Three years ago, Matika Wilbur sold almost everything she owned, left behind her apartment in Seattle, and set out on the open road. The former high school teacher had one goal: to photograph members of each federally recognized Native American tribe in the United States.

Wilbur’s photographs are mostly black and white. She shoots on a Canon EOS 7D digital, and a Mamiya film camera. When she finishes Project 562 (named for the number of federally recognized tribes at the time Wilbur began her work), she plans to compile the photographs and share them with the public through various publications, exhibitions and curricular material.

To date, the 31-year-old has driven more than 250,000 miles and has nearly completed her journey. She will finish her tour at the end of the month in the northeastern US. Wilbur has taken thousands of pictures so far. She has met with a range of people that include PhDs, lawyers, tribal elders, designers, grandmothers and artists. But sometimes she worries it isn’t enough.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Darkfeather, Bibiana and Eckos Ancheta from the Tulalip Tribe Photograph: Matika Wilbur/The Guardian

A search for Native Americans on the internet yields almost nothing but reductionist, 18th-century representations of a “feathered and leathered people”, Wilbur says. She hopes the pictures she’s taking can someday replace the stereotyped, dated ones found in internet searches, and the ones we hold on to in our collective psyche.

“I’m ultimately doing this because our perception matters,” she says. “Our perception fuels racism. It fuels segregation. Our perception determines the way we treat each other.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Steven Yellowtail, tribal affiliation: Crow Nation Photograph: Makita Wilbur/The Guardian

Wilbur’s journey to this work has been long and winding. She calls it a journey of “self-actualization”. After earning a degree in photography from the Brooks Institute, Wilbur moved to Los Angeles, to become a fashion photographer, but says she soon grew disenchanted with the excess and frivolity of the entertainment industry.

She eventually traveled to South America, where she began photographing indigenous people. One night, in the mountains below Machu Pichu, she dreamt of her late grandmother. Her grandmother told her it was time to return home; to bring the lens to her own people. Several years and two Kickstarter fundraisers later, Project 562 was born.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Makita Wilbur has traveled more than 250,000 miles to capture the the depth of Native Americans Photograph: Matika Wilbur/The Guardian

These days, Wilbur is on the east coast, traveling through Haudonesonee land. On the road, she is often alone. She admits to being exhausted. Wilbur has interns but says they don’t last very long. “After two or three weeks, they start saying, ‘Hey, I really need to go home,’” she says. Still, Wilbur persists, sleeping where she can, on couches, and in her “big girl”, (her nickname for her RV). Sometimes, she’ll sleep on the floor of a stranger’s home. She has spent many nights on reservations in the most remote parts of the country.

But the physical exhaustion is often less difficult to bear than the emotional weight of the stories she has heard. Wilbur speaks with passion and distress about the young Native Americans who are growing up on the reservation today. “What happens when a people have lost their sense of connection to the land, to their spirit, and to the things that make them whole?” she says. “They look around, and wonder about the future. And they turn to things that fill those holes inside of them.” Things like drugs and alcohol.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Chief Bill James, Tribal Affiliation: Lummi Nation Photograph: Matika Wilbur/The Guardian

Wilbur has personal experience with addiction and has dealt with substance abuse in her own family. She says she has recently celebrated “14 years on the red road”, a Native American term that refers to complete abstinence from drugs and alcohol in an effort to find cultural and spiritual wellness. She recalls too, her former students’ battles with substance abuse.

“Over the years, I’ve lost several students to drug addiction and suicide,” she recalls. “Some of our students see this and say: ‘is this what it must mean to be an Indian?’

Today, Native Americans comprise a little under 2% of the US population or, according to the latest Census data, about 5.2 million people. And “three out of four of our women today have experienced domestic violence or sexual assault,” Wilbur adds.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Bahazhoni Tso Tribal Affiliation: Navajo Nation Photograph: Matika Wilbur/The Guardian

Despite this, Wilbur is committed to excavating stories of hope, not despair from Indian Country. “I want to be able to go home, and share stories of resiliency from across the Nation. I want our children to know about all of the strong advocates- the weavers, language holders, canoe builders, song keepers, medicine people, tribal leaders, elders, and so many more who are dedicated to protecting our ancestral life-ways so that they can grow up strong citizens of their Tribal Nation” she says.



And so, her gaze is fixed firmly on the horizon, on tomorrow, on moving beyond the past, in every sense. “Our goal as people has always been to be of one mind, one heart, and one spirit,” she says.

For more information on Wilbur’s traveling exhibit, visit Project 562 or browse through her Instagram (@matikawilbur) feed.



