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Atlas of American Indian Affairs

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Historical atlases have long been prized reference tools for historians of the American West. They permit a wealth of information to be depicted on each page and the maps included in them have the ability to communicate not only stark spatial features but also a wide range of other types of historical detail. Francis Paul Prucha's "Atlas of American Indian Affairs" is a most welcome addition to this aspect of historical study. Long a leading historian of the Indian experience in America, Prucha now captures with great comprehension the spatial dimensions of both the historical and contemporary events of Native Americans.

This atlas consists of 109 maps divided into ten individual sections and presented chronologically. Collectively they illustrate quite well the westward movement of the Indian frontier in the nineteenth century and the continued importance of Indian ethnicity in the Twentieth. There are maps relating to tribal lands and culture areas, census information, land cessions, reservations, the Indian experience in different regions of America, the Indian wars, and cultural aspects such as Indian agency locations, Indian schools, and Indian hospitals. Prucha has kept the narrative in this book to a minimum--including only a short preface, introductory statement to each of the ten major sections, and an outstanding explanation of themes in explanatory references at the end of the book. The philosophy that less is more paid off in this book as the individual maps are generally quite easy to understand and pack a wealth of information. For example, I was especially interested to follow chronologically Indian population statistics as compiled in the census from 1890 through 1980, as well as urban Indian populations between 1960 and 1980. The growth and diffusion of American Indians throughout the continental United States during the period since World War II was especially intriguing.

For all that such a capable work as this has to recommend it, maps intrinsically have limitations. Only so much information can be displayed both in any given map and in any atlas. The question of what topics to cover, the amount of data to include, and how best to display it for ready interpretation are challenging issues. Overall, Prucha has done a commendable job of this.