Zig Jackson’s Photography Confronts Native Erasure with Humor
Zig Jackson, also known as Rising Buffalo, is a prominent artist from the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara tribes, born in 1957 in North Dakota’s Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. A graduate of the San Francisco Art Institute, he made waves in 1994 as the first Native American to obtain a master's degree in photography. His renowned work, "Indian Man on the Bus," was featured in the prestigious publication Aperture in 1995. Jackson’s photography continues to engage viewers, with his series exhibited at the Amon Carter Museum in 2022. He taught at SCAD until 2023 and is set for a retrospective at the University of New Mexico in 2028.
Key facts
- Zig Jackson is a Mandan/Hidatsa/Arikara artist also known as Rising Buffalo.
- He was born in 1957 at Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota.
- He is a boarding school survivor (St. Joseph’s Indian School and Intermountain Indian School).
- In 1994, he became the first Native American to earn a graduate degree in photography from San Francisco Art Institute.
- His work Indian Man on the Bus (1994) was published in Aperture in 1995.
- His series include Indian Man in San Francisco, Degradation, and Visit World’s Largest Indian Reservation.
- He taught at SCAD from 2000 to 2023 and is now emeritus professor.
- The George Eastman Museum held a solo exhibition of his work in 2024.
- He is planning a retrospective at the University of New Mexico for fall 2028.
Entities
Artists
- Zig Jackson
- Rising Buffalo
- Ansel Adams
- Pirkle Jones
- Betty Hahn
- Meridel Rubenstein
- Cara Romero
- Louis Chavez
Institutions
- Aperture
- San Francisco Art Institute
- Amon Carter Museum of American Art
- Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD)
- George Eastman Museum
- University of New Mexico
- Headlands Center for the Arts
- Bacone College
- Northeastern State University
- Society of Photographic Education
Locations
- Fort Berthold Indian Reservation
- North Dakota
- San Francisco
- California
- Chamberlain
- South Dakota
- Brigham City
- Albuquerque
- New Mexico
- Alaska
- Fort Worth
- Texas
- Rochester
- New York
- Atlanta
- Georgia
- Oklahoma