Joseph J. Allen

Joseph J. Allen is a citizen of the Sicangu Lakota Oyate. His Dakota ancestors were among those exiled from Mni Sota Makoce. He is also a direct descendant of the White Earth Ojibwe Nation. He lives in rural Sugarbush Township within the White Earth Nation in northern Minnesota.

His photographs are in the collections of the Weisman Art Museum, the Minnesota Historical Society, and the C. N. Gorman Museum at UC Davis. He is a past recipient of a McKnight Photography fellowship, an alumnus of Intermedia Arts’ Creative Community Leadership Institute, a 2012 Blandin Reservation Leadership fellow, and a Springboard for the Arts’ 20/20 Artist Fellow in 2020.

Joseph serves on the board of the Manoomin Arts Initiative and is a former board member of the Region 2 Arts Council. He is currently the director of the Gizhiigin Arts Incubator in Mahnomen, MN—a project of the White Earth Nation’s economic development division. Gizhiigin supports Indigenous artists by providing services and resources to advance their artistic and entrepreneurial goals.