ABSTRACT
Mapping is a means of navigation, narration, and tracing negotiations. As maps have been revised and new maps have been made to fill gaps they become part of connected systems of knowledge. One way to view the western region of North America is as the nexus of Algic, Siouan, Uto-Aztecan, Salishan, and Plateau languages and cultures. Shifting away from these settler terms to reclaim the original identities and ontologies of these Indigenous communities leads to a view of the continent as a living and changing body where a variety of beings and ways of being are equally present. This chapter offers a map of the Indigenous present based on a linguistic and cartographic framework that is based on the land and water.
