There once was a man named Black Goose who lived on the Kiowa-Comanche-Apache (KCA) Reservation in Oklahoma Territory. In the 1890s a group of US attorneys approached him to create a map of the KCA area, for use in legal disputes over the Texas border and KCA Reservation boundaries. His product, a colorful depiction of plains topography, is a rich display of Kiowa experience and history across the landscape.

Geography Professor Dr. Mark Palmer presented Black Goose’s map to students Sarah Frost (senior/geography) and Grace Martinez (junior/biology), as part of a semester-long honors project. Their work has been to analyze and interpret the map, and to explore symbology as a means of storytelling. The original work is with the Smithsonian, but Palmer has a digital copy of it used by the project partners.

Frost and Martinez will present their findings on Friday, Dec. 4 at 1 p.m. in a Geography Colloquium held via Zoom. Everyone is welcome, and the webinar link is "Indigenous Counter Mapping through Art and Oral Traditions." (Passcode: 043980). There will be both a presentation and Q&A session. 

“Attending the presentation is a great way to see the sort of research you can pursue through geography,” says Frost. “The presentation will give the audience some tools they can use to approach maps in their own lives with a more critical lens.”

To read more, click https://geography.missouri.edu/news/art-and-argument-indigenous-counter-mapping-through-art-and-oral-traditions