1.
There are many things that initially caught my
attention. The bordered writings are interesting in they explain the language
(French), how there is no longitude, and to whom the map is sketched for, and
that this may be the first French map of Mississippi ever. Another thing is the
dispersed drawings of the animals across the map that dictates what animal can
be found in that area. In the south are moose/elk and as one moves north
buffalos and camels become evident. The small depictions of the trees also
illustrate where forestland and wilderness areas are. A few of the smaller but more
important details I noticed were the many houses drawn to symbolize villages,
along with a few smaller houses around what appears to be a cross. This set-up
demonstrates a religious area that practices the way of the Lord. On the far
left of the screen towards the south there is a man standing with what seems to
be a bayonet, protecting or hunting that place. The map
also contains the names of the many Indian Nations on the eastern side of the
Mississippi River.
2.
This map tells the story of an area with a lot
of different animal presences accompanied by many Indian nations that lived off
of the land and the surrounding wildlife. From reading the borders there is an
assumption some Indians live there that actually do not and an interesting discovery
is that this map and the placement of all of the pictures dictates that the map
actually drawn before the year of 1682. Value is placed on animals providing
service and food along with some stress on religion. I’ve always been taught
about the Indians being people that made well off of what the land had to
offer, as those things appear plentiful in the picture of the map.
3.
Reading Babb’s article again, I found a quote
that is perfect and fits this map in an amazing way. The quote says, “What this
map displays is a land that is not yet English, one still the domain of its
native peoples”. There is no
better way to describe this map. It shows Indians still dominate this area at
this time and that they are still living in peace and serenity while making the
most of the land and its resources.
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?gmd:70:./temp/~ammem_KelO::
Well thought-out post, Allison. You had a plethora of interesting details and observations, and one that I found common throughout many of the maps was the number of drawings of animals that represented the animal populations in those places. That can still be found in our maps today! That is interesting to me because many of the other things portrayed (religion, villages, etc.) are no longer around in our maps. Thoughtful post!
ReplyDeletePal!
ReplyDeleteVery interesting map post! Throughout my map searches, I never found one that was locating where different types of animals were found, but that is very neat, and a fun detail to the map! I agree with your concurrence to Babb's statement. Clearly, this map was stil dedicated to the Indians, being it was one of the first, and that it still valued a lot in the world of nature. This map includes a lot of awesome detail for being one of the first. I think it is intersting how well the started off when trying to develop such resourceful tools.
Good job!
~Div