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Amazing Photos of Native American Tribe Members

For Project 562, she has travelled over 400 miles and taken photos of members of more than 400 tribes.

Walkers at their “Journey for Existence.”

Wilbur’s 2012 project was started with 562 federally-recognized Native American tribes. Now, There are 574.

The project has evolved from a simple photo series to a documentary project to become a fully-fledged archive of Native Americans, their communities, stories, and their lives.

“We’re always redrafting the language to describe this project,”Insider heard from Wilbur in 2016.

Wilbur photographed her subjects using black-and white film and a technique called the Zone System.

The Zone System provides more dynamic range for the images.

She enjoys peer portraiture with simple landscape backdrops.

Dr. Mary Evelyn Belgarde Pueblo of Isleta & Ohkay Owingeh

“I figured that that was sort of irresponsible when I started this project, to travel all over the country and not show the landscape,”Wilbur stated.

She allows her subjects to choose the location and method they want, giving them agency over how they will be represented.

“Sometimes I’ll be in the Grand Canyon and I’d rather take somebody’s picture at Havasupai Falls because it’s magnificent and there’s this incredible blue-green water coming out of the ground … and they want to be photographed on their front porch because they love where they live,”She said. “I’ll do what they want to do because people should be represented in a way that is important to them, especially in Indian Country.”

“We’ve been photographed so many times by non-Indians and we’ve had our stories told so many times by people outside our community, and they get the story wrong,”Wilbur stated.

Darkfeather, Bibiana and Eckos ancheta are all Tulalip tribe members.

The above portrait shows Wilbur photographing three members of Tulalip’s tribe: Darkfeather and Bibiana.

“We aim to correct that narrative through honest individual agency and storytelling,”She said.

Jaclyn Roessel, Dine’ (Navajo Nation), posed for Wilbur’s portrait.

The photo series that began as a photo album has grown into an archive rich with culture, language, history, and resilience.

Wilbur co-hosts the podcast. All My RelationsAdrienne Keene, Desi Small-Rodriguez and Adrienne discuss their relationship to land, ancestors and other Native peoples in this video.

2 years ago

Tom O'Brien