Map Errors and Indians of the Carolinas

Abstract

Sometimes scholars minimize the importance of accuracy on maps that accompany their publications. Errors of omission are common, and perhaps the most frustrating. However, it is maps that contain errors of toponymy that are most frequently found in the literature (Map 1). Usually such errors are justified by the author of a paper claiming locations shown are approximate or "in the ballpark." This essay and our revised map address errors in a map accompanying the Southeast Handbook of North American Indians (Volume 14: 2004, p. 329), a publication that contains numerous errors in the siting or naming of Indian places (hereafter referred to as "the Handbook map"). For example, the Indian settlements of Four Holes and White Oak are placed incorrectly, Two other Indian settlements (Antioch and Shiloh) are named, but do not exist where they are located on the Handbook map. Two tribes, the federally recognized Catawba in South Carolina and the Lumbee, the largest tribe east of the Mississippi River, are not mentioned on the Handbook map. It is also unclear why the Cherokee is sited in south central North Carolina.