Tulalip and Swinomish tribal member set out to document Native Americans from 562 recognized tribes.

TULALIP — Matika Wilbur, a Tulalip and Swinomish tribal member, has spent the past decade documenting the modern lives of Native Americans in each of the 562 federally-recognized Indian tribes.

In 2012, Wilbur sold everything in her Seattle apartment and set out to photograph Native Americans in their homes, schools, churches, ceremonies and striking native landscapes. She has driven about 600,000 miles and been everywhere from the Tlingits in Alaska to the Wampanoags in Cape Cod. The goal of her project, Wilbur explained, is “to change the way we see Native America.”

“How can we be seen as modern successful people, if we are continually represented as the leathered and feathered vanishing race?” Wilbur asked during her 2013 Seattle TED Talk.

And after a decade of work, Wilbur’s book “Project 562” hit shelves on Tuesday.

https://www.heraldnet.com/news/local-photographer-matika-wilbur-releases-book-project-562/