Jingle Dress
Originating
from the tribes of Canada, the Jingle dress is relatively
new to the southern plains. In the last few years, ladies of other tribes have
begun to learn the dance and perform in competition. The Jingle Dress is also
called a prayer dress, meant as a way to heal sickness - to heal any kind of
mental, physical and emotional illness - that might plague a person. The dress
has many different versions of origin stories, but
they all have one central meaning: the dress was made for healing. Here is one
version of the story. A medicine man's granddaughter was very ill. He had a
dream in which he was told to make a Jingle Dress. In his dream, he was told
how to make the dress, and was shown the dance steps. When he awoke, he and his
wife proceeded to assemble the dress as described in the dream. When they finished
the dress, they and others brought his granddaughter the dress and she put it
on. She was taken out into the dance circle, and at first, had to be carried.
As she went around, she was able to start walking by the end of the song she
was well enough to dance