As a child I [Aaron Carapella] always sought knowledge about Native history and cultures. I would attend Pow Wows and other events and scour through the items vendors had for sell. From time to time I would see maps of the traditional territories of our tribes, but thought they looked incomplete, and the names mostly inaccurate. I filed away the idea of one day creating a more authentic-looking one myself. Years went by as I looked from time to time for a better map. One day I decided, “It’s time to make a REAL map of Native America, as WE see it.” It started with four poster boards and a rough pencil drawing of the United States. Over the next 14 years I would create the Tribal Nations Map.

I have spent countless thousands of hours pouring through books, investigating in library archive buildings, making phone calls and traveling to remote reservations in the spirit of creating the most thorough map of Native America in existence. I have since gone on to make maps of the indigenous Peoples of the entire Western Hemisphere , as well as many custom maps.