He fought for self-determination in a time of assimilation. Here are objects he left.
A documentary photographer reflects on Indigenous identity using the items her great grandfather collected throughout his storied life.
Photographer NÄŤa MacKnight never met her great grandfather John B. McGillis, but she did have a window into his storied life as an Anishinaabe man in early 20th-century America: a steam trunk where he stowed away undated photographs and stray objects such as an address book, a pair of horn-rimmed glasses, and a single eagle feather. McGillis lived through decades of oppressive actions against native peoples by the U.S. government, and MacKnight says that in a world where he couldn't fully be himself
