Who performs the Jingle Dress Dance?

And thus, the Jingle Dress Project was born. Tapahe launched the project last year with his two daughters, Erin and Dion Tapahe, and their friends, Sunni and JoAnni Begay, who are also Navajo (the dance is performed by women and Two-Spirit people, and originally derives from the Ojibwe tribe).

Where is Jingle Dress Dance performed?

Throughout Indian Country, women and girls don their Jingle Dresses and mesmerize powwows as they move lightly, kicking out their heels and bouncing to the drumbeat.

What tribes do the jingle dance?

Origin of the jingle dress is attributed to three different Ojibwa communities: the Mille Lacs, Red Lake Band of Chippewa and the Whitefish Bay Ojibwe. In both the Mille Lacs and Whitefish Bay versions, the dress and the dance appeared in a recurring vivid dream that was realized about the year 1900.

What does the Jingle Dress Dance represent?

The Jingle Dress is a prayer or medicine dance to help heal afflicted people. Most stories point to the origins among the Ojibwe of the Minnesota-Ontario boundary area, circa 1900 to 1920.

How many jingles are supposed to be on a jingle dress?

365 visible
These cones are traditionally made from rolled snuff can lids and hung from the dress with ribbon close to one another, so they make a melodic sound as the girls and women dance. Traditionally, the dress is adorned with 365 visible jingles, or cones.

How much does a jingle dress weigh?

The dresses can weigh 10 pounds or more. Legend holds that the jingle dress first appeared in the dream of an Ojibwe medicine man whose daughter fell ill. Once in her new dress, the sick girl still needed to be carried around the room. On her second trip around the room, she needed the help of others to walk.

When was Jingle Dress Dance performed?

The jingle dress tradition began around the year 1900 and is attributed to three Ojibwa communities: the Red Lake and Mille Lacs Bands of Ojibwa in Minnesota and the Whitefish Bay Ojibwe in Ontario, Canada.

How does the Jingle Dress Dance connect to Native American cultural practice?

Originally an Ojibwe tradition, the jingle dress has become pan-Indian, spreading into the Dakotas and across Indian country. Throughout history, women acted as caregivers and healers. Today, the jingle dress acts as a reference to the power of women.

Why are there 365 jingles on a jingle dress?

Jingle Dress Dancers are often called upon to dance for a sick community member and is considered a healing dance. Traditionally, 365 cones, called jingles, are sewn onto the dress representing each day of the year and a prayer is put into each cone. jingles are made from the tin lids of tobacco snuff cans.

How many jingles are on a jingle dress?

These cones are traditionally made from rolled snuff can lids and hung from the dress with ribbon close to one another, so they make a melodic sound as the girls and women dance. Traditionally, the dress is adorned with 365 visible jingles, or cones. Nowadays, these cones are often machine-made.

Why is the grass dance done?

Other origins attribute the grass dance to scouts blessing and flattening the grass for a ceremony, Dance or battle. The dancers would also then tie braided grass into their belts. Tying grass to the belt is believed to have led to the yarn and ribbons common today.