17 MILE ROAD, 2019

These images feature four boys as both themselves (modern Native boys), and they also represent time traveling spirits from the oral traditions of Chemehuevi mythos. They have returned to remind us of deep indigenous connections to the land, the stories contained within it, and how we can live in relation to it. This modern desert landscape contains a rich history that predates colonization, a history that is not commonly known to mainstream Americans. As an indigenous person, it is essential to evoke to the viewer our different relationship to the American West than those of settler colonial peoples. There are many local tribes whose ancestral lands comprise the American West, and it was important to me to reconnect people to that fundamental confluence of indigenous people and the American landscape.

Collection: The Hood Museum, and The University of California,
Featured on PBS Craft in America Series, December 2019