Goodbye Pocahontas: Photos Reveal Today’s True Native Americans

Washington, D.C. Matika Wilbur is on a mission that will take her across the United States. Weary of stereotypical representations of Native Americans, the high school teacher is determined to photograph every federally-recognized Native American tribe in the country.

Josh is a Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) Kalo farmer, activist, and educator from

the beautiful island of Kauai. He works with youth to be proud of their Hawaiian

culture and community, and believes that through education there can be healing.

He says, “We have a lot of sickness. I believe the spiritual sickness and a lot of the

physical and mental sickness we encounter in our communities, when we focus our

energy, our mana, onto fixing that, we put our minds together and we get our

energy moving in the same way, it’s through education.” Photo by Matika Wilbur.

“When you see us represented in mass media, you see Pocahontas, Dances with Wolves and Twilight , or maybe on some Netflix series you’ll see an Indian who’s fighting with Congress to have a casino,” Wilbur said. “What you won’t see is doctors and lawyers and contemporary people living in the present.”

Jaclyn Roessel, Dine’ (Navajo Nation), has an MPA from Arizona State University

and works as the Heard Museum’s education and public programs director. She also

owns the Naaltsoos Project, which prints cards with Navajo greetings, produces the

podcast “Schmooze”, which features interviews with Arizona women about topics

ranging from the arts to immigration, blogs at Grownup Navajo, and runs a fashion

blog Presence 4.0 with Chelsea Chee and Nanibaa Beck. Photo by Matika Wilbur.

Wilbur, a Native American woman of the Swinomish and Tulalip Tribes, is out to change that. She hopes her pictures will present a well-rounded portrait of today’s Native Americans: People fighting hard to maintain tribal sovereignty and protect ancestral ways, who also have children and family problems and chaos and order and love, like any other people.

Wilbur has been on the road for more than three years now on a journey that has covered more than 250,000 miles so far.

Treaty fisherman Chase, Nancy, Tandy and Tanner Wilbur standing in front of the

Wilbur family purse seining boat at Swinomish. Photo by Matika Wilbur.

It’s worthwhile trek, she says, to uplift young Native Americans who are inundated with stories about themselves that revolve around poverty, alcoholism, stereotypical representations, lower life expectancy and a myriad of other social problems.

Zunii. Photo by Matika Wilbur.

“I think it’s the result of brutal colonization and the years of genocide, all of the racist federal policies: termination, relocation, assimilation,” said Wilbur. “These policies that have aimed to erase our people have left a lasting impression and we’re in the throes of attempting to recover from the sum of those experiences.”

Calling Walwatoa (Jemez Pubelo), New Mexico home, Juanita is a community

wellness advocate and works for her tribe’s community wellness program. She lives

on her tribal lands, and feels grateful for the opportunity to serve her people.

Born in Washington, D.C. while her mother was working for the Senate Committee

on Indian Affairs, Juanita moved back to her community when she was young.

Photo by Matika Wilbur.

Wilbur’s venture is called Project 562 , after the 562 federally-recognized tribes she plans to photograph, including some on reservations in remote areas of the country. She ultimately plans to exhibit the photos, publish them and see her images used in education curricula.

She hopes her photos will help reshape the public’s perception of who Native Americans are.

Industrial engineering student, Stephen Yellowtail, of the Crow Nation,

at his family’s cattle ranch in Montana. Photo by Matika Wilbur.

“There’s something in this collective consciousness that still believes that Indians are lesser human beings, savage, that we’re conquered,” Wilbur said. “It’s like someone is throwing stones at you and it lands somewhere. It lands somewhere on your spirit, and your heart and how you feel about yourself.”

Ray, 82, and Fannie, 83, have been married for 65 years. They only speak Dine,

so their daughter had to translate for me while I was visiting them. This picture was

taken at their sheep camp, where they live without running water. Fannie is a weaver,

she shears the wool from the sheep, spins and hand dies the wool to create beautiful

Navajo rugs. Ray worked for the railroad for most of his life but he is now retired

to ranch life. Photo by Matika Wilbur.

Wilbur’s goal is for her photos to help reshape how young people, like her former high school students, feel about themselves.

Darkfeather, Bibiana and Eckos Ancheta from the Tulalip Tribe.

Photo by Matika Wilbur.

Native American youth have the highest suicide levels in the country and Wilbur saw first-hand how false and outdated impressions of Native Americans negatively impacted them and how they felt about themselves.

Photo by Matika Wilbur.

Ultimately, she hopes her photographs of a diverse people will be not only informative, but also uplifting.

“Hopefully we create something beautiful and positive, something that shows stories of hope and endurance,” she said. “It’s not the dying race, it’s not a manifestation of a romanticized version [of a people].”

By Dora Mekouar.

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