Project 562: Changing the Way We See Native America by Matika Wilbur, 2023, Ten Speed Press
The book gives us the results of Wilbur’s project to document members from all 562 federally recognized tribes. In 2012 with the help of a Kickstarter campaign set out to visit, photograph, and meet with people from every federally recognized tribe.
Matika Wilbur (b. 1984) is a photographer and educator from Washington state. She is a member of the Tulalip Tribes of Washington and a descendant of the Swinomish people. After receiving her degree from the Brooks Institute of Photography, Wilbur began her career doing fashion and commercial photography. She realized that these industries did not spark her interest and decided to choose a different route as a photographer.
Wilbur also received a teaching certification and worked in primary education at The Tulalip Heritage High School for 5 years. That led her to her first project photographing native people.
Project 561 contains photographs, statements, and biographies of her subjects. Presentations range from formal studio portraits to groups set in the environment. Her subjects are dressed in a range of clothing from tee shirts and blue jeans to more traditional garb.
The book includes three members of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indian. Which is about average for the tribes in the book. An average of three photographs from 562 tribes soon grows into a large book. 404 pages to be precise.
Among her photographs of members of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indian, there is a wonderful image of Shan Goshorn, a noted artist. Sadly, Goshorn passed away in 2018. Goshorn has one of the longer and more eloquent essays talking about native identity, identity as an artist, and identity as a woman.
Also included is a photograph of Dr. Jerry Wolfe who was named a Beloved Man by the tribe. The first man so chosen in 200 years. In the accompanying essay, Wolfe talks about being sent to a boarding school at age 7. Among the disciplines at the school, students were beaten if caught speaking Cherokee. Despite this Wolfe maintained his ability to speak, and write, in the Cherokee language.
The third member of the EBCI is Joely Queen. A recent high school graduate who at the time was preparing to attend college.
The book touches on the issues of subsistence living, family, and issues of representation. Of all the minority populations in this country, Native Americans are more known from the viewpoint of others and less from their own words and images. The most problematic is the representations of Indians in Hollywood movies. Even in contemporary movies, the viewpoint is more often from a sympathetic white man than from a native person.
Wilbur talks about the need for native youth to have positive depictions of native life and history. She points out that in 87% of state history standards, there is no discussion of American Indians past 1900.
To make a long story, er review, short, Project 561 is a wonderful book. It is both enlightening and disturbing. It is worth reading and rereading. One small issue and this may just be me, but the book doesn’t appear to be ordered in any particular way, not by individuals or by tribes. But the book has a great index that makes up for this issue, which I say may just be mine.
