Jackson was born on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, location of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation, but, like many Native American children, he was sent to a federal American Indian boarding school at age 8. He first started photographing in high school and pursued art through undergraduate and graduate studies, eventually becoming a heralded artist and teacher whose humorous and critical work deals with cultural identity, representation, and appropriation.

While working on his MFA, Jackson created a series titled An Indian in San Francisco. Mixing casual clothes with a ceremonial headdress, he photographed himself doing everyday activities—walking on the beach, sightseeing, taking public transit—all without notice from others, a critique of stereotypes that contribute to Indigenous erasure and invisibility. Although many non-Native people think the country’s Indigenous population only lives in isolated, rural areas, by the end of the 1990s two-thirds resided in urban centers.

—Text taken from the Carter Handbook (2023)