In this documentary from Twin Cities PBS, Ojibwe stories tell of the beginnings and the healing powers of the Jingle Dress Dance, a popular tradition throughout Native communities.
The Mille Lacs band of Ojibwe produced the video and consulted with a lot of their members about the jingle dress.
It’s long been a desire of Larry “Amik” Smallwood to tell the story he heard growing up of how the jingle dress came to be.
“I used to hear my grandma, Lucy Clark, tell the story of where the jingle dress came from,” said Amik. “Back in ’79 when I worked at Nay Ah Shing, Ben Sam and Fred Benjamin, both now passed on, also told me the story about the jingle dress.”
“I’ve traveled around and heard stories about the jingle dress and they’re all basically the same, but there are some variations,” he said. “I’ve been wanting to do a documentary for the past seven years so we could get the story straight about where the dress originated.”
The full documentary is available to stream online. Please visit http://www.tpt.org/the-jingle-dress-tradition/ to watch!
Last Updated on February 7, 2024 by Paul G
