainsi a creer I'espace qu'elle ne peut ed. Alice Johnson (London: Hudson's Bay Record representer." ["It Is Necessary That a Map Be Open Society, 1967), pp. 319n and 320n. or Closed: The Conjectural Drawing." "There is a 45. Peter Fidler to the HBC London Commit certain case where a line is designed to show that tee, dated at Oxford House, 10 July 1802, HBCA what it represents is conjectural ... This line is A.ll/52, Hudson's Bay Company Archives, PAM. always more simple than that delineating regions 46. Fidler's "running survey" method, using that have already been explored ... a prospective prominent peaks as bearings, is described in his outline, that anticipates explorations to come. The journal of the winter he spent with the Peigan line suffices, thus, to create the space that it can band: see HBCA E.3/2, Hudson's Bay Company not represent." (translation by editor)] Archives, PAM. 53. See Ronda, '''A Chart in his Way'" (note 6 47. Fidler continued to solicit Native maps even above), pp. 83, 88. after the regions they depicted had been surveyed 54. Allen, Passage Through the Garden (note 4 scientifically: see A Country So Interesting, ed. above), p. 244 (my emphasis). Ruggles (note 41 above), pp. 65-66, 201-04, and 55. Cf. Godlewska, "Napoleonic Survey" (note plates 12, 16, 17,22,23. 14 above), p. 136: "Information from indigenous 48. Peter Fidler to the HBC London Commit sources was regarded with suspicion and even hos tee, dated at Oxford House, 10 July 1802, HBCA tility by both the compiler and his surveyors A.11/52, Hudson's Bay Company Archives, PAM. [Napoleon's cartographers in Egypt]. Nevertheless 49. Allen, Passage Through the Garden (note 4 it was extensively used, [though] never directly above), p. 211; Moulton, introduction to the Atlas and openly acknowledged. It is conceivable that (Journals, ed. Moulton [note 2 above] 1: 10). this pervasive ambiguity toward indigenous sources 50. For characteristics of North American Na of information reflects an ideology of cultural su tive maps and mapping, see G. Malcolm Lewis, periority ... perhaps many of the earliest European "Indian Maps: Their Place in the History of Plains maps of newly conquered territories ought to be Cartography," in Mapping the North American Plains, reexamined for influences from indigenous sources ed. Luebke (note 6 above), pp. 63-80; "Misinter- and traditions of mapping."