Interactive Southwest Map Viewers
The GIS Map Viewer is an interactive online program that lets you move around a map, zoom in or out, display some map layers and not others, or access additional information about particular map features. You can also print a basic copy of the map.
The GIS is distinguished into three modules for topical viewing. The topics are cultural, political, and physical geograhy and you will find key attributes of the modules in the sections that follow.
If you would like more details of the basic commands you will need to properly navigate the viewers, read the instruction page.
- Cultural Geography
- Important Sites: Major southwestern archaeological and historical sites.
- Major Prehistoric Cultural Traditions: Approximate boundaries of some of the Southwest's major prehistoric cultural traditions. Note that the distribution of these cultural traditions changed greatly over time; this map gives a general overview of their relative locations rather than a picture of any specific time period.
- Native American Language Groups at Contact: Approximate distribution of Native American languages and dialects at the time of European contact. Colors indicate language families, labels indicate individual language names.
- Political Geography
- Current Native American Reservations: Current US Native American reservations. Colors indicate general cultural group.
- Urban Areas: US and Mexican towns and cities with more than 8000 people.
- Historical Parks and Preserves: National Park Service properties devoted to areas of archaeological, historical, and cultural significance.
- States and Provinces: The states of the southwestern US and northwestern Mexico.
- Physical Geography
- Landscape Features: Mountain ranges, mesas, plateaus, and other important southwestern landscape features. (Visible when zoomed in.)
- Major Rivers: Major southwestern rivers.
- Lakes: Southwestern lakes and reservoirs.
