Anticolonial Mapping and the 1877 Nez Perce War

Abstract

In 1927, historian Lucullus V. McWhorter traveled with veterans of the 1877 Nez Perce War to key sites from the conflict. Part of the research material generated from the trip included several maps co-created by Nez Perce War veterans, today housed in Washington State University’s Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections Library as part of the Lucullus V. McWhorter Collection. These maps, many drawn in the tradition of American Indian ledger art, provided spatial details of key battle sites and visual representations of specific incidents that occurred throughout the Nez Perce War. In this paper, I argue that these maps constitute examples of Indigenous anticolonial mapping and that they enabled McWhorter to communicate the veterans’ version of events that transpired throughout the war. This, in contrast to other accounts of the period which tended to disregard the white settler theft of lands that prompted Nez Perce resistance and to justify the colonial violence of the U.S. settler state.

 

1927年, 历史学家Lucullus V. McWhorter与1877年美国内兹珀斯战争的老兵一起, 访问了冲突的主要地点。这次旅行产生的部分研究资料, 包括了内兹珀斯战争老兵共同绘制的几张地图。作为Lucullus V. McWhorter收藏的一部分, 这些地图被存放于华盛顿州立大学手稿、档案和特别收藏图书馆。其中的许多地图, 采用了印第安传统的“账簿艺术”绘制, 提供了主要战斗地点的空间细节以及内兹珀斯战争某些事件的视觉表达。我认为, 这些地图是土著反殖民制图的实例, 使得McWhorter能够传递老兵对战争中各个事件的看法。这与该时期的其它报道形成了鲜明对比, 这些报道无视引发内兹珀斯人抵抗的白人定居者盗窃土地行为, 为美国定居者国家的殖民暴力辩护。

 

En 1927, el historiador Lucullus V. McWhorter viajó con los veteranos de la Guerra Nez Perce de 1877 a lugares clave del conflicto. Una parte del material de investigación generado en el viaje incluyó varios mapas creados conjuntamente por los veteranos de aquella guerra, ahora conservados en la Biblioteca de Manuscritos, Archivos y Colecciones Especiales de la Universidad Estatal de Washington, como parte de la Colección de Lucullus V. McWhorter. Estos mapas, muchos de ellos dibujados de acuerdo con la tradición del arte de los indios norteamericanos, suministraron los detalles espaciales sobre los campos de batalla más importantes, lo mismo que representaciones visuales de incidentes específicos que ocurrieron durante la Guerra Nez Perce. En este escrito, considero que estos mapas constituyen ejemplos de la cartografía anticolonial indígena y que tales piezas le permitieron a McWhorter comunicar la versión de los eventos que ocurrieron durante esa guerra. Esto contrasta con otros recuentos de esa época que tendieron a ignorar el robo de tierras por los colonos blancos, que desencadenaron la resistencia Nez Perce, y a justificar la violencia colonial del estado colonial americano.

Keywords:

• anticolonial mapping
• historical geography
• Indigenous geographies
• Indian wars
• U.S. West.

 :

• 反殖民制图
• 历史地理
• 土著地理
• 印第安战争
• 美国西部

 :

• cartografía anticolonial
• geografía histórica
• geografías indígenas
• guerras de los indios
• Oeste de los EE.UU

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am thankful for all the people who have shared writing space with me, and who have listened to me talk through these ideas. My sincere gratitude to the Washington State University Manuscripts Archives and Special Collections Library for permissions to use the images included here and for doing the important preservation work that they do. Last but not least, I am grateful to Josh Inwood for his encouragement through this process, and for the thoughtful feedback I received from two anonymous reviewers.

Notes

1 Throughout this article, I’ve named specific tribal affiliations to the best of my ability. When speaking in broad terms, or in places where I couldn’t determine tribal affiliation, I’ve used the terms “Indigenous” or “American Indian.” .

2 “Nez Perce” is the name historically used for the Nimíipuu. In keeping with the historical sources used for this paper and the official name of the Nez Perce Tribe, I’ve retained the term Nez Perce.

3 Bird Alighting, often referred to in historical sources as Peo Peo Tholekt.

4 Many Wounds, also known as Sam Lott.

5 Yellow Wolf.

6 Multiple names and spellings for each of these men appear in the sources used in this article. For continuity, I have relied on the names and spellings used in the Plateau People’s Portal, a collaboration between the Center for Digital Scholarship at Washington State University and several Columbia Plateau tribes, including the Nez Perce. For more information, and to see pictures from the 1927 trip to the Big Hole battlefield, visit https://plateauportal.libraries.wsu.edu/.

7 The Wallowa Valley in eastern Oregon was Joseph’s home territory. The Nez Perce were given 30 days to move during a period when rivers were high and it was dangerous to bring horses and cattle across, many had to be left behind.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Carrie Mott

CARRIE MOTT is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geographic and Environmental Sciences at the University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, USA. E-mail: [email protected]. Among other things, her research interests include the everyday processes associated with a white supremacist settler colonial takeover.