Dancing for Healing and Wellness: The Grass Dance, the Jingle Dance
Chapters on Wellness
Food
Holistic Healing
Hopi Pottery
Dancing for Healing
Curanderismo
Indian Country, like most of the globe, finds itself vulnerable to the spread of Covid-19, with its own unique challenges in the face of this crisis (The coronavirus is exacerbating vulnerabilities). However, long before colonizing Europeans brought waves of disease that decimated Indigenous Nations (see Chapter 2 in the Sickness section), Native peoples had thousands of years of healing traditions upon which to draw in times of sickness – traditions that continue to evolve over time, but upon which they still draw.
Native dances performed at Powwows have their place in the larger practice of wellness, healing and well-being, among them, the grass dance and the jingle dance. Currently, in response to the pandemic spread of coronavirus, videos of Indigenous women jingle dancers performing the dance on their front porches, is going viral (Jingle dress dancers, dancing in the face of COVID-19).
For more about the history and practice of these dances take a listen to this interview with Anishninaabe author and educator Karen Pheasant-Neganigwane. Karen, of Manitoulin Island of the Wikwemikong First Nations, is an expert on Powwow, and Jingle Dress Dance:
Karen’s book: Powwow: A Celebration through Song and Dance
Additional resources on the spread of Covid-19 and Indian Country:
Indian Country Resources: Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Indian Health Service: Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Native News Online: More Cases Reported in Indian Country
Indian Country Today
Navajo Times