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Images are by noted photographer M.J. Alexander

OKLAHOMA CITY – A photographic exhibition entitled Indian Territory: Portraits of 21st Century Native American Dancers and I.T. Born Tribal Elders is currently on view at the Red Earth Museum in Oklahoma City through October 31.  The series of 34 photographic images by Oklahoma City photographer and writer M.J. Alexander includes fascinating and concise interviews of the photo subjects.

Carlos Lightning Black of El Reno, OK, age 7, a member of the Cheyenne & Arapaho Tribes, taken during the 2008 Red Earth Native American Cultural Festival PHOTO BY  M.J. Alexander

Alexander will be the featured speaker during a “Conversation with the Artist” and reception scheduled Thursday, Oct. 1 at 6 pm in the Red Earth Museum, 2100 NE 52nd Street in Oklahoma City.  The event is free and open to the public.

Subjects for Alexander’s photographs range in age from 3 to 105 years of age, and feature numerous images of American Indian dancers in full tribal regalia taken during the annual Red Earth Native American Cultural Festival in downtown Oklahoma City.   The images are printed on varied media including metallic sheets, sheer scrims, hanging canvases and photographic paper. Artifacts from the Red Earth Museum’s permanent collection accompany the photographic images.

The Indian Territory born tribal elders featured in the M.J. Alexander exhibit are included in the book Salt of the Red Earth: A Century of Wit and Wisdom from Oklahoma’s Elders published in 2007 by the Oklahoma Heritage Association.

Alexander is a writer and photographer whose images have been published worldwide.  Museums throughout the country have showcased her work including the Pleiades Gallery of New York City and New Mexico’s Hubbard Museum of the American West.   She has degrees from Vassar College and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism in addition to teaching news writing at New York University and serving as Chairman of the journalism department at Saint Michael’s College in Vermont.

She is a citizen of both Canada and the United States and makes her home in Oklahoma City where she resides with her husband and two children.

The Red Earth Museum is open every day, except Thanksgiving and Christmas, inside Science Museum Oklahoma at 2100 NE 52nd Street in Oklahoma City. Red Earth, Inc. is a non-profit organization that promotes and presents the rich traditions of American Indian arts and cultures through educational programs, the annual Red Earth Native American Cultural Festival and the Red Earth Museum.