Sometimes (OK, many times) we get some pretty cool stuff sent our way. Earlier this week, someone shot us a new interactive map that tells you what Native American tribes lived on the land where your house (or business, for that matter) sits.
We noodled with it a bit in between deadlines, and it seems that most of our readers probably live on lands that were once occupied by the Wichita. Head towards Austin and you start hitting Tonkawa and Comanche as you hit Waco. Go east towards Terrell and you’re in Tonkawa land.
It appears that mostly Comanche, Wichita, Tonkawa, Caddo, Coahuiltecan, Apache, Kiowa, and Osage Native American tribes claimed huge swaths of Texas at one time.
The map is a labor of love project, it seems, run by Mapster’s Victor Temprano. He says that constant refinements and corrections are coming as users provide input, and he’s also working to provide teachers with discussion points and access to historical context whenever possible. He acknowledges it’s not perfect right now, but that he’s putting together an organizational structure to make it a useful tool for educators and others.
In the meantime, it’s kind of fun to click around on while you’re in a meeting that could’ve been an email. So far I’ve looked up my address, and some former addresses in other states. What do you think?
