Native Americans are largely absent from historic maps of Iowa. Where did they live? Did they just disappear into the opaque fog of the blank part of the map? As Americans settled into lands held by natives in the 1800s, early maps may have noted treaty lines, trading posts, and forts, but generally not the location of established villages.
The Historic Indian Location Database (HILD) project uses overlooked historical sources to map American Indian sites in Iowa from the era of the earliest European explorers to the modern period. Its goal is to change Iowa's map from a blank landscape to one populated with villages, camps, and other locations, revealing map that is alive with events and encounters.