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Mapping the Stories Beneath Our Feet

Sara Shifrin teaches Human Geography on Indigenous Peoples Day
From Associate Head of School for Strategy and Talent Sara Whalen Shifrin ’88, P’19,’23

In ninth grade, Gould students are discovering that maps do much more than show where we are—they reveal who we are. This week in Human Geography, students are using ArcGIS base layers and the Living Atlas feature to explore the intertwined histories of the Americas, learning how landscapes, people, and stories shape one another.

With curiosity as their guide, students learn how to navigate base maps, analyze spatial data, and layer live information to explore questions of place and belonging. Their study connects directly to the Wabanaki Place Names of Western Maine project by Bates College, which reveals that Bethel and the surrounding Androscoggin River Valley are part of Wabanakik, the “Dawnland”—ancestral homelands of the Abenaki.

As students layer Indigenous place names such as Mahoosuc (“place of hungry animals”) over modern maps, they become curious about the ways colonization altered geography, language, and relationship to the land. This helps them see that learning about place means listening to the people who have known it before them.

Using ArcGIS’s Living Layers, students combine environmental, historical, and cultural data to ask thoughtful questions: How do maps shape what we know about history? Whose stories are visible—and whose remain unseen?

 

Adrian Lyne presents on Indigenous Peoples Day on the naming of local Wabnaki places

Gould Teaching Fellow Adrian Lyne presents at Assembly on Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

 

 

Indigenous Peoples’ Day 2025

Reading & Roaming Maine, a course that deepens students’ understanding of Maine’s natural history, culture, and general way of life, is taught by Gould Teaching Fellow Adrian Lyne. During Monday’s assembly, they presented on the importance of Indigenous Peoples’ Day and discussed the names and meanings of local Wabanaki places.

“We are fortunate that so many Wabanaki place names are still used today. They teach us about the natural rhythms of this region and how living in balance with the environment benefits all living things. More reflection on our interactions—with places and people—would do us all some good.

How can you/we leave this place better than you found it?”

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