This book divides into two parts: the materials by Lippard (an introduction about the role of photography in the relationship between colonizers and the colonized, backed by an arresting, and sometimes troubling, collection of photos), and the twelve essays by Native authors, each about a individual photo.

Topically, the photos chosen by the essayists span family photos, photos of famous men (Ishi, Geronimo), photocollages by Native artists, photographs taken by white outsiders to Native society, or photographers like Frank Matsura, who are outsiders to both Native AND white society. Taken together, the essays explode the historical context set by Lippard in her introduction--far from the usual run of photographs of Native Americans, a la Curtis' "The Vanishing Race", these essays are narratives of resistance and self-determination.