kellyrko

Hello im a Navajo, and i want to become a Jingle Dress Dancer. The thing is i need to know how many rows of jingles to put and the fan, and also the feather that goes on top of your head or the one that hangs off to the side. These maybe some dumb questions to ask but i want to know. Well basically i want to know everything. If you can e-mail me at kellyrko@yahoo.com and tell me what should and should not be proper. Thanks. I would appreciate it alot. :)

musicedu77

Usually 5 rows of jingles is pretty good...i would say anywhere from 5-7..it all depends on how much weight you can carry cuz you will be dancing in this dress...

the fan...well this all depends..if you got your tribal papers i would say an eagle fan but when you get eagle feathers make sure they are card carried as well otherwise you get in a load of trouble with the law..
if you go into canada i think they dont have a law about this but when you come back its a different ball game so carry your card/paper.

if you dont have any papers, then you can always use like white turkey for flat fans and do some thread work on it and then bead the fan handle...that would look pretty...if your using wing you can buy on nocbay.com full set of dark turkey pointers and i think they have it on the bone still but you can buy some really nice fan handle blanks from places like wanderingbull.com or see on ebay about anyone selling blanks..

if you go to the general arts and crafts section area look for thread on fan construction as they will give you tips and pointers on how to make a fan.

with the hair feather, you could wait until someone gives you one or if you are card carried you can find eagle plumes by places like the zoo cuz birds are always molting so you could at least find a plume that way... or ask the card carried vendor who you would get your eagle feathers from if you can buy plumes off of him

with positon the drop i was told it is hanged closest to your heart but then again that goes with what you are told...each tribe has different ways of how stuff goes..
how to construct one using eagle plumes i'll post again in a few hang on

musicedu77

Here are some handy links you can go to it's know how to do stuff..
http://nocbay.com/learningcircle/pdf...eDressCone.pdf
http://nocbay.com/learningcircle/pdfs/9_FlatFan.pdf
http://nocbay.com/learningcircle/pdf...20feathers.pdf
http://nocbay.com/learningcircle/pdf...ngFeathers.pdf
http://nocbay.com/learningcircle/pdf...sHairPlume.pdf
http://nocbay.com/learningcircle/pdf...g%20FanWeb.pdf

musicedu77

I would like to edit this again so I would like retract what I said about buying eagle feathers from vendor because even if the vendor is card caried he/she can not sell eagle feathers apprently from what I just was told so forget that suggestion ...best way is to find them at zoo..

~Jingle Pejuta~

I was going to say I've never seen a feather vendor before.

Like she said the number of rows is really up to you. I was taught 7 but I've seen as little as 3 or 4. I would ask the women of my tribe what I should do and how to go about things. If you don't live around them then I would ask the women of my community.

I also would search the archives here on this board. There has been a lot of posts about this.

Good luck!!

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"Such,things though rare in time, are frequent in eternity. -- Bryon, "Cain"

anishinabealltheway

I'm pretty sure the zoo can't give you eagle feathers. You need to be card carrying and send in a request for a permit to the department of interior migratory bird permit office. In about 6 months to 4 years you will receive your feathers depending on how many and what kind you want. The fan should be made of Eagle tail feathers.

Many Ojibwa are very picky about how these dresses are made and how you should act if you chose to wear them. I think you should talk to one of these ladies.

Also I recomend that if you don't know the origin of this dress you should learn it. It is more sacred than most.

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Niin sa, Chi anung