México Indígena facts for kids
México Indígena was a special project by the American Geographical Society. It brought together teams of geographers to study the land and people in Mexico, especially focusing on indigenous communities.
The main goal of the project was to map how the "cultural landscape" was changing. This means looking at how people use the land, their traditions, and their way of life. They also wanted to see how natural resources were being protected, especially as large areas of land in Mexico were being sold to private owners.
Peter Herlihy from the University of Kansas led the project. It received money from the U.S. Department of Defense through its Foreign Military Studies Office.
Some groups, including those representing indigenous peoples, criticized the project. They said the project wasn't clear about getting money from the U.S. military. They also worried that the project might have other hidden reasons besides just gathering information for research. The project ran from 2005 to 2008.
What Was México Indígena?
The México Indígena project was the first of several planned efforts to improve the United States government's understanding of geography around the world. Its goal was to create detailed maps of the "digital human terrain." This means making maps that show not just physical features, but also information about people, their cultures, and how they live in different areas.
To do this, the American Geographical Society sent geographers to various parts of Mexico. Their job was to collect information about local cultures and gather GIS data. GIS is like a super-smart mapping system that can store, analyze, and display all sorts of geographic information. The teams also worked to build good relationships with local groups and organizations.
The project was led by expert geographers who knew a lot about Latin America. These included Peter Herlihy from the University of Kansas, along with Jeremy Dobson and Miguel Aguilar Robledo.
How the Project Worked
The main way México Indígena gathered information was through something called participatory research mapping (PRM). This is a special way of mapping where local people from the communities get involved directly.
Here's how PRM worked:
- Local people, chosen by their own communities, were trained by the project's researchers. They learned how to collect geographic information.
- First, individual people would draw "mental maps" of their area, showing what they knew.
- Then, these individual maps were combined to create "community maps." These maps only included features that everyone in the community agreed on, like their names and exact locations.
- Finally, these community maps were turned into standardized maps. The communities could then use these maps for many purposes, such as for education, to help with political decisions, or for legal reasons. For example, maps showing how communities use their land have been successfully used by indigenous groups to claim their traditional territories in places like Panama.
The main tool México Indígena used to combine all the different types of information and create maps was geographic information systems (GIS). GIS helped them see patterns and understand trends in the data they collected.
Many organizations worked together on the México Indígena project. These included the University of Kansas in the U.S., the Autonomous University of San Luis Potosí in Mexico, the Foreign Military Studies Office, Radiance Technologies (a U.S. company), and Mexico's federal environmental ministry, SEMARNAT.
The Foreign Military Studies Office stated that its goal was to "help increase an understanding of the world's cultural terrain."
Project Funding
The México Indígena research project received a lot of money from different sources. Reports show that it got between $751,000 and $1,000,000 in total from outside groups.
Some of the main funders included:
- The U.S. Department of Defense
- The Foreign Military Studies Office
- The U.S. Department of State (through a program called Fulbright-Garcia Robles)
- The American Geographical Society
- The University of Kansas' Center of Latin American Studies
- Mexico's Secretaria de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (SEMARNAT)
- The Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí
