Saturday 27 January 2007

Resources: Geography and Culture


Regarding the local geographical-historical-cultural cognizance which should be preserved and promulgated everywhere...

One book "everyone" "should" read is Where the Lightning Strikes, by Peter Nabokov

(From Publishers Weekly (via amazon )
According to UCLA professor Nabokov (Native American Testimony), the places that American Indians call sacred may be as wondrous as "cliffs spilling with waterfalls" and as humble as "caves splattered with bat excrement." What makes them important is not postcard-perfect beauty but the beliefs a group has about "what lies within or beneath what the eye can see."

This excellent volume presents the "biographies" of 16 such places, from Maine to California. Through them, Nabokov surveys a wide range of Native American spiritual practices and reveals how intrusions into Native Americans' land have also constituted assaults upon their religious beliefs. Indeed, many of the assaults continue to this day: after the disruptions caused by war, disease, missionary activity and forced relocation came those of hydroelectric dams, agribusiness, parking lots and extreme sports buffs.
Nabokov's deeply informed text is enhanced by first-person accounts of his visits to the locations and by his spirited commentary on the writings of other ethnographers, naturalists, linguists and anthropologists. Sentimental clichés and monolithic views are dismantled along the way. Each of Nabokov's biographies can be savored separately; taken together, they demonstrate both that there is "more to some American places than [meets] the eye" and that Native Americans have known that for a very long time.

also have a look at this -->
tremendous web reference :









thirdly, ILL or buy the landmark
A Sto:lo-Coast Salish Historical Atlas, edited by Keith Thor Carlson and produced with the full cooperation of the Sto: lo Nation

Indigenous geography: Invisible history of tribes gets a hearing

Posted: May 11, 2004
by:
Jerry Reynolds / Indian Country Today

WASHINGTON - Indians have often been termed the invisible citizens of the Americas, but they have risen dramatically on the national visibility horizon in recent years. But the invisible history of tribes over the past 500-plus years has only begun to be appreciated.
One of the most notable recent examples of making Native history visible has been "A Sto:lo Coast Salish Historical Atlas." The many Geographic Information Systems maps therein correct the record and restore Native identity so convincingly that they may alter history in Canada, where title to the entire province of British Columbia is contested.
Though the GIS-generated maps make up only a portion of the knowledge conveyed in the atlas, they are among its most stunning features. The Sto:lo Nation has mapped and charted the traditional transport arteries, settlement patterns, first-contact accounts, pre-contact trade routes and terms of commerce, a variety of environmental conditions and resource indices, glaciation cycles, family migrations, kinship holdings and ownership transfer protocols of the potlatch, Halqemeyem language place names with historical and mythic significance and English translations as well.
The book is a model of depth and quality in the assertion of cultural identity...[snip]



Labels: ,

1 Comments:

Blogger yesIah garvey said...

regarding

> the GIS-generated maps

here's something to know about:

The Aboriginal Mapping Network
"The Aboriginal Mapping Network (AMN) was established in 1998 as a joint initiative of the Gitxsan and Ahousaht First Nations and Ecotrust Canada. Over the years the network has grown from its humble beginnings as a knowledge sharing forum for local First Nations technicians, leaders and decision makers to become a valuable strategic resource for practitioners of traditional knowledge mapping around the world. The AMN now has a mandate to support aboriginal and indigenous peoples facing similar issues, such as land claims, treaty negotiations and resource development, with common tools, such as traditional use studies, GIS mapping and other information systems."

1/30/2007 9:38 a.m.  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home