Brainerd History Week participants learned about an important-and beautiful-part of Ojibwe heritage Wednesday.
Jamie Edwards of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe and his daughter Sierra presented on the tradition of jingle dresses.
Edwards showed a documentary film created by the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe and Twin Cities PBS called "The Jingle Dress Tradition." The dresses are made with bell-shaped metal pieces, which jingle as the wearer dances. According to the film, the dresses and the dances associated with them date back about a century, to a time of great upheaval in America.
Historians trace the origins of the jingle dress tradition to the time of World War I and the Spanish Flu outbreak, which both killed millions throughout the globe. The jingle dress dance, however, has healing properties in Ojibwe lore: one of the first dances healed a little girl who was laying sick near the dancing site. As the dance went on, she gradually sat up and then began to dance as well.
When crafting the dresses, tradition holds that the maker must try to exude a positive mentality when sewing, or else their negative thoughts will seep into the dress itself. The initial dresses were based on four colors, but over the decades the designs have evolved to include a panoply of colors and even hand fans as well.
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A senior at Brainerd High School, Sierra demonstrated the jingle dress dance as Chris Gahbow drummed and sang. Gahbow's daughters Eva, 8, and Addison, 7, later joined Edwards in dancing.
Elder and younger Edwards then answered audience questions about the jingle dresses and Ojibwe culture in general. Jamie Edwards encouraged the audience to attend the Band's powwow at Hinckley this weekend to learn more.
Professor Tadd Johnson from the University of Minnesota, Duluth also gave a short presentation on the history of the Ojibwe in the area.
ZACH KAYSER may be reached at 218-855-5860 or Zach.Kayser@brainerddispatch.com . Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ZWKayser .
