Event Title
Passages Across the Plateau
Start Date
28-2-2015 10:30 AM
Description
This presentation is intended to illustrate and illuminate how ArcGIS can be used to visualize the connections between protohistoric and historic spatial stories in the Inland Northwest around the Camas Prairie and Palouse regions of Idaho and Washington. The project’s broader goals are as follows: visualize significant indigenous regions of subsistence and residence in the late pre-historic and protohistoric period, uncover spatial connections among them, and show how European and European-American road and survey work interacted with those people and sites. It pays particular attention to the work and surveys associated with the construction of the Fort Walla Walla to Fort Benton wagon road (the so-called Mullan Road).
A key story and analytical ambition of the project was to discover the way in which Native Americans shaped European-American encounters and routes across the Bitterroot, Coeur D’Alene, Saint Joe, Beaverhead, and Centennial ranges in modern northeastern Washington and Idaho during the 1850s. Did Native American informants shape the presentation of their knowledge to direct road construction away from sensitive subsistence sites? Was this especially acute in the areas where there were a diversity of approaches to the high passes? Did the routing of the Mullan Road reflect the shortest/easiest route or some other combination of factors? What natural resources and features interested the European-American newcomers? How did these resources and features also influence road construction and usage by European-Americans?
GIS applications more typically associated with anthropology are especially suited to answering these historical questions. By layering historical maps and reconstructions of subsistence areas over modern spatial representations, the story will more effectively reflect the mindsets and concerns of both cartographers, topographical, and construction engineers and their Native American informants. Native American presentations about the difficulty of the routes across the Bitterroot ranges clearly reflected mixed motives both to profit from European-American activity on the route but also to limit interference in existing subsistence and trading networks. Furthermore, European-American road builders were constrained by not only topography but also resources required for travel — especially by pack animal — and proximity to potential mineralogical and agricultural resources. By reconstructing the route, it is possible to more precisely locate historic geographic regions whose toponymy has shifted since the middle of the nineteenth century. Finally, the information needed to answer these questions can also be used to reconstruct the historic geography of the area from traditional names to land use patterns and more in a way that might be engaging to the public and scholars in other disciplines.
Recommended Citation
Hanson, Clayton (2015). "Passages Across the Plateau," Digital Humanities Symposium.
Passages Across the Plateau
This presentation is intended to illustrate and illuminate how ArcGIS can be used to visualize the connections between protohistoric and historic spatial stories in the Inland Northwest around the Camas Prairie and Palouse regions of Idaho and Washington. The project’s broader goals are as follows: visualize significant indigenous regions of subsistence and residence in the late pre-historic and protohistoric period, uncover spatial connections among them, and show how European and European-American road and survey work interacted with those people and sites. It pays particular attention to the work and surveys associated with the construction of the Fort Walla Walla to Fort Benton wagon road (the so-called Mullan Road).
A key story and analytical ambition of the project was to discover the way in which Native Americans shaped European-American encounters and routes across the Bitterroot, Coeur D’Alene, Saint Joe, Beaverhead, and Centennial ranges in modern northeastern Washington and Idaho during the 1850s. Did Native American informants shape the presentation of their knowledge to direct road construction away from sensitive subsistence sites? Was this especially acute in the areas where there were a diversity of approaches to the high passes? Did the routing of the Mullan Road reflect the shortest/easiest route or some other combination of factors? What natural resources and features interested the European-American newcomers? How did these resources and features also influence road construction and usage by European-Americans?
GIS applications more typically associated with anthropology are especially suited to answering these historical questions. By layering historical maps and reconstructions of subsistence areas over modern spatial representations, the story will more effectively reflect the mindsets and concerns of both cartographers, topographical, and construction engineers and their Native American informants. Native American presentations about the difficulty of the routes across the Bitterroot ranges clearly reflected mixed motives both to profit from European-American activity on the route but also to limit interference in existing subsistence and trading networks. Furthermore, European-American road builders were constrained by not only topography but also resources required for travel — especially by pack animal — and proximity to potential mineralogical and agricultural resources. By reconstructing the route, it is possible to more precisely locate historic geographic regions whose toponymy has shifted since the middle of the nineteenth century. Finally, the information needed to answer these questions can also be used to reconstruct the historic geography of the area from traditional names to land use patterns and more in a way that might be engaging to the public and scholars in other disciplines.
