Movement and Native American Landscapes: A Comparative Approach

Abstract

Landscapes are created by people through their experience and engagement with the world around them and through their activities and movements on the ground. Human groups humanize an environment by mapping themselves onto the landscape using their knowledge of specific landforms and waterways, resources including minerals, plants and animals, and human settlements. Once established, this human imprint transforms the natural landscape into a cultural landscape and establishes a pattern of land use which can persist for generations, if not millennia. The objective of this paper is to examine and compare native perceptions and uses of landscapes using historic maps, established travel and trade routes, and ethnographic data on settlement locations for groups occupying the boreal forest and northwesern Plains of Canada. The data indicate that native perceptions of the landscape are rooted in the landforms and vegetation present in an area as well as the transportation technology available to the group. Although movement and vegetation influence the selection of landmarks on the landscape, mythology and oral traditions describe the origin and spiritual relationships of features on the landscape.