Geoff Mangum's Guide to
Native American History & Culture

Prehistory, Contact to the End of the Indian Wars, and Modern Days

Catlin Village

This webpage features North America before the Europeans, and during the ensuing four centuries (1500-1900) of European dispossession of the native populations by violence and deceit, euphemistically termed "the clash of cultures", and with modern information on tribes and cultures. The collection of Google Maps contains about 15,000 feature-rich placemarks organized topically and usually with dates, and the Google Earth viewer allows seeing the entire collection at once. The overarching idea is to portray accurately and in detail the great change that swept the American landscape between 1500 and 1900, or the first three centuries 1500-1800 of native-European contact before the creation of the United States (1791) and the following century 1800-1900 of federal warfare against the remnant tribes in pursuit of Manifest Destiny.

HOW TO: To view the Google Map for a subject, just click on the Map link. To view a single map in Google Earth, first download and install the Google Earth viewer, and then second either a) proceed from a single map to view solely that map on Google Earth by using the top right menu of the Google Map webpage ("View in Google Earth") or b) better yet view the entire collection by downloading the "kml" files for all the maps in a batch to your computer desktop (or elsewhere) and then in the Google Earth viewer use File>Open from the top menu and select all the kml files to open. Finally, in the Google Earth viewer, if the placemarks are too dense or you wish to see only certain subjects, use the left sidebar to select or deselect subjects. Current collection: approximately 15,000 placemarks. Updating is in progress and your assistance is welcome (email me). For further assistance and news of additions and changes, visit the Native America Project on Facebook.

This project is a) colossal, and b) in progress. If you would like to volunteer assistance, please send me email at geoff@puttingzone.com. If you would like to tell others about this resource, you may want to download and print this one-page Native America Project poster (170 kb pdf download) to post on a bulletin board or to send out as an email attachment. Thanks.

TopHistorical Narrative

Guide to Google Maps


TopGuide to the Google Maps

Back to Home Page

HOW TO: To view the Google Map for a subject, just click on the Map link. To view a single map in Google Earth, first download and install the Google Earth viewer, and then second either a) proceed from a single map to view solely that map on Google Earth by using the top right menu of the Google Map webpage ("View in Google Earth") or b) better yet view the entire collection by downloading the "kml" files for all the maps in a batch to your computer desktop (or elsewhere) and then in the Google Earth viwer use File>Open from the top menu and select all the kml files to open. Finally, in the Google Earth viwer, if the placemarks are too dense or you wish to see only certain subjects, use the left sidebar to select or deselect subjects. Current collection: approximately 14,000 placemarks. Updating is in progress and your assistance is welcome (email me). For further assistance and news of additions and changes, visit the Native America Project on Facebook.

This project is a) colossal, and b) in progress. If you would like to volunteer assistance, please send me email at geoff@puttingzone.com. If you would like to tell others about this resource, you may want this one-page Native America Project poster (170 kb pdf download) to post on a bulletin board or to send out as an email attachment. Thanks.

Drag to pan, brush two fingertips upward on touch pad to enlarge, downward to shrink.

Top Indian Tribes of America


McKenney

Indian Tribes of America
(currently 13 pages of Placemarks, approx. 1,800)
some forts, villages, wars


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View Indian Tribes of America (2) in a larger map

Indian Tribes of America, federally and state recognized and non-recognized tribes, from prehistory to today, from BIA, NCAI, state, and Federal Acknowledgement sources. IN PROGRESS.

Tribes 1500

 

Top Modern American Tribes (Federal, State, and Non-recognized)

.

Pequot Reservation

Federal Indian Tribes
(approx. 420)


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Federally recognized American Indian tribes -- from BIA list, A-Z done.

Indian Reservations
US Indian Reservations

Federal Lands and Reservations

.

Top Alaska Native Communities

Alaska Natives

Alaska Native Communities
(approx. 250)


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Alaska Native Communities. IN PROGRESS.

Alaska Native Museum

Top Canadian First Nations

 

Canada Contact Tribes

Canadian First Nations, Inuits and Metis
(approx. 850)


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First Nations, Inuit, and Metis organizations and entites in Canada. IN PROGRESS.

Totem Poles

Canada Indians

Top Indian Towns

 

Secotan
Algonkian Secoton Village, NC Coast (1590s)

Indian Towns and Villages 1500-1900 (1)
(approx. 650, in progress)

Indian Towns and Villages 1500-1900 (2)
(approx. 550, in progress)

Indian Towns and Villages 1500-1900 (3)
(approx. 1050, in progress)

Indian Towns and Villages 1500-1900 (4)
(approx. 500, in progress)


View Indian Towns and Villages in a larger map

Indian towns and villages identified mainly in Capt Smith's map 1607, Swanton's Indian Tribes of North America, Hodge's Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, 1910, U.S. department of the Interior, Office of Indian Affairs, numerous books, maps and websites, along with other historical sources. IN PROGRESS.

Pawnee Village
Pawnee

Palisade Village
Congaree

Sioux Village
Sioux

Seminole Town
Seminole


Top Indian Archaeology

 

Ohio Newark Earthworks
Ancient Earthworks, Newark OH

Indian Archaeology Museums and Sites
(approx. 400)


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Native American archaeological sites, primarily pre-contact. America's Ancient Treasures, by Folsom and Folsom (3rd ed. 1983), and other sources. IN PROGRESS.

Kincaid Site
Kincaid Site


Top Indian History Museums

 

National Museum of the American Indian
Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of the American Indian (opened 2004)

Indian History Museums and Tourism
(approx. 800)


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Museums featuring Native American Indian archaeology and history and sites or centers for historic recreations and tourism, along with special library collections. IN PROGRESS.

Cahokia Birdman Tablet
Cahokia Birdman Tablet


Top Indian Schools

 

Tulalip School 1865
Tulalip Indian School (1865)

Indian Schools
(approx. 650 marks)


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Indian boarding schools, state schools, reservation schools, mission schools and colleges in US and Canada, from BIA and Indian Education sources, and other sources. IN PROGRESS.

Top Indian Missions


Monterey Mission San Carlos 1792
San Carlos Mission, Monterey California 1792
"The Mission of St. Carlos near Monterrey". Volume II, plate I from:
"A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean and Round the World" by Captain George Vancouver.

Indian Missions
(approx. 500)


View Indian Missions in a larger map

Spanish established in Florida 1606-1630; California, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona; French established, 1638-1721; Anglican missions since 1620s. IN PROGRESS.

St Marie Mission
St Marie among the Hurons, Georgian Bay ON (1639)

Holy Family Log Church, Cahokia IL, ca. 1700
Holy Family Log Church, Cahokia IL (ca. 1699)

 

Top European Exploration and Settlement

 


Arrival of the Mayflower, Massachussetts Coast (1620)
The Indian awaiting the arrival already spoke English -- he learned it from a former Patuxet Indian who had been enslaved by the English explorers in Maine 15 years earlier -- Squanto - who had managed to return to his homeland the year before in 1619..

British colonization came over a century late to the Americas. The person greeting the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock in 1620 already spoke English and helped the Europeans survive. He was a friend of Patuxet Indian Tisquantum (Squanto), who had been captured in 1605 at about age 25 by English explorers in Maine and taken to England as a captive translator. Capt John Smith brought him back to America in 1612, and after a couple of years of assistance allowed him to start walking north to his New England home. On the way, Tisquantum was again captured in 1614 by English slave hunters headed by one of Smith's lieutenants and carried to Malaga Spain for sale, but was rescued by Spanish friars and later allowed to make his way to England, where he lived with a shipbuilder and learned English. Tisquantum then made his way to Newfoundland with an expedition of English explorers but was too far from New England to walk home, so he returned to England in 1618. The following year he made another trip across the Atlantic and finally reached home to find his tribe had been decimated by plague the year before. Tisquantum then settled with the newly arrived Pilgrims (1620) and assisted them with translation, planting maize, and relations with local tribes, including the Wampanoag Confederacy headed by sachem Massasoit. On one diplomatic mission, Tisquantum was apparently poisoned by distrusting Wampanoags and died a few days afterwards. He is buried in an unmarked grave on Burial Hill in Chathamport, overlooking Ryder's Cove.

European Exploration and Settlement
(approx. 350)


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European exploration, migration, and settlement, 1400-1900, including expansion of trade and transportation networks. IN PROGRESS.

Top Indian Trails and Settler Roads

 

Natchez Trace
Ancient Natchez Trace (Tennessee and Mississippi)

Trails Map
Early Trails and Roads ca. 1750s

Early Indian Paths and Settler Roads (1)
(approx. 550)

Early Indian Paths and Settler Roads (2)
(approx. 175)


View Early Indian Paths and Settler Roads (1) in a larger map


View Early Indian Paths and Settler Trails and Roads (2) in a larger map

Indian trails and path, and settler hunting, military, trade and migration trails and roads, 1500-1900. IN PROGRESS.


Top Maps


Adair Map
Adair's Map of American Indian Tribes (1755)

Early Maps with Indian Sites (1)
(approx. 1000)


View Early Maps with Indian Sites (1) in a larger map

Early Maps with Indian Sites (2)
(approx. 100)


View Early Maps with Indian Sites (2) in a larger map

Online and other early American maps showing Indian sites. IN PROGRESS.

New Mexico


View New England Indian Place Names (c.1620) in a larger map

Top Fur Trade

 

Canadian Fur Trading Posts
Canadian Fur Trading Posts

Indian Fur Trade & Trading Posts
(approx. 500)


View Indian Fur Trade & Trading Posts in a larger map

Spanish, French, British, Russian, Dutch, American -- 1600-1900. IN PROGRESS.

TrapperJoseph Meek, Trapper

Top Forts

 

Fort Orange 1624
Fort Orange on the Hudson, Dutch Albany (1624)

American and Canadian Forts (1)
(approx. 1,450)


View US-Canadian Forts 1500-1900 (1) in a larger map

American and Canadian Forts (2)
(approx. 75)


View US-Canadian Forts 1500-1900 (2) in a larger map

American and Canadian Forts (3)
(approx. 200)


View US-Canadian Forts 1500-1900 (3) in a larger map

American and Canadian Forts (4)
(approx. 250)


View US-Canadian Forts 1500-1900 (4) in a larger map

European fortifications of settlement for protection / aggression against Indians, with overlap in US-European wars (colonial empire wars, Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Mexican War, Spanish-American War, but generally excluding Civil War except for overlap in Western Indian Wars). IN PROGRESS.

Ft Laramie
Fort Laramie (1851)

 

Top Indian Wars

Hotchkiss Guns
Hotchkiss Guns used against women and children at Wounded Knee (1890)

North American Indian Wars (1)
(approx. 400)


View North American Indian Wars (1) in a larger map

North American Indian Wars (2)
(approx. 350)


View North American Indian Wars (2) in a larger map

North American Indian Wars with Europeans in North America from first contact to end of 19th century, including murders, massacres, depredations, uprisings, renegade actions, extermination campaigns, genocide, raids, pursuits, and the like, along with select western US military forts. IN PROGRESS. Forgotten Fights, by Michno and Michno (2008), thru AZ; FortTours.com for Texas fights, by county.

Red River War
Red River Battle, Texas

Top Old Cherokee Towns


Cherokee Nation 1746

Old Cherokee Towns

Top Eastern Indian Removal


1836 Removal Map
Maps of Land Assigned to the "Emigrant" Indians (1836)

Cherokee Trail of Tears (Northern Route)

Choctaw Trail of Tears
Choctaw Trail of Tears


TopPowwows, Festivals and Conferences

 

Powwow

Indian Powwows, Festivals and Conferences
(approx. 75)


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Calendar of US Native American Powwows and other Indian festivals and conferences, starting with 2008 Powwows and catching up to today. IN PROGRESS.

Bodmer Hidatsa
Two Ravens, Hidatsa, by Karl Bodmer (1834)


Top Indian Casinos and Gaming

Casinos

Indian Casinos and Gaming
(approx. 600)


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Casinos and other gaming operations by Native American tribes (blue; green is non-Indian). IN PROGRESS.

Indian Gaming Magazine

Top Indian Art of Native America

McKenney and Hall

Indian Art of Native America
(approx. 150)


View Indian Art of Native America in a larger map


Top Indian Bibliograpghy -- Online Books

 

The links below open onto online books with full-text that can be read online or downloaded in pdf, epub, txt, and other formats, consisting of general and specific Indian histories of tribes, and Indian-white conflict, Indian biographies, cultural and thnographic studies, archaeological studies, Indian mission and education history, exploration and settlement and military campaigns, art works concerning Indian life, popular works, and more. The Google Map is below:

Indian Online Bibliography (1)
(approx. 1000)


View Indian Online Bibliography (1) in a larger map

Indian Online Bibliography (2)
(approx. 550)


View Indian Online Bibliography (2) in a larger map

Indian Online Bibliography (3)
(approx. 375)


View Indian Online Bibliography (3) in a larger map

These links will be organized in due time. The above is a Google Map for the books and markers placing the books in appropriate locations and topics on Google Earth, and additional references of books and articles of items not available in full-text online but available for purchase will be added later.

Others added since the above.

Backtrack to the Historical Narrative! Page 1 of 2.
Bodmer
Bodmer
Bodmer
Bodmer

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