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Cartographers have an opportunity now to make fundamental changes in the direction and scope of academic cartography. As a catalyst for change, J.B.Harley's proposal for a 'postmodern' cartography is important for text-based societies like ours, but it will restrict our studies unnecessarily if taken alone. I provide a critique of postmodernist thought as applied to cartography, focusing especially on its inability to account for mapping in non-textual, non-Cartesian cultures where action and process are often crucial. Consequently, I propose a process approach to cartography as an additional basis for reorienting the field. Finally, I couple this approach with map deconstruction to interpret recent Inuit (Eskimo) toponymic mapping as part of a lengthy cross-cultural dialogue about Arctic North America.

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Some current government and private-sector mapping practices continue the long history of assimilationist policy toward American Indians living in the United States. I use examples of recently mapped Zuni, Hopi, and Cheyenne lands, two of which involve GIS, to demonstrate the roles cultural myths and map technology play in ongoing skirmishes over the meaning of land, language, and religion. A cross-cultural glimpse into Indian ethno-geography is offered as a means to understanding the need for re-thinking the mapping process. Finally, I urge today's cartographic elites to broaden the now-limited ethical debate, and suggest practical methods by which mapping/GIS projects in Indian Country might proceed according to a different ethical standard. Certaines pratiques cartographiques courantes au gouvernement et dans le secteur privé perpétuent la longue histoire de la politique assimilatrice envers les Indiens américains qui vivent aux États-Unis. J'utilise des exemples de terres zuni, hopi et cheyennes récemment cartographiées, dont deux impliquaient des systèmes d'information géographique (SIG), afin de démontrer les rôles que les mythes culturelles et la technologie cartographique jouent dans les escarmouches qui se perpétuent à propos de la signification de terre, langue et religion. On nous offre un aperçu panculturel de l'ethnogéographie indienne comme moyen pour comprendre le besoin de repenser le processus cartographique. Enfin, je presse l'élite cartographique d'aujourd'hui d'élargir le débat d'éthique, limité pour le moment, et je suggère des méthodes pratiques pour que les projets de cartographie et de SIG dans le pays indien puissent se dérouler en suivant une norme d'éthique différente.