Good morning!

Two years ago, a lot of Native librarians started getting emails from Aaron Carapella, urging them to buy a Tribal Nations Map that he was selling. I got the emails, too, and took a look at it. I did a review and didn't recommend it because of errors I saw in the depiction of Pueblo nations. Since then, Carapella has made similar maps of Alaska, Canada, Mexico, South America, and variants of the North American one.

A few weeks ago he launched a campaign to raise money so he could give every high school in Virginia a copy of the Native American Nations map. He is characterizing the map as accurate, so I revisited his maps and found that, although he had revised it, it is now worse than it was before. 

I wrote a second review and have been adding comments to it, provided to me by other Native and non-Native scholars who have looked at the maps. I'll continue to add that feedback. 

Here's my review. Please share it with others. Carapella's project is ambitious, and for that I'd like to give him credit, but he's also been dismissive of Native input. The sheer scope of what he is trying to do is a clear indicator that he needed a lot of help. 

I know that some libraries purchase items with the idea that even if it is flawed, it is better than nothing. Sometimes, though, the flawed character of something only adds to existing misinformation and ignorance of, in this case, Native peoples. 

Debbie