Dealing with Indigenous Geographic Knowledge Systems like Pictorial Maps

There are numerous ways that indigenous people map the world around them. Indigenous geographic information can be found in songs, stories, rock art, paper maps, sand paintings, and dreams. With the exception of those maps that are represented as written inscriptions, indigenous geographic representations continue to baffle academic scholars who attempt to interpret meaning. This is especially true in relation to historical representations. How do we interpret indigenous geographic information that was created hundreds of years ago? Once indigenous geographic information removed from the cultural context in which it was developed, how might scholars and indigenous communities put fragments of knowledge systems together to make sense of the physical environment or history of places? In this presentation, I would like to present an example of a 19th century Kiowa pictorial map and discuss the geographic knowledge system that clearly presents itself, and ask questions about what might be hidden within the pictorials.