Pamela J. Peters

Legacy of Exiled NDNZ

Website:

Biography:

Pamela J. Peters photography has been featured at the Los Angeles Center of Photography, Arts District Los Angeles Photo Collective, These Days Gallery, Venice Arts Gallery, Triton Museum of Art and in 2020 at the Getty Museum. Her work has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, Reuters News, Cowboys & Indians Magazine, Native Max Magazine, Los Angeles Magazine, Pasadena Magazine, Indian Country Today, Real Indians and American Indian Quarterly Journal and many more. She also speaks about her multimedia work at Universities, public outlets and tribal reservations.

Artist Statement:

I am a Diné multimedia documentarian from the Navajo Reservation, currently living in Los Angeles, California. My multimedia work consists of photography, short films, video poems and writing which incorporates storytelling in a unique and distinctive creative style.  I call my work "Indigenous Realism" as it explores the lives and diversities of real American Indians, not one in a stereotypical, relic past.  My overall work pushes viewers to critically analyze the psychological and historical structures of Native Americans in mass media. My multimedia creation is countering against the social impact of the negative, inaccurate, insulting images of stereotypical portrayal of American Indians still seen in film and television, and the portraits seen through a non-indigenous lens. This is my sovereignty as an identified American Indian tribal member.

Legacy of Exiled NDNZ Series, 2014

Legacy of Exiled NDNZ examines American Indians living in urban America, in this case, Los Angeles, California. My project focuses on young adults (from various tribes: Navajo, Cherokee, Seminole, Barona Bands of Mission Indians and Lakota). who have migrated from their reservations in the course of their own lives or are the offspring of families that relocated from various tribal reservations through the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ (BIA) Relocation program, which took place during the late 1950s through the 1960s. This photo/film project showcase young adults of today paying “tribute” to the first generation of Relocated (exiled) Indians.

This project is influenced by The Exiles (1961) , a film that was written, produced, and directed by Kent Mackenzie, the only filmmaker at that time that documented ‘realistic’ imagery of American Indian going through the BIA, U.S. government Relocation Program. The program encouraged Relocation of Indians for the following reason: First, it wanted to decrease subsidies given to Indians living on reservations, even though those subsidies were granted in exchange for lands ceded during treaty negotiations. Second, it wanted to deceitfully take land that had rich resources for the purpose of capital and community expansion and thirdly, they wanted Indians to join the blue-collar workforce of urban expansion.

Our vision of this project is to showcase an indigenous neorealist aesthetics that arises from the stories of Indigenous people and their understanding of how Relocation history is part of California’s history, and to also change the negative and inaccurate views of who we are as American Indians. We also hope that this project will help foster a better understanding of the differences, despite the cultural ties, that we as American Indian people have and offer an accurate portrayal of how Indian life and tribal identity are still sustained, even in an urban city like Los Angeles.


Welcome to Los Angeles - Union Station
DigitalPrint
18” x 22”(print) / 20” x 24”(framed)
$1850

Narrative of the American Indian Relocation program enacted by the U.S. Government in 1956. 


Heading into the City of Los Angeles
DigitalPrint
18” x 22”(print) / 20” x 24”(framed)
$1850

Seven young Native Americans tribute to the 1st generation of relocated "exiled" American Indians in Indian Alley DTLA.



Smoking in Alley of Main Street
DigitalPrint
18” x 22”(print) / 20” x 24”(framed)
$1850

Seminole/Choctaw man smoking in the Alley off Main Street in Los Angeles, CA.   

Blessing
DigitalPrint
11” x 14”(print) / 12.5” x 16”(framed)
$1200

Grand Central Market
DigitalPrint
11” x 14”(print) / 12.5” x 16”(framed)
$1200

Grand Central Café
DigitalPrint
11” x 14”(print) / 12.5” x 16”(framed)
$1200

Legacy of Exile NDNZ, 2019
(Run Time: 14 minutes)


My Once Life, 2017
Video Poem

(Run Time: 3.29)

My Once Lifeis a hybrid video poem about the continuing impact of colonization on tribal peoples. Native people resist their violent history and contemporary political struggles through engaging with deep historical knowledge and creating new oral histories.  I asked my native female friends to read my poem for a few reasons; one is that I want to show the diversity of tribal nations living in Los Angeles, and secondly, to show the passion and collective connection we have as Indigenous women to our tribal history.

The poem is read by 12 Native women living in Los Angeles whose strong voices embody empowerment :NanabahHill, (Navajo-Oneida), Diana Terrazas, (Paiute),JaNaeCollins, (Dakota-Crow), Xelt’tiaTemryssLane, (Lummi Nation), Viki Eagle,Sicanqu(Lakota-Sioux), Cheyenne Phoenix, (Northern Paiute-Navajo), StephanieMushrush, (Washoe Tribe),HakektaWinyanJealous Of Him (Lakota), Chrissie Castro, (Navajo),NeyomFriday, (Cheyenne-Arapaho andMskokeCreek), Vivian Garcia, (Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma), and Deja Jones, (Eastern Shoshone).