In shadowy black-and-white photographs, Salt Lake City-based photographer Russel Albert Daniels (Diné and Ho-Chunk) documents the celebration of the Feast Day of Santo Tomás in The Genízaro Pueblo of Abiquiú. Children prepare for the festival’s three days of song, prayer and dances in a family kitchen, dressing in ceremonial regalia. In memory of their ancestors, some have $2 bills pinned to their shoulders, symbolizing the “ransom” the Spanish paid to their captors. Daniels’ photographs are reverent, a careful look at a people whose history of capture, enslavement and mixed heritage is now observed by them from a place of total freedom. The series is part of the Smithsonian Institution’s “Developing Stories: Native Photographers in the Field” exhibition; the date has been postponed and will be announced later.
(Editor’s Note: Tristan Ahtone, HCN associate editor for the Indigenous Affairs desk, was a collaborator for the exhibit.)
Kalen Goodluck is an editorial fellow at High Country News. Email him at kalengoodluck@hcn.org or submit a letter to the editor.
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