Flathead Photojournalist Tailyr Irvine Uses the Power of Photography to Tell Native Stories From Within

By Joe Morey

Rez Life Weekly Editor

For Tailyr Irvine, photography has become a powerful tool for connection, identity, and truth telling. A photojournalist from the Flathead Indian Reservation and a citizen of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, Irvine is featured in a recent PBS video where she reflects on her journey into photography and the responsibility she feels telling stories from Native communities.

Irvine said that early in her career, she struggled with how Indigenous people have historically been portrayed, particularly when it came to photographing regalia. “For a long time I was really hesitant to film Natives in their regalia,” Irvine said in the PBS video. That hesitation came from years of seeing Native imagery used without context or reduced to stereotypes. Over time, however, seeing strong and respectful images of Indigenous people helped change her perspective. “Seeing those images really pushed me forward,” she said. “These are powerful communities that are doing great work and have amazing people in them.”

Growing up on the Flathead Reservation, Irvine said she never imagined photography as a viable career path. “I did not think you could make a career from photography,” she said. That changed after she left home for college and enrolled in a class titled Media History and Literacy. During the course, she encountered a chapter focused on photography that left a lasting impression. “Seeing photos from 9/11 and the effect those photos had on me even decades later, and how I felt when I saw them, really inspired me,” Irvine said. “It made me want to tell stories from my home that reached people in the same way.”

That realization shaped her belief in the emotional power of visual storytelling. “The power of photography is that it connects people and makes us realize we are more alike than different,” Irvine said. Her work now centers on creating images that foster empathy, challenge misconceptions, and show Native communities as complex, living places rather than historical abstractions.

One of Irvine’s most impactful photojournalism projects focuses on the concept of blood quantum, a system imposed by the United States government that assigns Native people a fractional percentage of ancestry at birth. In the PBS video, Irvine explains how those numbers follow Indigenous people throughout their lives and influence deeply personal decisions.

“When a Native is born, they are assigned a percentage,” Irvine said. On the Flathead Reservation, she explained, tribal membership requires a minimum of one quarter blood quantum. Irvine shared her own family story as an example of how the policy works in practice. Her father is from the Flathead Reservation, her mother is Crow, and her parents had to choose which tribe to enroll her eventually choosing Flathead. “I am seven sixteenths,” she said.

That number carries real consequences for her future family. “If I want my children to be members of my tribe, I am forced to date someone from my tribe so that they stay above one quarter Flathead blood,” Irvine said. “If I were to date someone outside of the tribe, I risk my children not being members.” She said telling this story visually was one of the hardest challenges she has faced. “It was hard to try to tell this story in photos,” she said.

Through intimate portraits and careful storytelling, Irvine’s blood quantum project explores how policy intersects with identity, love, and belonging in Native communities. The work highlights how federal definitions continue to shape Indigenous lives long after they were imposed, raising questions about sovereignty, cultural survival, and who gets to decide what it means to be Native.

Beyond her personal projects, Irvine’s work reflects a larger mission to change how Native communities are represented in media. She has documented Indigenous activism, everyday reservation life, and moments of quiet resilience that are often ignored by mainstream coverage. She is also a co-founder of Indigenous Photograph, a global directory created to help media organizations find and hire Indigenous photographers so Native stories are told by Native people.

Being featured in the PBS video places Irvine’s work on a national stage, but her focus remains rooted at home. By telling stories from Flathead and other Native communities, she continues to use photography as a bridge between worlds, one image at a time. Her work reminds viewers that Indigenous communities are not defined by statistics or stereotypes, but by people, histories, and futures that deserve to be seen with honesty and care.