The Jingle Dress Dance The Jingle Dress Dance evolved from Mille Lacs, Minnesota, according to one account. In a Holy Man's dream, four women wearing jingle dresses appeared before him. They showed him how to make the dress, what types of songs went with them and how the dance was performed. The dresses made a pretty sound to him. Upon awakening, he and his wife made four of the dresses, called the four women who in his dream wore them, dressed them in the dresses, brought them forth at a dance and told the people about the dream and that this is the way the medicine women were to dress and dance. From there, the jingle dress spread throughout the Chippewa/Ojibway territories. In the late 1920's, the White Earth people gave the jingle dress to the Lakota (Sioux) and it spread westward into the Dakotas and Montana. But until recently, the jingle dress had all but died out. Now interest in jingle dress dancing is rekindled, and women from many tribes are beginning to make and wear them. The jingle dress is not likely to be mistaken for anything else. The dress made of cloth has hundreds of metal cones or jingles covering it. Jingle dress dancers must keep time to the music and stop when the music does with both feet on the ground. (Many Jingle Dancers make a vow to dance for the healing of the Earth.) It should be noted that powwow practices vary from region to region in United States and Canada. Sincere thanks and acknowledgment to the American Indian Education Committee of the Minnesota State Board of Education who sponsored those who wrote the Ojibwe content of this unit.

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