Maps made by non-Native Americans to depict Native American land tenure, resources andpopu

lation distributions appeared almost as early as Europeans’ first encounters with NativeAmericans and took many form. missionaries’ field sketches, explorers’ drawings, and surveyors’maps, as well as maps rendered in connection with treaties involving land transfers. Most existingmaps of Native American lands are reconstructions that are based largely on archaeology, oralreports, and evidence gathered from observers’ accounts in letter, diaries, and official reports;accordingly, the accuracy of these maps is especially dependent on the mapmakers’ owninterpretive abilities.

Many existing maps also reflect the 150-year role of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) inadministering tribal lands. Though these maps incorporate some information gleaned directly fromNative Americans, rarely has Native American cartography contributed to this official record,which has been compiled, surveyed, and authenticated by non-Native American tribes and theirmigrations and cultural features, as well as territoriality and contemporary trust lands, reflects theorigins of the data, the mixed purposes for which the maps have been prepared, and changes both IUnited States government policy and in non-Native Americans’ attitudes toward an understandingof Native Americans.

Which of the following best describes the content of the passage？

A．A chronology of the development of different methods for mapping Native Americans

B．A discussion of how the mapmaking techniques of Native Americans differed from those of Europeans

C．An argument concerning the presenta-day uses to which historical maps of Native American lands are put

D．An argument concerning the nature of information contained in maps of Native American lands

E．A proposal for improving the accuracy of maps of Native American lands