Composed of three distinct photo essays created by Tailyr Irvine, Russel Albert Daniels and Donovan Quintero, Developing Stories: Native Photographers in the Field explores deeply personal issues and stories that have been largely left out of mainstream discourse. A collaboration with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, the exhibition is on view at the Eiteljorg Museum through July 7.
Donovan Quintero (Diné), Diné Family on Horseback, Ganado, Arizona, Navajo Nation, June 28, 2020, Nikon D300.
In Reservation Mathematics: Navigating Love in Native America, Irvine (Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes) zooms in on the controversial blood quantum system which is used to determine eligibility for tribal enrollment. With increasing numbers of tribal members whose ancestry includes more than one tribe, their children’s chances of meeting the minimum blood quantum requirements for tribal enrollment are declining. For her piece, Irvine interviewed Indigenous residents in Missoula and on her Flathead Indian Reservation in western Montana who shared their deep concerns about the blood quantum system, which can impact Native Americans’ most personal decisions—including with whom they have children.
Tailyr Irvine (Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes), Blood Quantum Before Body, 2019, digital photography.
In The Genízaro Pueblo of Abiquiú, documentary photographer Russel Albert Daniels (Diné descent and Ho-Chunk descent) explores the complex story of a nearly 300-year-old Indigenous/Hispanic community in New Mexico and its history of violence, slavery and survival. Beginning with their arrival in the early 1600s, Spain and the Catholic Church profoundly impacted the lives of the Indigenous ancestors of the Genízaro people, seeking to “reeducate” (some say “detribalize”) the Native people of the Southwest.
Russel Albert Daniels (Diné descent and Ho-Chunk descent), Maurice Archuleta in the High Desert Surrounding Abiquiú, 2019, black and white digital photograph/pigment print.
The devastating impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on the Navajo Reservation were widely reported on, but with nowhere near the scope and intimacy that Donovan Quintero (Diné) does in his photo essay does. Quintero, a photojournalist for the Navajo Times - Diné bi Naaltsoos, began documenting the pandemic when it first struck the reservation and his photo essay, The COVID-19 Outbreak in the Navajo Nation captures the vast expanse of the reservation and the isolation and resilience of the Diné, while highlighting the critical roles played by tribal council members, police, healthcare workers and unsung heroes of the pandemic.
Tailyr Irvine (Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes), Prairie Cocowee Antoine, 2019, digital photography.
“The Eiteljorg Museum uses the tagline ‘Telling Amazing Stories,’” notes Elisa G. Phelps, former vice president and chief curatorial officer. “It is on our website, business cards and stationery. Sharing stories is an essential part of who we are as an institution. That said, sometimes the most amazing stories are those that are the least familiar to us. Among the goals of the Eiteljorg’s recent Native American galleries reinstallation is to combat stereotypes and share the diversity and complexity of contemporary Native life. These photographers and their work do just that.”
Through July 7, 2024
Developing Stories: Native Photographers in the Field
Eiteljorg Museum, 500 W. Washington Street, Indianapolis, IN 46204
(317) 636-9378, www.eiteljorg.org
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