This article develops the theme of the image of the American Indian embodied in a particular medium: the maps of America that were made during its "discovery" by the Europeans. The image of the Indian was the image of the other and the external that is defined in different categories.

The fact that a visual support such as the map is analyzed means that the analysis of the image has to be understood from the functionality of the map: representing the world; and also from the cosmovision that encompassed the type of maps of that time: Religious ideas, the perception of space, the exotization of the alien, social values, and cultural categories. All this makes this article a new look at maps, understanding them from an anthropological perspective with which one can better understand the current prejudices and stereotypes around Native Americans.