Session 15 summary
Visual Media and Indigenous Communities
When talking about Native Americans, one usually imagines the people dressed in regalia and often the past version is portrayed rather than the present one. Tailyr, in her works wants to bring in the present version of the people. Her inspiration to get into this work was the controversy of the band of tribe who sued the government. It is often seen that a set of pictures are used to describe the entire people/community, which angered her and made her want to take up journalism.
When taking pictures of the Indigenous people, they were made to pose in their regalia and often instructed to not smile in those pictures, which created a rigid picture of the entire community. If Native Americans are not seen, then no one notices when they disappear or die. People won’t fight for them if they think they don’t exist. Thousands of Native American women are either missing or murdered. They do not get the help and justice which they should receive. This has been happening because people do not see them as humans.
Tailyr’s goal is to show contemporary Native America. For this she created her big project- Reservation Mathematics: navigating love in Native America. In this project she poses the questions; what makes you a Native and who says? Are you more Native if you live on the Reservation? Are you less Native if you’re adopted to a white family? What if you have less Native blood but are fluent in the culture and the language? What if you are “full blood” but choose not to engage with your tribe and culture at all? Who is the gatekeeper? All these questions lead to Blood Quantum: what fraction of Indian are you? Which states that one need to have at least a quarter of Indian blood for them to be classified as a Native American. This number had not been calculated through any kind of DNA, Blood test or something scientific. Basically, what happened was the US Government went to tribes and wrote names down and said you’re full blood. You’re Native. You are on our list. But there were many problems in this, like: outsiders deciding who is part of the culture, Left out natives who looked or were also black, they were bribed to add white settlers to the list, so they could gain land access and they also missed some people. This list was designed to be inaccurate and flawed as it is unsustainable. You can only count one tribe. An individual cannot be a member of two tribes. You can only procreate in a small group for a small amount of time before you run into issues. The Blood Quantum restrictions complicate dating for Native Americans and creates a pressure that the natives feel to date within their tribe or be responsible for the complete genocide. So, a reservation math for Tailyr is; since her dad is 7/8 Salish and Kootenai, she’s 7/16 Salish and Kootenai or just short of half, to be enrolled in her tribe on need to be at least 1/4 Salish and Kootenai. Therefore she needs a tribal member to father her child, for the child to be accepted as Salish and Kootenai. But there’s great struggle with regards to finding a partner. There are only 8,000 members of her tribe, 5,000 live on the reservation and one is related to almost everyone. She presented many cases, like that of- Michael and Leah, whose daughter cannot be registered in the Flathead Reservation because she’s 1/16 short as Michael is 7/16 Salish Kootenai and Leah is 3/4 Navajo, and so she is enrolled in the Navajo Nation over 1000 miles away. In Nate and Tiana’s case, their child is able to be enrolled under Nate as the blood quantum is sufficient. There has been correction in the paperwork and it is quite common. One correction affects the subsequent generation’s blood quantum. After a correction was found in 2009, confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes enrolment rose by 3.4%.
But one cannot easily do away with it, as it is so political and there is not a good system to replace it with. It is written into the tribal constitutions and changing a constitution is extremely difficult. But it’s a ticking time bomb as it is unsustainable and the tribes are very close to reaching the end of the rope. Ellie Bundy McLeod, D’Shane and Jason, Zachary Wagner and Marley Tanner talk about the faults in the blood quantum system which prevents them to choose their future partners freely if they want their children to be in the same tribe as them.
About the Speaker
Tailyr Irvine
Photographer & Journalist
Co-founder, Indigenous Photograph
Montana
United States of America
Tailyr Irvine is a Salish and Kootenai journalist born and raised on the Flathead Indian Reservation in western Montana. She graduated from the University of Montana with a bachelor’s degree in journalism with an emphasis in Native American Studies. Her work focuses on providing in-depth representations of the lives and complex issues within the diverse communities that make up Native America. Tailyr worked in newsrooms across the country before beginning her career as an independent journalist and documentary photographer. Tailyr is a co-founder of Indigenous Photograph, a global database dedicated to support the media industry in hiring more Indigenous photographers to tell the stories of their communities and to reflect on how we tell these stories. Tailyr is National Geographic Explorer and We, Women Artist currently working on a project that explores the complexities of blood quantum and Native identity. Her work takes a critical look on how legacy of colonialism has damaged relationships between marginalized communities and the media industry. With each project and assignment, she emphasizes the importance of the relationship between the media and the communities they work in. Other commissioned work includes the New York Times, Washington Post, the Smithsonian and the Wall Street Journal.
