‘Scottie finds strength in this clothing, should he not be allowed to wear it?’ – You Don’t Look Native To Me by Maria Sturm

Maria, tell us about this project, how did the idea come about? 

Nine years ago, in 2011, my step dad told me about his friend Dr. Jay Hansford C. Vest from the then* federally unrecognised Monacan Indian Nation from Virginia. I stumbled over the word ‘unrecognised’. What does it mean? Why are there Native American people unrecognised in America? What are the criteria for it and how are the institutions deciding who you are and who you are not? 

Why are there Native American people unrecognised in America? What are the criteria for it and how are the institutions deciding who you are and who you are not?

Here’s a short explanation: to get full recognition you have to petition at the BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs) and prove your Nativeness. Unrecognised Tribes that don’t meet the BIA’s standards – e.g. because they have lost their language, their history or are mixed-race – aren’t eligible for financial support or any land rights by the United States government.

*(The Monacans were one of six Virginian tribes that were recognised on a federal scale as of January 2018)

Later in the conversation, my dad told me that Jay is blond and has blue eyes. I paused for a while, realising my own confusion. Why can’t a Native American have blond hair and blue eyes? Where did I absorb the image of the “Movie Indian”? I didn’t grow up watching western movies, yet still I had an image carved in my head of somebody I had never met. I started thinking about how we absorb references and solidify tropes. 

Why can’t a Native American have blond hair and blue eyes?

This reaction shook me up so thoroughly, that I knew I wanted to do a project about this. I thought, if I can have a physical reaction to a contradiction that leads me to question what I think I know, someone else can have the same experience and this is why I believe this work is important.

What kind of research did you do in advance? How did you find out about this particular community? How did you get access? 

I couldn’t find much to read about the unrecognised tribes online, but since I knew right away I wanted to make a project, I booked a flight to visit Jay. 

Jay is a professor at the American Indian Studies department at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. Pembroke is the economic, cultural and political centre of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina. With 55,000 enrolled members, it is the largest tribe East of the Mississippi River and the eighth largest in the nation. Pembroke has about 3000 inhabitants, of which 89 per cent identify as Native American. The Lumbee are recognised by the State of North Carolina, and have been seeking full recognition since 1888. 

I sat in Jay’s classes and met Jonathan Jacobs. He showed me around, introduced me to family and friends and throughout this whole project, he was my constant companion. It was especially beautiful and important to meet Jon, because he himself was interested in his own identity, so we would roam around, and Jon himself had questions he was curious to find answers to.

How did you get to know people and gain sufficient trust for them to allow you into their lives? 

Jon opened many doors for me and through him, I met others and slowly built a network. Before I started to photograph, I tried to record interviews with the people I met. Each time I flew back, I brought prints of the photographs I had taken before. I’d usually carry the whole stack with me and every time I met somebody, I’d ask them to reflect on what they saw and take out their photo of course. I think what helped is that I kept returning and I didn’t always photograph; many times we would just talk.

Can you expand on what you mean by the ‘paradoxical kind of otherness’ that you were drawn to while making this work? How is this tribe different from other Native American communities?

Being ignored is not a unique experience to the Lumbees. There are over 200 unrecognised tribes, spanning from East to West and North to South. If you don’t resemble the stereotypical look of a Native American person, people question your identity, your lineage, your heritage. But only if you come to talk about identity in the first place. Other times, you can be literally visually ignored because you may pass for African American, Latino or White. People don’t recognise you or see you the same way you see yourself, and that’s the paradox. And we shouldn’t forget all Native people (also recognised tribes as well as other minorities) struggle with invisibility.

I’m interested in the situation of unrecognised tribes, like the Lumbee and the political conversation surrounding it. Their invisibility comes in multiple ways. Being such a large tribe, federal recognition not only poses a difficult financial burden for the United States (being eligible for 70 million dollars), but the Lumbee are also perceived as a threat by already recognised tribes, who risk having to share the little they receive. This precedent sheds an uncomfortable light on us as human beings in a modern world and shows what the multilayered traumas have done to a whole nation of people.

Are you able to select a photo from the series and tell us the story behind it?

There is one important image of Scottie. He’s wearing a Redskin Jacket and hat, which would be considered politically incorrect – not only from outsiders, but also other Natives. Scottie was wearing it with pride. He told me: “But, this is who I am”. So what you can see in an image like this, is that in his case, his identity actually manifests in pop-cultural symbols like this.

It also shows another paradox because people can argue that Scottie is not a real Native, he doesn’t know his history. But the answer to what are the reasons for this seem not that important. Especially Tribes in the Southeast who have been in contact with Europeans first have lost a lot of their history, not only through assimilation, but also through fear, living in the Jim Crow South. And who are we to judge what is right? We also don’t live like we did 500 years ago, but it is easy for us to judge others not acting like the stereotype we have of them. Since Scottie finds strength in this clothing, should he or shouldn’t he be allowed to wear it?

By the way people in the community responded to the images I showed them, some wouldn’t share his choice of clothes, but they recognised him as one of them and also didn’t judge him for it – they had understanding; they share the struggle.

Lastly, what was your ultimate aim with this project? With all the combined elements (photography, video, interviews) what kind of picture were you hoping to build of this community? 

All the people I met identified as Native American in a country where being Native was either romanticised or dismissed. They carry their identity on their shirts or on their skin. Tattoos or clothing with Native motifs seem to convey pride, but also function as proof. Yet the “Movie Indian” remains what most people know. Even among other Natives tribes, the Lumbee have been called not Native enough.

I strived to create images that challenge our gridlocked perception and create moments of contradiction that stimulate the viewer’s mind to be aware of how our perception is working. 

mariasturm.com