Dennis' goal is to preserve and create awareness of sacred, culturally significant, and historical Native American landscapes on Long Island, New York.By presenting the archeological research in the format of photography, it presents to the public a new understanding of communal awareness and cultural enlightenment, which leads to cultural critique, historical inquiry, and educational development. My photography explores indigenous identity, cultural assimilation, and the ancestral traditional practices of my tribe, the Shinnecock Indian Nation. Though science has solved many questions about natural phenomena, questions of identity are more abstract, the answers more nuanced. My work is a means of examining my identity and the identity of my community, specifically the unique experience of living on a sovereign Indian reservation and the problems we face. My images question and disrupt the post-colonial narrative that dominates in film and media and results in damaging stereotypes, such as the “noble savage” depictions. As racial divisions and tensions reach a nationwide fever pitch, it’s more important to me than ever to offer a complex and compelling representation of indigenous people. - Jeremy Dennis
