Matika Wilbur said that while lives for Native Americans have gotten better in modern North America, she still believes that people need to face the natives’ history and what that means for the natives’ way of life.

Wilbur, a photographer of Swinomish and Tulalip descent and founder of Project 562, talked about the indigenous peoples’ past struggles and the misconceptions that people have about them.

She described her time teaching children about Native American history, when she noticed the readings restricted the Native American experience to the past.

“The available materials presented an outdated Native American story and incomplete story that perpetuates the historical amnesia,” said Wilbur.

She later said that this narrative portrays indigenous people as a culture that has come and gone in the wake of westward expansion.

“It’s the romantic insatiable story of extinction,” she said. “It’s the story that dilutes Native American genocide and celebrates notions of pioneering, settlement, westward expansion, manifest destiny.”

After going over the flaws with the American education system’s interpretation of native history. she explained how she decided to help get the real native story out.

“I hit the road because I could not see it any other way. The narrative has to change. Our children, all children, and for that matter, all people, deserve honest stories about the first people of this land,” Wilbur said. “We believe that Project 562 holds powerful stories that can inspire a collective consciousness to reconcile its relationship with native America.”

In Project 562, Wilbur is traveling to capture images of natives from around the world. The result is a vast collection of images portraying modern day indigenous people.

She talked about the People of the Blue-Green Water, which lived along the Colorado River, where the water would help the crops grow. She also described the importance of the area regarding some rituals.

 “The coming-of-age ceremony included swimming the breath of the Colorado River,” Matika said.

But after a dam was built, it diverted the water away from the tribe, causing them to move away from their ancestral land.

Another example she gave was the uprising in Standing Rock, in which a pipeline would have gone through sacred native ground. She compared what the pipeline would have done to when the Cathedral of Notre Dame almost burned down.

When the government surveyed the area, they found body parts, Meaning they couldn’t build a pipeline due to legal limitations.

 “It’s illegal,” Wilbur said. “You cannot disrupt cultural sites. You cannot disrupt gravesites.”

This led to protests at the site, where Wilbur said the police response was disproportionate to the peaceful gathering.

“What we saw, this incredible violation of human rights being sprayed with cannons, water cannons and freezing temperatures. The amount of people that went to jail, people that lost limbs. A woman lost her baby,” she said.

She compared this event to the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol Building and the lack of a response from the National Guard.

Wilbur talked about the horrible experience some native women endure.

“Three out of four native women experience sexual assault, domestic violence, or abuse in their lifetime. For most native women, it’s not a question of if but a question of when,” she said.

Despite all this she thinks things are getting a bit better, saying that while she can’t speak for all of the natives in America, some natives are allowed to practice beliefs in specific areas.

“It fills me with hope,” she said. “The work of this generation is to respect each other.”