MY JOURNEY WITH THIS WORK
In 2010 I attended the annual Alberta Archaeological Society Conference in the then-old Royal Alberta Museum, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Historian, Ted Binnema, from the University of Northern British Columbia, presented a paper about historic Plains Blackfoot maps. His talk fascinated me, especially one of the maps, drawn by Blackfoot leader Ki oo cus (Little Bear) for explorer and trader Peter Fidler in 1801. This map covers a vast territory and traversing it either by foot or horseback seemed almost unimaginable. It stretched from Buffalo Lake Alberta south of Edmonton to Montana in the United States, from the Saskatchewan – Alberta border to the foot of the Rocky Mountains. Ted had been researching these maps since 2000. He wanted to identify the places Ki oo cus had marked on them and their significance to the Blackfoot People.
I was hooked. I began searching for the landmarks on Ki oo cus’s map and whether any archaeological sites were associated with them. Ted and I corresponded and shared our knowledge about the maps and for many years that’s how things stood. It wasn’t until 2020 that Francois Lanoe, University of Arizona, who was also interested in the Blackfoot and Gros Ventre maps, suggested we collaborate and publish our research.
THE BOOK, ‘CARTOGRAPHIC POETRY’, UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA PRESS
The photograph on the front cover of our book is taken from the UNESCO World Heritage Site, Áísínai’pi (Writing-on-Stone), Alberta, Canada, looking southeast toward the Cut to yis (Sweetgrass Hills) in Montana. These hills, depicted on several Blackfoot maps were of considerable significance to the Blackfoot People, as was Writing-on-Stone. The second image above is on the back cover of the book. It shows the highly revered Nin nase tok que (Chief Mountain), Montana, U.S.A.
Below is an example of one of the Blackfoot maps. Ki oo cus drew this one for Peter Fidler in 1801 while at the Hudson’s Bay Company Chesterfield House which stood near the confluence of the Red Deer and South Saskatchewan Rivers. I was confused when I first saw this map. It wasn’t to scale and I was’t unaccustomed to viewing a map where only landforms were depicted. I realized how reliant we have become on our roads and signs to travel. We no longer depended on landmarks to guide us. We no longer connected to the land as the Blackfoot did with their stories about these places.
When Ted proposed as part of the book’s title, Cartographic Poetry, I was baffled. What did these maps have to do with poetry? Ted, however, explained that “Poetry is language condensed; Blackfoot cartography is landscape distilled.” When you first view the maps you will see that they are minimalist, to say the least. They contain only the places the Blackfoot found important for finding their way in their territories. They remembered them by anchoring their stories to them.
We photographed some places depicted on these maps for this book. When I first stood on top of Omahkokata (Gopher Head Hill) south of Stettler, Alberta, I was transfixed by the beautiful vista stretching out around me. For the Blackfoot, this hill meant much more than a beautiful view. Here once rested a stone Napi (old man) figure and perhaps with it a story, both now lost, that tied the Blackfoot People to this hill.
I hope you enjoy our book.
