1975 McGuinness Pictorial Map of the United States, Indian Tribes

Echo of the Red Power Movement.

This is a 1975 pictorial map of the United States focusing on Native American groups, drawn by Nevada-based artist Bob McGuinness for Hickory, Inc. It was published in the wake of the Red Power movement, which heightened awareness of issues facing Native Americans and reevaluated standard American historical narratives.

A Closer Look

The map covers the Continental United States, using shading to indicate both the ancestral homelands of different Native American tribes, arranged into regional groupings, and the borders of contemporary reservations. Surrounding the map are illustrations of individuals and scenes from tribes across the continent, with some based on late 19th-century photographs.

Historical Context

This map was produced at a pivotal time in the development of Native American identity and a related movement for civil rights. The American Indian Movement (AIM) had been formed in 1968 to confront systemic brutality and the devastating fallout of federal policies. Evolving into the vanguard of the broader Red Power movement, AIM quickly expanded its focus to demand tribal self-determination, the restoration of treaty rights, and cultural revitalization. Throughout the late 1960s and 1970s, the organization drew international media coverage through high-profile, direct-action protests, including the 19-month occupation of Alcatraz Island (1969 -1971), the Trail of Broken Treaties caravan to Washington, D.C. (1972), and the dramatic 71-day armed standoff at Wounded Knee, South Dakota (1973). Though it was ultimately subject to a crackdown, this activism also altered federal policy, contributing to the passage of landmark legislation like the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975, and helped foster a resurgence of Indigenous pride.

Scholarship and public interest regarding Native American history also dramatically increased in the 1960s and 1970s. The Red Power movement forced academia and the broader American public to re-evaluate long-dominant Eurocentric historical narratives that historically cast Indigenous peoples merely as passive victims or obstacles to westward expansion. Seminal publications from the era, such as Dee Brown's Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (1970), captured the public imagination and challenged conventional American historiography. This heightened awareness catalyzed the establishment of the first Native American Studies programs in universities across the United States, shifting the discipline toward legal treaty analysis, oral history preservation, and Indigenous self-representation.

Publication History and Census

This map was drawn by Bob McGuinness, a Nevada-based artist sometimes signing as 'B. B. McGee,' and published by Hickory Inc. in 1975. The map also contains a 1973 copyright for Hickory Plaque Inc., a presumed first edition which seems to be quite rare. A 1976 variant also exists, very similar to the present map but with minor color differences. The 1975 and 1976 editions are cataloged at four institutions in the OCLC, with the present edition only held at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Condition

Good. Some foxing. Pinholes in corners.

References

OCLC 1012115675.