Identifying Indigenous

Communities:
Digital Atlas of Indian Towns

Dorothy Tanck de Estrada Presented by: Caverlee Cary

El Colegio de México GIS Center, UC Berkeley
__
“Culture and Intellectual Property in the Global Community”
Pacific Neighborhood Consortium Annual Conference
University of Hawaii, Manoa, November 1, 2005
Outline
“Devotional Landscapes” collaborative project
between UC Berkeley GIS Center, El Colegio de
Mexico, and El Colegio Mexiquense
Defining an Indian town in New Spain
Creating a base map for New Spain
Creating a gazetteer of Indian towns using
available digital sources
Additional sources for locating towns
Historic maps
 Digital Project inspired by:
Atlas ilustrado de los pueblos de indios
de la Nueva España en 1800
(Illustrated Atlas of the Indian Towns of
New Spain in 1800), published fall 2005
by
Dorothy Tanck de Estrada Jorge Luis Miranda
El Colegio de México El Colegio de Mexiquense
“Devotional Landscapes: Mapping the
Shrines and Saints of New Spain”
Demonstration of On-line GIS for the Humanities
Selected aspect of book research: Imprint of
imported Catholicism on the colonized territories
Aspect with contemporary significance: continued
importance of religion in Mexico and Mexican
diaspora
Potential for linkage through GIS with similar
projects on saints and shrines
Made possible by a grant to the GIS Center at UC
Berkeley from the University of California Mexus
Program
Devotional Landscapes: Workshop,
Tutorial, and Digital Project
Workshop: Bring participants together
Tutorial: Introduce Mexico participants
to ESRI products and TimeMap
Digital Project: Map submitted data
using GIS
Author’s data base includes
patron saint of each Indian town
Identification number of the state
Identification number of the municipality
Identification number of the place
Present name
Population
Longitude
Latitude
Altitude
Saint’s name
Town’s “last name”
Source
Subdelegation
Intendancy
Reference
Saints Images
Drawn from
nineteenth century
“holy cards” collection
of the Soumaya
Museum, Mexico City
Example: San Francisco
Attribute table
Digital project follows book premises
and definitions
Time frozen circa 1800
Gazetteer of Indian towns (mapped in TimeMap)
Officially defined Indian towns only (not Spanish towns,
mining camps, villas)
Only within the Intendencies and three military
government districts (not inner and outer territories)
Patron saints
of Indian towns

San Mateo Tila, Chiapas

 Official definition:
What is an Indian town?

360 Indian inhabitants

What is an Indian town?

Communal lands
What is an Indian town?

Consecrated Church
 What is an Indian town?

Corporative entity
recognized by the
government

Indian municpal
authorities elected
annually

Municipal treasury
(“caja de comunidad”)
Map showing churches and
community building
Illustrations of community buildings in Indian Towns
Creating the Base Map: Intendencies,
military districts, subdelegations
Peter Gerhard’s
polygons
(“Geographic History
of New Spain” and
other works) were
traced using a
digitizer to create a
preliminary digital
map of New Spain,
showing the
intendancies and 231
subdelegations
Intendancies and government districts assembled
in MapInfo by combining subdelegations
Creating the Gazetteer of
Indian Towns
Digital government data (96.4% of Indian
town locations)
Printed archival sources (2%)
Detective work: seeking information from
individuals, on contemporary maps, through
site visits (1.6%)
Geographic regions in the Atlas
Intendancies and Number of Number of
Military Indian Subdelegations
Governments Towns
Intendancies and México 1,251 43
Puebla 742 23
Military Michoacán 257 29
Governments Yucatán 224 12
Oaxaca 873 21
16 Veracruz 160 11
Guadalajara 240 25
Guanajuato 40 5

Subdelegations San Luis Potosí

Zacatecas
42
40
6
9

231 Durango 172 24

Sonora-Sinaloa 138 7
Chiapas 106 11
Tlaxcala 114 1
Indian Towns Nayarit-Colotán 36 1
Tabasco 58 1
4,493
Digital sources used in the project
ITER (Integración Territorial),
2000. (INEGI)
SISTEMA PARA LA CONSULTA
DE INFORMACION CENSAL
(SCINCE). XI CENSO GENERAL
DE POBLACION Y VIVIENDA,
1990. (INEGI)
AREAS METROPOLITANAS.
INFORMACION ESTADISTICA Y
CARTOGRAFICA (INEGI)
CARTA TOPOGRAFICA. SERIE I.
ESCALA 1 : 1 000 000. (INEGI)
SOMBREADOS DE LOS MODELOS
DIGITALES DE ELEVACION.
ESCALA 1:250 000. (INEGI)
 Process for locating the Indian towns in
computer programs
List of the Indian towns in primary sources

If town is found
Search for the towns in INEGI
If town is not found
Search for the towns in other sources

Locating the town in GIS

and registering the information in
the data base

Designing the final version of the map

Steps for locating a town, using
INEGI programs
Two layers are
displayed on the
screen:
Places in the INEGI
program
corresponding to
Yucatan
Projection of the
subdelegations of
Yucatan
Steps for locating a town, using
INEGI programs
The places within a given
subdelegation are selected
Steps for locating a town, using
INEGI programs
The places within the
subdelegation are
displayed in
alphabetical order

A search is made for

the name of the town;
when found, it is
marked
Steps for locating a town, using
INEGI programs
The town selected is
displayed on the map
with a red circle
The location of the
town is transferred to
the cartograhic base
The information
concerning the town
is registered in the
data base
 Fuente
Intendencias y gobiernos Pueblos
militares de indios INEGI Otra
Aproximado
fuente
CHIAPAS 109 101 6 2
DURANGO 167 159 6 2
GUADALAJARA 251 242 8 1
GUANAJUATO 41 41 0 0
MEXICO 1248 1195 17 36
MICHOACAN 254 248 6 0
NAYARIT y COLOTLAN 34 34 0 0
OAXACA 871 847 13 11
PUEBLA 731 704 12 15
SAN LUIS POTOSI 45 41 4 0
SONORA-SINALOA 138 129 7 2
TABASCO 53 53 0 0
TLAXCALA 110 107 2 1
VERACRUZ 152 150 0 2
YUCATAN 224 214 9 1
ZACATECAS 40 39 1 0

4468 4304 91 73
Total (100%) (96.4%) (2.0%) (1.6%)
(Porcentaje)
Contemporary sources
Historical sources used in locating the
Indian towns, 1746
First Atlas of Independent Mexico
by A. García Cubas: 1858
A. García Cubas’Atlas
Geographic and Historical
Dictionary, 1888
Locating Primary Sources
Example of a Primary Source
Financial Documents
State of Yucatan, 1858
Selection of illustrative historic
maps
San Juan Teotlalco, Chiautla, Puebla, 1742
San Pedro Tonayan, Xalapa, Veracruz, ca. 1680
Santa María Guelaxé, Zimatlán, Oaxaca, 1690
San Nicolas Tenazcalco, Chietla, Puebla, 1715
San Miguel Talea y San Juan Tabaa, Villa Alta, Oaxaca, 1754
CD to accompany print publication,
including Indian towns gazetteer
 Inquiries:
dtanck@colmex.mx
ccary@berkeley.edu
Indian Towns in New Spain in 1800:
4,493 Pueblos de Indios
Mapped Indian towns
 Supplementary data
Longitude and
latitude
Legend shows source
for town location:

• Subdelegation
names
Steps for locating a town, using
INEGI programs
A legend is made for
each map containing:
Scale
Territorial divisions
Symbols for Indian
towns, according to
source of information
Indian population
Geographic reference
of intendancy in
relation to New Spain
Development of visualization:
Chiapas
Second experiment, showing
elevation: Chiapas
Elevation data:
Chiapas
Lightening topographic
layer
Fifth variation: combining beige and
gray layers
Initial research on indigenous populations in New
Spain, including dynamics of religion, government,
and education, by History Professor Dorothy Tanck
de Estrada
Map of the provinces, or Intendancies, used in
the book on education
Intendancies and Subdelegations of New
Spain
Proceso
Se crea un mapa
esquemático con :
Simbología Básica
Simbología Temática
Pueblos de indios
Población
indígena
Escala
Referencia
geográfica dentro de
la Nueva España
 Steps for locating a town, using
INEGI programs

Example of a completed map: the 224 Indian towns of Yucatan

The 231 subdelegations of New
Spain in 1800
 Fuente
Intendencias y gobiernos Pueblos
militares de indios INEGI Otra
Aproximado
fuente
CHIAPAS 109 101 6 2
DURANGO 167 159 6 2
GUADALAJARA 251 242 8 1
GUANAJUATO 41 41 0 0
MEXICO 1248 1195 17 36
MICHOACAN 254 248 6 0
NAYARIT y COLOTLAN 34 34 0 0
OAXACA 871 847 13 11
PUEBLA 731 704 12 15
SAN LUIS POTOSI 45 41 4 0
SONORA-SINALOA 138 129 7 2
TABASCO 53 53 0 0
TLAXCALA 110 107 2 1
VERACRUZ 152 150 0 2
YUCATAN 224 214 9 1
ZACATECAS 40 39 1 0

4468 4304 91 73
Total (100%) (96.4%) (2.0%) (1.6%)
(Porcentaje)
Indian towns in Puebla
Structure of the data base
Identification number of the state
Identification number of the municipality
Identification number of the place
Present name
Population
Longitude
Latitude
Altitude
Saint’s name
Town’s “last name”
Subdelegation
Intendancy
Source
Reference