If you are new to this blog, you may not yet know it’s main and driving purpose. Photographer Julia Dean and writer A. Jay Adler are traveling the U.S., visiting all the corners of Indian Country, as we attempt to document the nature and state of Native American life in the country today. This story remains, unfortunately, the most neglected and underreported social story in the United States. This blog, the sad red earth, is an account of our experiences as we live them. At the end of our travels we intend to produce a book of photography and prose entitled Native Now: the Lives of Native Americans in the Twentieth Century.

Currently, we are financing our travels and work entirely ourselves. But there is a chance to change that. The gaudy “badge” or “button” just to the right represents a photo competition being sponsored by Lenovo and Microsoft. The prize: $50,000 to finance a “dream” photography assignment. Native Now is that dream for the two of us. If you would, please take a look around the blog. Explore and read. You can learn about the work we have already done, and you can learn about who we are. If the work we are doing seems worthy of support, then take a moment to click on that outrageously yellow button, in order to vote for us. (Julia, technically. It is a photo competition.)

The project needs to make it into the top 20 to become a finalist eligible for ultimate selection by the jury of professional judges. You’ll be taken to the competition website where you will have to register for your vote to count. We hope you will think it worth the effort. Thanks so much for your time.

JD & AJA