Photographer Jaida Grey Eagle Speaks to Students During Common Experience

January 12, 2026

Documentary photographer Jaida Grey Eagle spoke with students during Common Ex on Monday, January 12th. Common Ex is a series of presentations where students often hear about the artistic life from practicing artists, many of whom are Perpich graduates. Grey Eagle shared her journey into photography and the responsibility that comes with telling other people’s stories.

Jaida Grey Eagle curated “In Our Hands: Native Photography, 1890 to Now”, the largest photography exhibition in the Minneapolis Institute of Art’s history

She began by introducing herself in the original language of the land and sharing her Indigenous name, Medicine Bear Woman, given to her in ceremony. “My dad named me when I was little,” she said. “He said I was like a bear because I didn’t cry, I growled.”

Though she now works all over the country and even internationally, her path to photography was not straightforward. Jaida was initially discouraged from pursuing it as a career. “My counselor told me photography wasn’t a real job.” She first studied psychology before following her passion to the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe. “I was skipping classes to be in the darkroom,” she said. “It was my passion getting in the way of my schooling.”

Grey Eagle’s career took shape during the Dakota Access Pipeline protests at Standing Rock, where she began documenting community, resistance, and resilience. With limited equipment and no publishing connections, she photographed simply because she felt compelled to. “I just did it because I felt like it was in my heart to do it,” she said.

That commitment to ethical storytelling continues to define Jaida’s work. As a photojournalist covering Indigenous and marginalized communities, she emphasized respect and honesty. “I’m always looking for that human connection,” she explained. “It’s out of respect for the people, and it’s respect for their story.”

Jaida Grey Eagle spoke with students during Common Ex on Monday, January 12th. After the presentation, she is pictured with several students who wished to speak with her.

She also spoke critically about how Indigenous people have historically been portrayed in photography. “If you Google ‘Native American photography’, it’s always photos from 100 years ago,” Jaida said. “It feeds into the erasure of Indigenous people, because we’re obviously alive and living today.”

Her work as a curator helped challenge that narrative through “In Our Hands: Native Photography, 1890 to Now”, the largest photography exhibition in the Minneapolis Institute of Art’s history, showcasing Indigenous photographers from 1890 to the present. The project was created collaboratively, a point she stressed. “It wasn’t just mine; it was everybody’s,” she said. Displaying a photo of a dozen or more individuals to the group of students, Jaida said, “That’s how many people it took to make this happen.”

Now a full-time freelance photojournalist and new mother, she balances meaningful work with personal boundaries. Still, she encouraged students to trust themselves and take initiative. “One of the biggest transitions [into adulthood] is just giving yourself permission to do it,” she said. “I was always looking for the ‘more adult’ adult, then I realized I had to just be that person.”

Jaida Grey Eagle’s message was clear: storytelling matters, and who holds the camera matters just as much.

Jaida Grey Eagle is an Oglala Lakota freelance documentary photographer currently located in St. Paul, MN. She is a member of the Women’s Photograph, Indigenous Photograph, and 400 Years Project. Jaida served as a Report for America Fellow with the Sahan Journal as a photojournalist and won several awards during her time as a fellow, including MN Society of Professional Journalist Best News Photography in 2022 and 2023. Jaida is a co-producer on the Sisters Rising Documentary, which is the story of six Native American women reclaiming personal and tribal sovereignty in the face of ongoing sexual violence against Indigenous women in the United States. The piece has recently received an Honorable Mention at the Big Sky Doc Festival. In 2019, Jaida joined the Minneapolis Institute of Arts as a Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community (SMSC) Native American Fellow and co-curated the native photography show titled “In Our Hands”. She holds her Bachelor of Fine Arts, emphasizing Photography from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She is available for assignment. She has recently contributed to the New Yorker, Smithsonian Magazine, New York Times Magazine, Washington Post, ProPublica, Fujifilm, The Urban Institute, The Wall Street Journal, and Netflix.