Aaron Huey- Wounded See

Interesting coming upon this incredible photo essay by Aaron Huey on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation just after hearing that Leonard Peltier, who is in failing health, was denied parole yet again. I remember reading over a good decade ago how the FBI fully well realized that Peltier was not guilty of killing any FBI agent as convicted, but is being kept in prison simply because he knows who did and refuses to give them up.

This essay is not exactly your positive outlook on rez life, and I certainly won't make believe I know anything about living on one, let alone speak on behalf of their inhabitants- except that although you'll always have some kind of deep rooted affiliation for the hood you grew up in (no matter how bad the ghetto), it's always one of strongly mixed loyalties and emotions. And of course, showing only the positive and inspirational to be found would just as profoundly be open to accusations of being cliched and one sided- which is why it's so necessary to empower people from these communities to author their own documentation.

That said, this essay does in fact, offer some incredibly strong and resonant imagery from a photographer obviously on top of his game. And if you take a real long, hard look at these photographs and look past the obvious depression, you'll see a people struggling to survive and endure the most challenging of living conditions in the remnants of the land that was so brutally taken from them- along with so much else...