This Fourth of July weekend, a group of Indigenous women in Detroit reclaimed space on a monument where Columbus once stood. (The Columbus statue, which has been on display at Detroit’s Randolph and East Jefferson intersection for more than a century, was removed back in June.) Taken on July 1 by Mexican photographer Rosa María Zamarrón, the striking portrait depicts three Indigenous jingle dressers—Teia McGahey, Hadassah GreenSky, and Joelle Joyner—standing at the foot of the monument. Courtney Miller, an Indigenous fancy dancer, also stands at the top where Columbus once stood.
The group of dancers who took over his post, in their traditional regalia no less, served as a powerful statement—one that highlighted the resiliency of Indigenous women while also acknowledging the shared experiences between Indigenous and Black people, both of whom have been oppressed by colonizers. “It was about being unified and being in solidarity with each other,” says Zamarrón, who organized the shoot. “It’s a shared struggle.” For GreenSky, who is Waganakising Odawa, the image went back to the idea of healing. “There’s a saying that goes, ‘You are an answer to your ancestors’ prayers,’” she says. “When I was around that monument, I felt like I could feel the entire timeline of trauma that this land has felt. We didn’t fight Christopher Columbus, but we definitely fought the spirits that were there.”
The Jingle Dress Dance began with the Mille Lacs Band of the Ojibwe Tribe in the early 1900s and became prevalent in the 1920s in Wisconsin and Minnesota (Great Lakes region) in the US and in Ontario, Canada.
The story is that the dress was first seen in a dream. A medicine man’s granddaughter grew sick, and as the man slept his Indian spirit guides came to him and told him to make a Jingle Dress for the little girl. They said if the child danced in it, the dress would heal her.
The Jingle Dress was made, and the tribe came together to watch the child dance. At first, the child was too sick to dance alone so her tribe carried her, but after some time, the little girl was able to dance alone, cured of her sickness.
It’s likely that the sickness the little girl was experiencing was a part of the 1918 flu pandemic, which hit the Native American communities hard close to the Great Lakes. This was closely followed by a federal ban on ritual dancing at Indian reservations in the 1920s. The dance has since been not only a ritual of healing but also one of pride.
So here's my theory why this is always going to be a fight and controversial:
Columbus was chosen as a mascot for Italian Americans as a symbol for Italian American contributions to our country. I fully understand that he has been revealed to be a *really* bad mascot for more reasons than I can articulate here – but the celebration of Columbus Day was in a large part a matter of easing ethnic tensions against Italian Americans, especially in the wake of the 1891 Louisiana Lynchings. So – by extension – attacks against Columbus statues are hard not to feel as attacks against Italian Americans *to* Italian Americans.
Native Americans see him as a symbol of colonialism, and therefore a symbol of oppression. It makes absolutely perfect sense that they are angry at the person who was Christopher Columbus, his effigies, and see him as a threat against Native Americans.
The problem is that both groups tend to only see these issues in parallel, and never the twain shall meet.
I'd rather see Columbus replaced by Enrico Fermi – someone actually worthy of respect, as well as being an actual Italian American virtually anyone can look up to – and I'd also like to see the profile of prominent Native Americans be raised with more official observances and monuments as well.
Triskellatri on November 12nd, 2021 at 19:43 UTC »
Article in Vogue
What Are Jingle Dresses?
Sigan on November 12nd, 2021 at 19:51 UTC »
Apparently the natives had sneakers! Neat!
AramaicDesigns on November 13rd, 2021 at 02:29 UTC »
So here's my theory why this is always going to be a fight and controversial:
Columbus was chosen as a mascot for Italian Americans as a symbol for Italian American contributions to our country. I fully understand that he has been revealed to be a *really* bad mascot for more reasons than I can articulate here – but the celebration of Columbus Day was in a large part a matter of easing ethnic tensions against Italian Americans, especially in the wake of the 1891 Louisiana Lynchings. So – by extension – attacks against Columbus statues are hard not to feel as attacks against Italian Americans *to* Italian Americans.
Native Americans see him as a symbol of colonialism, and therefore a symbol of oppression. It makes absolutely perfect sense that they are angry at the person who was Christopher Columbus, his effigies, and see him as a threat against Native Americans.
The problem is that both groups tend to only see these issues in parallel, and never the twain shall meet.
I'd rather see Columbus replaced by Enrico Fermi – someone actually worthy of respect, as well as being an actual Italian American virtually anyone can look up to – and I'd also like to see the profile of prominent Native Americans be raised with more official observances and monuments as well.