Developing Stories: Native Photographers in the Field

Cecile R. Ganteaume

National Museum of the American Indian--New York, One Bowling Green, New York, New York

Nov 3, 2022 -- March 12, 2023

Artists: Russel Albert Daniels, Tailyr Irvine, Donovan Quintero

“Developing Stories: Native Photographers in the Field” is a series of photo essays created by Native photojournalists, Russel Albert Daniels, Tailyr Irvine, and Donovan Quintero, in collaboration with the National Museum of the American Indian. Each photographer explores an issue that is of deep personal interest and touches the lives of Native people in a specific community. The essays feature compelling photography and thought-provoking insights into contemporary Native life and, in so doing, nuanced perspectives on American experiences that are largely invisible to mainstream society.

“Developing Stories: Native Photographers in the Field” is curated by Cecile R. Ganteaume. Collaborators Tristan Ahtone (Kiowa), Editor at Large at Grist and John Smock, director of photojournalism at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York, provided editorial and technical expertise to the museum and photojournalists throughout the development of each photo essay

The Photo Essays

• Russel Albert Daniels (Diné descent and Ho-Chunk descent), “The Genízaro Pueblo of Abiquiú.” Daniels brings attention to a nearly 300-year-old community in New Mexico that was born out of violence and slavery. In this essay, he examines how, through annual festivals and feasts and their relationship to the land, Genízaros—detribalized descendants of freed Native American slaves—have maintained their sense of history and identity to the present day.
• Tailyr Irvine (Salish and Kootenai), “Reservation Mathematics: Navigating Love in Native America.” Irvine examines the legacy of U.S. government regulations affecting Native Americans’ most personal decisions. Specifically, she focuses on the challenge blood quantum requirements (the amount of tribal affiliation in a person’s ancestry) pose for young Native American couples who want children and want them enrolled in their tribe. In early 1900s, the U.S. government began imposing this system on tribes as a means of defining and limiting citizenship. While some tribes still use this method for determining eligibility for tribal enrollment, other Native nations use documentation of a person’s descent from an enrollee on a designated tribal roll or census records.
• Donovan Quintero (Diné), “The COVID-19 Outbreak in the Navajo Nation.” Photographer and journalist for the Navajo Times, Quintero explores how the pandemic affected the everyday lives of the Diné over the course of a year. The images highlight the resiliency of the Diné and the critical roles played by healthcare workers, police, council members, and unsung heroes of the pandemic.