Let's Go to the Map

Let's Go to the Map!

Of the map resources we have referenced so far, I found Indian County to be very comprehensive. It is produced as part of the Indian and Oklahoma Territory Genealogy Project.

OK/ITGenWeb was created so that people could explore and prove their Native American ancestry.  In addition, it is a wonderful tool for those who would like learn more about the timelines and history of the First Peoples of the United Sates.  Using a map based reference can be helpful to the visual learner. The collection of pages is subtitled for easy reference.   The large amount of information and the user friendly subtitles create a very informative tool. Sections on trails and roads, cultural areas and state links have simple breakdowns to the many linked pages.  The pages on migrations, removals, postal routes and timeline maps give a linear look at the histories.  The page on the 1900 Territorial Census offers those looking for ancestry lines an understandable breakdown of the census data.

The trail and roads page has extensive links to help understand the travel paths used prior to and early in the contact period.  Starting with the list of native trails, it builds on the history of cattle trails and wagon roads and how they evolved during migrations and removals of the Native Communities. When I consider the complexity of our modern day road and rail system, I am saddened to think of how much horrific history lies under our asphalt.

When looking through the pages, I was surprised at the different facts and information that struck me (I guess I am more of a visual learner than I thought.)  On the timeline page I read through their explanation of the words "Indian Territory" and "Indian Country."  This solidified my understanding of how Native Peoples view the history and changes my perspective of how important vocabulary is for this discussion.  What an interesting thing to learn from a map based reference!


http://www.okgenweb.org/~itgenweb/itprojects/index.htm
http://www.okgenweb.org/~itgenweb/
*This ongoing endeavor labels which parts are still under construction so you are aware of resources that might change.