Jingle Dress Dancers Mix Tradition with Technology To Help Heal the World During Covid 19 Pandemic

The world is in crisis and once again a special group of Native women have rallied to address the problem.  This time jingle dress dancers are using technology to communicate their message of hope and healing to the world.  Using Facebook and Tik Tok challenges, Indigenous jingle dress dancing is going ‘viral’ on social media to help heal the world.

According to Ojibwe tradition, the jingle dress originated during a time of great trouble.  In 1918, the Spanish Flu Pandemic was ravaging the world.  By the time it died out, the pandemic had killed more people than the Great War that preceded it.  It was during this crisis, an Ojibwe father was worried about his young daughter.  She was showing flu-like symptoms and was growing weaker by the day.  Unable to sleep, the father had a series of visions about four women, each wearing a special dress in four different colors, covered with metal cones and dancing a special dance.  When he awoke, he made the dress for his daughter and taught her the dance steps he saw during his vision.  There was a drum ceremony taking place that weekend. He brought his daughter to the drum ceremony.  At first, she was lying on her side, taking it easy because she was so ill.  Later in the evening, they started to play the song from her father’s dreams and the little girl got up and began dancing.  By the end of the evening, she was recovered.

When the jingle dress originated, was also a time when the United States banned all ritualistic dancing, making the jingle dress dance a radical tradition from its very beginning.  The tradition is very much alive today, invigorated by the passion and creativity of a new generation of women.  The ziibaaska’igana,( the dress of explosive sound) is a common sight at pow wows and Native celebrations throughout North America.  The jingle dress and its rituals are closely associated with how active Ojibwe women were keeping up the health and spirit of their community.  When you become a jingle dress dancer, there’s a responsibility that comes with it.  “You’re dancing for the healing of your people,” explains Michele Hakala-Beeksma of the Grand Portage Band of Ojibwe.  “We literally say that dancing is prayer.  Every step you take is a prayer.”

Over a hundred years after the Spanish Flu pandemic, the world finds itself battling a similar crisis.  Using creative thinking and technology, jingle dress dancers are stepping up and dancing in the face of Covid 19.

Jingle dress dancers and singers on the Bad River Reservation in Wisconsin gathered in a casino parking lot while observing social distancing while performing for the community.  Many watched the 30 dancers from their cars.  “Jingle dresses are medicine dresses,” said Jody Big Boy, a Bad River tribal judge who helped organize the event.  “When the jingles start singing, we believe they help take our prayers and songs up to the Creator.  The dance can offer hope and healing to those who need it.”

Liz Salway is from the Wind River Reservation near Fort Washakie, WY.  Although not a jingle dress dancer herself, she has granddaughters who are.  As people continued to self-isolate, Salway wondered if there was there a way to get the dance out to the masses.  She put out a call on FaceBook asking jingle dress owners to dance on their front porches at 9:00 am on March 18, 2020.  The response was overwhelming.  Girls and women of all ages took up the challenge.  “We are not doing this for ourselves, but we are doing this for the world because we want to be able to fight this sickness together and our Native ways are the best to fight it.” 

Tik Tok is filled with videos of jingle dress dancers from Wisconsin, Minnesota, Texas, New Mexico, Utah, Canada and elsewhere dancing in snow-covered backyards, trails, outdoor basketball courts, and front porches, raising prayers to the Creator to end Covid 19 while bringing hope to their communities.  Ojibwe people believe in the healing of music and dance.  A century after that first pandemic when they danced as a prayer for healing, these Native first-responders are dancing again, praying for healing.  To jingle dress dancers everywhere, we say Chi Miigwetch.