Letters to the Editor: Response to David Imus

Dan Cole

I have no argument with the concerns David Imus raised in issues #1 and #2 in his letter, although the index tri-lingual title reads “Native American Reservations – Reservas de Indios Americanos – Réserves d’Indiens d’Amérique.” So obviously, some consistency is warranted since the Spanish and French translate as “American Indian Reservations.”

Regarding issue #3, given space constraints, I assume that Mr. Imus had a square mile figure below which he would symbolize the polygons as points; as well as a lower square mile figure below which he would not symbolize tiny reservations at all. A note should be included in his index for Native American Reservations indicating what these areal cutoffs are. And due to the effects of allotment and alienation, his last sentence is not unique to Umatilla Reservation; rather, it is actually applicable to many other reservations (especially in the Great Plains) that are depicted as polygons.

Concerning Native American lands, a quick overview of the map revealed the following additional problems:

  1. The Havasupai point should be moved to the northwest since it borders the Hualapai Reservation and the Colorado River.
  2. Portions of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation are labeled as “U O I R.” Since I R is not defined in the abbreviations, I suggest replacing it with “U O Res.”
  3. The Ute Mountain Reservation does not appear as a polygon or a point but instead is included in the Southern Ute Reservation, which is is too large, so those boundaries need to be corrected.
  4. The polygon for the Wind River Reservation needs to be corrected: the gap on the east side should be closed since the reservation has not been legally diminished by the courts. That gap area in the east is jointly administered by the tribes and the Bureau of Reclamation. Check the National Map viewer at viewer.nationalmap.gov/viewer/.
  5. The Lake Traverse Reservation is incorrectly labeled as the Sisseton-Wahpeton Reservation. See http://www.swonsn.gov.
  6. The shapes of the Rocky Boys and Zuni reservations do not look correct when compared to those seen at the National Map Viewer.

Concerning the fourth issue that Mr. Imus raised in his letter, when I went to the Yakama Nation website, their map legend provided the name “Yakama Nation Reservation” (www.yakamanation-nsn.gov/docs/CededMap0001.pdf).

As for issue #5, I think that Mr. Imus is on the right track to include the addition of the two missing reservations in Nebraska. Given that, he may decide to add more such as the Oneida in Wisconsin and the Big Cypress and Miccosukee reservations in Florida.

Lastly, I cited the press release only in the first three of nine paragraphs of my review. And as I stated in the last paragraph, The Essential Geography is an excellent map and I recommend its use in classrooms and elsewhere, but its use should be in conjunction with other single-theme maps.