After the Traditional and Fancy dancers, the Grass dancers enter the arbor to dance. Grass dancers tend
to say that their dance is the oldest style. Their movements imitate prairies chickens or other birds,
dipping low to the ground and circling in a crouching posture (Braine 1995:24). The Grass Dance is said
to have been based on the old war society dances of the northern plains Indians. This style is fast
stepping with the dancer appearing to nearly fall off balance but catching himself in the nick of time.
The regalia is much different, consisting of long colorful yarn fringe and ribbons hanging from the
shoulders, waist, and legs. No bustle is worn. Like the Fancy dancers, they wear beautiful beaded
headbands as well as a roach. They carry eagle feather fans, whips, wands and small hoops. As they dance
the long fringe simulates the movement of the grasses of the prairie swaying in the wind (Ancona
1993:39).
The next category of dancers is the Jingle or Jingle Dress dancers. A younger woman's dance, the Jingle
dance requires a graceful style of hopping footwork with a zig zag path while dancing around the arbor.
The hopping style causes the cones to jingle in time with the drum. The Jingle dancer carries an eagle
feather fan in one hand while the other hand rest on her hip. The metal cones, made of rolled up tin tops
from chewing tobacco cans, are sewed all around the dress in rows from top to bottom so they strike one
another creating the tingling sound. According to one story, an Ojibwa shaman had a daughter that was
very ill. He dreamed of a dress that had a shell hanging from it representing every day of the year. A
voice told him in his dream that if his daughter danced in this dress, she would become well again. Upon
awaking from his dream, he made the dress and asked his daughter to dance in it. She danced in the shell
dress and become well. This dance nearly disappeared but had a revival among the young women who now
make the jingles from the tin tops (Ancona 1993:40-41).
At powwows, very small Indian children also dance, to the delight of everyone. They are all called into
the arbor to dance at the same time. Some are so small they can barely walk! They wear smaller versions
of the dance regalia and are always adorable. Most dance like mad while some are so shy and scared they
end up standing in one place and crying. When the dancing is over the announcer calls them to the
announcer's booth and he hands each money, usually a dollar bill, and tells them how good they performed
(Braine 1995:30-31).
