America was built upon displacement of Indigenous people - the removal of Indians from our own lands where we had thrived. Oklahoma became the dumping ground for many of the tribes, and it developed into a netherworld where tribal people were cut off from access to economic resources and to traditional spiritual and community support. The discovery of oil and later development of nuclear and petrochemical industries in Oklahoma shoved Indians aside again - excluding us from the generated wealth - passing on to us a burden of contaminated land, air and water. This is the fallout from the government's Indian policy. It was no accident.

The photo in this collage is drawn from an earlier series called “Street Chiefs,” portraits of homeless Indian men in alleyways shadowed by glittering office buildings in downtown Oklahoma City - buildings constructed by wealth extracted from Indian lands. The federal government's policy of relocating Indians from their communities to urban areas has helped clear the way. The photographs remind us of the consequences for people who are landless in their own lands.

When I made these portraits, I never used a telephoto lens and didn't leave when I finished shooting. This is what I know: even living on the streets, we retain our spirit of resistance. We still speak our own languages. We understand survival - spiritual survival. We hold on to an Indigenous code. Fallout poisons us. We still survive.

Richard Ray Whitman