tribaltagz

I've been told by some Ottawa folks here in Oklahoma that they have the right to dance jingle. What made me think of this was someone in an earlier post talking about "southern style" jingle. The Ottawa have their tribal headquarters in Miami, OK. Anyone have any thoughts or comments about this?

Str8Dancer49

I've heard that too from some Ottawa ladies in OK... but then another friend of mine who is Odawa from Michigan said the exact opposite - she got the right to wear her jingles from Ojibwa people from Whitefish Bay Ontario.

It's also interesting that you never hear Potawatomie folks laying claim to the jingle dress (at least I haven't) - even though the Potawatomies, Odawas and Ojibwas were the "three fires" that make up the Anishnabeg confederacy.

I don't know that there's really a "southern style" unique to Oklahoma - maybe there's just an "Ojibwa style," an "everybody else style," and then a "really crazy neon-flourescent-metallic fabric with lots of lace and sequins and a whole bunch of eagle feathers that jinglers really aren't supposed to wear style" like you see on some folks in OK, but you REALLY see out here in NM....

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sbourlon

My daughter and I are both Citizen Band Potawatomi and jingles dancers. We live in Iowa but dance every year at our powwow in Shawnee OK. Up until this last year we have been the only two jingle dancers at grand entry of about 500 dancers. Most of the Potawatomis in OK know very little about the dress or the dance. One elder told us it was good to see a Potawatomi wearing a jingle dress again.

between2worlds

My understanding is that the jingle dress as medicine and ceremony belong to the oldest brother of our confederacy. Just because we are brothers, doesn't mean that the younger or middle brothers can claim what came in a dream to the people of the eldest one.

Again, I speak only for myself, but it would seem that if one wants to honor the dress as medicine then they would need to be given the permission from the Ojibwe to wear the dress. There are also certain things (to qualify for that permission) that need to be done by a woman to be able to wear the dress, but it is not my place to speak of such things.


Jingle dress style (which is what I call what I see at public pw's) seems to be a mishmash of things depending on the tribe that the woman or girl belongs to.