America’s Native Prisoner’s of War

Aaron Huey: America’s Native Prisoners of War (TED Talk)

Aaron Huey set out to photograph poverty in the United States to put a face on this social issue. It led him to the Lakota people, historically known as Sioux, living on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. The deplorable conditions he found people living in there prompted him to shift his focus more specifically towards understanding how their urgent need for social justice can be predominately ignored by the majority of the population. As a result of his photographs and developing relationships with the people at Pine Ridge, he felt compelled to investigate the link between their current situation and the historical events and government decisions that have directly or indirectly involved the Lakota nation. Our first step towards a remedy, he suggests, is acknowledging the timeline of impact and tumultuous relationship between indigenous people and dominant culture that was built on misunderstanding and misrepresentation that seems to give permission to others to ignore the destitute conditions he has been photographing at Pine Ridge over the last five years.