Z-Management for Das Magazin
01 January, 1994
Tokahewin Clifford (22) with her two sons. They belong to the Lakotas, native Americans in South Dakota, USA. The defeat at the Battle of Wounded Knee in 1890 spelled the end of the freedom of the Lakota, when the US cavalry killed 200 of them. Self-determination and the recovery of the Black Hills territory are the goals the Lakota have set themselves. They believe they are the Seventh Generation, who according to a prophesy by holy man Black Elk will recover the power lost when their land was conquered. The need to reconcile spiritual wealth and material poverty, dreams and the harsh realities of everyday life, characterizes their existence. Numbering some 20,000, today's Lakota live in the Pine Ridge Reservation. Katrin Freisager: 'My aim was to produce images which did not reflect the romantic cliché we Europeans have of native Americans. I portrayed many ordinary young people, and talked with them about their future and their dreams. I wanted to find out where the new generation of Lakotas stands today and what conditions they face in the Pine Ridge Reservation, a poverty-stricken area in the heart of the affluent USA. Das Magazin made it possible for me to work on this story. I returned to South Dakota for three consecutive years to shoot material for a book about young Lakotas.' (World Press Photo retrospective Children's Jury exhibition, 2003)
Katrin Freisager
Katrin Freisager (Zurich, Switzerland, 1960) completed her photography studies at the Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst in Zürich in 1987. Since then, she has worked in Europe ...
