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A Map and Nine Makers Bulletin de l’ACACC Numero 144, Printemps/Été 2013 A MAP AND NINE MAKERS Barbara Belyea [email protected] Keynote Address for CARTO 2013 Edmonton Alberta Aaron Arrowsmith’s Map Exhibiting all the New may have begun with these maps. Right away he Discoveries in the Interior Parts of North America, published in 1795, adhered to Enlightenment deceptive: they could be very informative if one standards of cartography developed over the previous realized that the simplicity of Native maps was century.1 Its spatial representation was anchored in in a covering note to the company directors: Native mathematical coordinates, the features inscribed on mapmakersmade an effort “conveys to understand much them, information as he explained where it were precisely located using the latest navigational European maps fail ... though they are utterly tools, and its claim to universal validity – that its 4 all other systems of spatial representation – was a Theunacquainted Hudson’s with Bay any Company proportion directors in drawing allowed them.” claimscientific of Europeanexactness surpassed intellectual and superiority. rendered obsolete Hence Arrowsmith to consult Fidler’s documents. its continuing importance and interest: present- Arrowsmith incorporated Akkomokki’s sources of the day cartographers espouse the same principles. Arrowsmith’s map was a compilation of other Missouri as thirteen short solid lines, and linked them mapin a hypothetical was all the London Missouri cartographer watershed. had The to dotted work with.lines publication, the London cartographer relied reflected his uncertainty: for this region Akkomokki’s maps. For the next two decades after its initial featuresSince it was as notbest drawn he could according into his to theown conventions idiom. His on the work of seven explorers: Philip Turnor, of scientific cartography, Arrowsmith translated its WilliamDavid Thompson, Clark – all Peter trained Fidler, surveyors, Samuel mostHearne, of themGeorge more Vancouver, than competent. Alexander2 The Mackenziework of a ninth and Translationinterpretation ledoperates to approximation, on the premiseeven invention. that cartographer was also forwarded to Arrowsmith.3 communication can take place despite formal change. The ninth mapmaker was not at all like the others. What knowledge can be maintained in shifting from one cartographic idiom to another? What if anything is lost in translation? Arrowsmith’s 1802 states He was a Siksika leader who drew the Missouri watershed for Peter Fidler. His name was Akkomokki. All the tribes, all but one of the hill features in the plains,show a and line all of but mountains four of the and mountain a fictional landmarks watershed. on theIn 1801 southwestern Fidler asked limit his Siksikaof the fur visitor trade’s for informationcontinental about what lay beyond Chesterfield House, built at is the transformation of space from whatever it by drawing a map. He drew a line of landmark Akkomokki’s map have disappeared. Most important expansion. Akkomokki answered this question determined coordinates of Arrowsmith’s. Anyone rivers on the other side of the Rockies. Akkomokki familiarsignified with on Akkomokki’s European cartography map to the astronomicallywill try to read alsomountains, located a Missouri thirty-one River “tribes” network, inhabiting and two large the territory of his map and traced the route of a raiding cartographic translation are helpful in understanding Akkomokki’s map map: in theythe same are Juneway. TwoHelm’s exercises pioneer in analysis of two Chipewyan maps and Ted Binnema’s leadersparty. In Kioocus 1802 Fidlerand Akkoweeak, requested and four a fourthnew maps: from account of the landmark peaks on Akkomokki’s map.5 ananother unnamed from cartographerAkkomokki, onethought each tofrom be SiksikaAtsina. Fidler’s special interest in Native cartography Helm indicates what is involved in the process of 35 ACMLA Bulletin Number 144, Spring/Summer 2013 spatial translation as she struggles to understand guides, and how they are carriers of cultural values. of the Coppermine River. Helm remarks that “scale andChipewyan relative maps directions antedating become Hearne’s progressively exploration the Chipewyan maps of Helm’s analysis, we can skewed. ... One yearns to transfer [the maps’] Looking again at the Chesterfield House maps and features onto an elastic surface that could be them all. On each map an essentially straight line stretched into directions, proportions and distances representsrecognize a keysalient, landform shaping that featureis both a common barrier and to a guide to travel in the region: the Arctic coast and redraws features of one map as they would be the eastern edge of the mountains. This line acts like that accord with the actual lay of the land.” She correcting its original “distortions” and “confusions.” Cardinal directions are not operative; as readers of configured in European cartographic space, thus European-stylea magnet to pull themaps other we mapare literallyfeatures intodisoriented. its field. Binnema rejects any suggestion that Akkomokki’s map is crude or unrepresentative. He maintains, that “the key to understanding [this] map is the Other features also exert an attractive field: the assumption that [it] is accurate.” Accurate yes, rivercurving lines river are patterns joined to of the the dominant Missouri drainage,straight line, the but not universally understandable. Binnema thelarge effect triangle is to ofstrengthen, Great Slave not Lake. weaken, Since the the attractive lake and power of each feature. They act in concert, not faced with the menorah-like structure of streams considers Arrowsmith’s “perplexity” when he was distrust of Fidler’s “varacity.” Like Arrowsmith and opposition, and the result is a balanced, unified design. Helm,on the BinnemaNative map solves and Meriwetherthe problem Lewis’s by redrawing famous Akkomokki’s map. The original straight line of versionFor explorers of Akkomokki’s Native maps map repeatedly copied intoproved Fidler’s their mountains bends to join up the landmark peaks in journal,usefulness a lineas practical indicates route-finding a trail looping guides. past On the edgethe right to the directions, main stream. and tributariesBinnema concludes: of the Missouri “Now Sweetgrass Hills to the Gates of the Mountains, translated,follow recognizable [Akkomokki’s] courses map canfrom be usedthe mountain to greater then around the Little Belt Mountains, down ifthe you Smith forget River about to thecardinal Missouri, directions and back and tomove the fromSweetgrass feature Hills. to feature, You can keeping follow Akkomokki’sthe succession map of Theadvantage “valuable to extract evidence” the valuable of any map evidence is its itcapacity holds.” landmark peaks to your right. The routes shown on Native maps of the region were well travelled based on her assumption that the “proportions and and evident on the ground. William Clark followed distances”for representation. operative Helm’son European translation maps depictexercise “the is actual lay of the land.” Binnema suggests that we that Akkomokki and Kioocus had drawn a few must acknowledge the accuracy of Akkomokki’s yearsthe trail before. through A year laterthe Gates he followed of the the Mountains same loop through “a gap in the mountain” that Akkomokki and however confusing its features are to us, they also representmap (and “theby extension actual lay ofother the land.” Native We maps) need to– takethat Fifty years later an Assiniboin drew a map at Fort Binnema at his word: Native maps are “accurate.” Kioocus had traced around the Big Belt Mountains. At the same time, their capacity for representation indicated a road that ran close to the Bearspaw Buford showing exactly the same trail. Kioocus also that efforts to replot their “evidence” in European termsis so radically miss more different than from they scientific gain. Unlike cartography Helm Mountains, over the Cypress Hills and across the and Binnema, I think we can begin to understand North Saskatchewan River. Crazy Mule’s map, drawn Native maps only if we resist translating them into in 1880 and found among the papers of US Cavalry6 European map space: if we consider instead, without officer John Gregory Bourke, shows a trail from the WhereYellowstone do the River roads to on the these Bearspaw maps lead? Mountains. What do they connect? What social landscape do they reveal? reference to scientific cartography, how they are constructed,36 how they operate as route-finding Bulletin de l’ACACC Numero 144, Printemps/Été 2013 component features are related to each other, not along the line of mountains indicate “all the tribes” to the space on which they are drawn. It is as if the whoAkkomokki’s lived there. map Binnema provides consolidatessome clues. Small their circles often colourful names – “wrinkled ... Hairy... scabby ... rock surfaces encourage a play between massiveness drawing surface were there and not there. Similarly, Arapaho.Wolf ... Blue Akkomokki Mud ...” – into and recognizable Kioocus were present-day drawing forand rock permeability. art are caves The and energy overhangs, lines of wherecertain the figures face roadnations: maps Flathead of their Salish, war raidsShoshone, among Crow, these Cheyenne, nations. istrail porous away intoand cracksuneven and – where fissures. images Favorite can locations suggest Fidler’s journals record the departure and return their transitional status and otherworld connections. of two winter war parties, absent 49 and 62 days. Both
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