May 24, 2013

I'm Not Your Indian Anymore

I'm Not Your Indian Anymore: The AIM in PhotosNow open at All My Relations Gallery in Minneapolis is an exceptional new photographic exhibit, I'm Not Your Indian Anymore.

At the gallery, the American Indian Movement Interpretive Center presents a photographic history of the American Indian Movement. This show features the photographs of Roger Woo, Dick Bancroft and Keri Pickett. Historical materials from the AIM archives are also being presented.
Comment:  "I'm Not Your Indian Anymore" is a great title. It means Indians declaring that they weren't going to fulfill the white man's fantasies anymore. They weren't going to be myths, legends, strangers, foes, targets, victims, mascots, sidekicks, etc. They were going to establish their own identity beyond their age-old role as savages standing in the way of "progress" and Manifest Destiny.

For more on AIM, see 40th Anniversary of Wounded Knee II and Russell Means Was a Fighter.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is that Ward Churchill in the upper left-hand corner? If so, I think I'm experiencing the emotion known as "lulz" right now.

Rob said...

No, it isn't. It looks like a young Floyd "Red Crow" Westerman to me.

For more on the photographs, see:

http://www.minnpost.com/books/2013/06/invisible-dick-bancroft-chronicled-historic-american-indian-movement

'Invisible' Dick Bancroft chronicled historic American Indian Movement

In 1968, a young St. Paul photographer named Dick Bancroft began taking pictures of a group of Native Americans working to draw attention to problems facing their community. Inspired by the gains the Civil Rights Movement made for black Americans, the group wanted to plot a new course for a community that was badly damaged by a bleak education system, economic injustice, environmental destruction and health issues.

Bancroft became an invisible part of the group, which became known as the American Indian Movement (AIM). Floating on the periphery of events in Minnesota, South Dakota, Washington, D.C., and other sites across the country, Bancroft became AIM’s visual historian, and 180 of his photos have been gathered into a book, “We Are Still Here: A Photographic History of the American Indian Movement” (Borealis Press).