Cartographic Encounters: Indigenous Peoples and the Exploration of the New World

In this vital reinterpretation of American history, Short describes how previous accounts of the mapping of the new world have largely ignored the fundamental role played by local, indigenous guides. The exchange of information that resulted from this “cartographic encounter” allowed the native Americans to draw upon their wide knowledge of the land in the hope of gaining a better position among the settlers.

This account offers a radical new understanding of Western expansion and the mapping of the land and will be essential to scholars in cartography and American history.