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2. Matika's personal mission is to photograph all 566 federally recognised tribes in America.
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4. Matika is from the Tulalip and Swinomish tribes of Washington.
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8. With a small Kickstarter budget, Matika drove over 60,000 miles in a nomadic pursuit to access Indian communities and capture images and stories that have never been shared before.
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10. To date, Matika has shared her adventure at TEDx Seattle and the Tacoma Art Museum is featuring select images in a show in May 2014.
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By exposing the astonishing variety of the Indian presence and reality at this juncture, we will build cultural bridges, abandon stereotypes, and renew and inspire our national legacy.
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More than a century has passed since a similar photographic project has been carried out. In 1906, photographer Edward S. Curtis was commissioned by J.P. Morgan to capture the "disappearing" race. Curtis described his mission: "Respecting the mode of life of one of the great races of mankind must be collected at once or the opportunity will be lost."
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16. Matika recently launched a second phase Kickstarter after her first successful crowd-funding effort, to raise funds to complete the project and photograph all 566 Tribal Nations of the United States.
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All the work that I have done until this point has prepared me for this project.