Jingle Dress Dancers Help Minnesota and the Nation Heal

Minnesota jingle dress dancers helped the community and the nation heal in the wake of Trump’s violently brutal ICE actions that involved murdering two American citizens.

Minnesota Native American jingle dress dancers helped Minnesota and the nation heal in the wake of Trump’s violently brutal U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) actions that involved murdering two American citizens.

Healing through dance:

The jingle dancers held healing ceremonies on Sunday at the locations where observers Renee Macklin Good and Alex Pretti were murdered by federal immigration agents, according to Minnesota Public Radio. They reported that hundreds gathered for the ceremony, “many in ribbon skirts and regalia.”

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“The dress came to our people when there was a time of sickness. And so that’s what we do. We show up when there’s people suffering,” a lead organizer of the ceremony, Star Downwind, told MPR.

A jingle dancer at the ceremony, Caley Coyne, told MRP she usually dances a fancy shawl dance but brings out the jingle dress only when it’s really needed:

“To bring healing to a community that’s obviously already very hurt, just to try and uplift and heal and protect all of those around us.”

The jingle dance is characterized by light footwork danced close to the ground with the jingle of metal cones on the dresses.

It’s history is explained by the University of Minnesota:

Originally an Ojibwe tradition, the jingle dress has become pan-Indian, spreading into the Dakotas and across Indian country. 

Throughout history, women acted as caregivers and healers. Today, the jingle dress acts as a reference to the power of women. During the influenza outbreak, it was the women who performed the dance to heal the community. 

“We know today that there’s a lot about healing that can be done through medicine, but [there is] a psychological component that is less understood,” explains Child. “Their dance was part of this psychological component of illness.” Empowered to aid their community morale, Ojibwe women join together and dance for the health of their families and friends to this day.

Irony

It’s ironic of course that our nation’s First People are helping to bring healing to communities damaged by Trump’s thugs even as they detain not just US citizens, but also First Nation people.

In early 2026, reports indicate that ICE has been wrongfully targeting, stopping, and detaining U.S. citizen Native Americans, particularly in regions like Minneapolis and across Indian Country. These actions have been widely condemned by tribal leaders and the Native American Rights Fund, who describe them as racial profiling. 

Native Americans are of course US citizens, and yet they are reportedly being stopped and detained without probable cause, based reportedly on racial profiling.

Native Americans are being treated as if they are foreigners on land stolen from them.

These actions led the Oglala Sioux Tribe to ban ICE from their reservation.

“I don’t think there’s anything historically comparable,” David Wilkins, an expert on Native politics and governance at the University of Richmond, told the AP. “I find it terribly frustrating and disheartening.”

As Native Americans around the country rush to secure documents proving their right to live in the United States, many see a bitter irony.

“As the first people of this land, there’s no reason why Native Americans should have their citizenship questioned,” said Jaqueline De León, a senior staff attorney with the nonprofit Native American Rights Fund and member of Isleta Pueblo.

In the jingle dance, we see the power of community and creativity, and we are given support and uplifting that so many of us need right now. Another gift from people who understand oppression.

What are your thoughts on the jingle dance? Let’s talk about it in the comments below.