- Welcome to the premiere episode of our 16th season of Native Report.

Thank you for tuning in, I'm Ernie Stevens.

- And I'm Rita Aspinwall.

(gentle chiming bells) On this edition of Native Report, we'll learn about Art Heals: The Jingle Dress Project.

- [Ernie] and then we met biologists Matthew Teutimez.

- We also learn what we can do to lead healthier lives and hear from our elders on this edition of Native Report.

(gentle music) - [Narrator] Production funding for Native Report is provided in part by The Blandin Foundation.

(upbeat music) (bright upbeat music) (bright upbeat music continues) - Photographer Eugene Tapahe along with his family and friends is taking the healing power of the Jingle Dress across Indian country and documenting their journey as part of Art Heals: The Jingle Dress Project.

Their travels brought them to Minnesota, which is where the Jingle Dress has its beginnings.

Join us now, as we learn about the Jingle Dress Project.

(gentle upbeat music) (playful music) - My name is Erin Tapahe, I'm a member of the Navajo Nation and we are part of the Art Heals: The Jingle Dress Project.

And we're here in Minnesota for the purpose of dancing and healing.

(singing in foreign language) - The heart of our idea is to actually go out and to heal the land and heal the people.

And 100 years ago, the Jingle Dress Dance originated with the Ojibewea people during the pandemic in 1918.

And so we kind of feel this is a great time for us to do what we're doing.

And there's parallels between our project and that.

(singing in foreign language) - I'd always heard the story about the Jingle Dress Dance.

A tradition that there was a little girl who became very ill, near death.

Her father had this vision that ultimately saved her life and this little girl became the first Jingle Dress Dancer.

(playful music) - So my name is Eugene Tapahe, I'm with Tapahe photography.

I'm the owner and photographer.

The project I'm working on right now is called the Art Heals: The Jingle Dress Project.

It actually originated from a dream I had.

I dreamt one night that I was actually in Yellowstone National Park.

And I was sitting in a Greenfield and I was watching Bison kind of grazing out on the field.

And as I was sitting there just enjoying the scenery, enjoying the moment.

I realized that all of a sudden these Jingle Dress Dancers started coming onto the grass.

And then all of a sudden they started...

The song started and they were started to dance.

And it was really beautiful.

And I really took it to heart that this was a sign for something that was... Something that I needed to do.

(playful music) So when we do go out to the lands, we're actually going to places where our ancestors have walked before.

And so it makes us feel good when we'd go out there because we're trying to also along with the healing, we're also looking at it in the sense of the reclamation of native lands.

Reclaiming the land and also we're there to heal the land and we're there to heal the people that are supporting us.

And also just all people in general, during this pandemic.

- I'm Brenda Child, the professor of American Studies and American Indian Studies at the university of Minnesota.

I'm Red Lake Ojibewea.

And I've been working on the history of the Ojibewea Jingle Dress Dance tradition for quite a number of years now.

I knew that the Jingle Dress was an Ojibewea tradition and then it was kind of regional for many years.

It was practiced by Ojibewea people of the great lakes of the United States and Canada.

And then very quickly it moved to our Dakota neighbors but it was sort of a regional tradition among Ojibewea and Dakota people.

Until what the later decades of the 20th century when it became kind of a Pan Indian phenomenon.

- I went to Standing Rock.

That was where I had my calling to become a Jingle Dress dancer.

And so ever since then, it's always been tied with my purpose of appealing the land and healing those who are in need.

(bells creaking) - I had always heard the story about the Jingle Dress Dance tradition, that there was this little girl who became very ill near death.

Her father had this vision that ultimately saved her life.

And this little girl became the first Jingle Dress Dancer.

And I thought that was a very powerful story but what's interesting to me is that when I went looking at the history of the Jingle Dress and I knew about it growing up at Red Lake.

My grandmother, born in the early 20th century was a Jingle Dress Dancer all her life.

She lived into her '80s.

And so it was something I always knew about.

In 1918, 19', there was a terrible pandemic that was devastating to American Indians.

So as well as other people in the world.

And who would have predicted that a whole new healing tradition would come out of that terrible pandemic.

One that's still with us a century later.

Every time you go to a Pow wow and you see the Jingle Dress Dance performed, you're seeing history.

It's about the pandemic of a century ago.

So American Indians are very good at remembering the epidemic of a century ago.

What's interesting, here we are figuring out now in another pandemic, what the Corona virus is all about.

The Influenza 1918, 19, It was very interesting too because it was very deadly to young people.

And that's considered a very worrisome thing in public health when young people die.

But there was something about that virus that a lot of young people were susceptible to it.

Now we find with the Corona virus it's the older people who are susceptible to it.

This pandemic tells me as a historian is how poor we are at predicting the future.

A lot of people have said, "Oh this is what the United States "is gonna be like after the pandemic.

"This is what Indian country "is gonna be like after the pandemic."

We don't really know what the future is.

- And just being able to have this project to work on during this time.

It's really healed me.

And I know it's really empowered the girls to be able to be a part of this project.

For the locations, we've selected our areas where we know that people are gonna love to see those images that we've taken there with the girls in the Jingle Dresses.

And then also knowing that those lands right now are needing healing.

And so that's one of the biggest reasons we've chose the areas we've been to.

And then when they get in front of the camera their strength and their courage and the women they are, it comes through in the images.

And I at times just cry because it's just so amazing to me how wonderful their lives are gonna be when they become leaders and when they become our future.

(singing in foreign language) - It's been incredible to be here because usually we have four dancers, but today we have more dancers and it's been a blast to be able to interact with them and to see the differences in Jingle justice.

And it's the sacrifices of our ancestors that we will continue on their legacy.

And I think that's the important parts of dancing on the land that they once were.

And my dad had the dream of this project.

And it's been giving us purpose because we know that this purpose is going to be more than just the project now and visiting different locations.

It's gonna have a lasting impact on the public.

(playful music) (enchanted flute music) (upbeat music) (speaks in foreign language) I'm Dr. Arne Vainio.

This is where my father committed suicide.

And this is alongside a busy road and cars go flying by here.

And there's a light pole behind me and cable holding that up.

And it's not an idyllic beautiful spot.

And it was important for me to come out here to start this.

There's a stigma attached to suicide and people don't talk about it.

When my grandmother died, my father wasn't even listed as one of her children because of his suicide.

And people don't talk about it.

They don't mention names.

They don't bring up stories of people who committed suicide.

And it's like they're forgotten.

And the people who love them and miss them and want to hear their names get left out.

(gentle flute music) This brings back a lot of memories, and they aren't necessarily good.

My father would have been almost 100 years old now.

He was finished and a lot of those old things can make it almost that old.

My grandma mother died at 92 and my grandfather died at 94.

My aunt died at 94.

My dad's sister.

He would have been around for a long, long time.

And would have been a part of who I became and who I am.

This is a hard subject to bring up.

It's hard for people to talk about.

It's hard for people to listen to, but it's important.

There's snow on the ground.

So when we tell our creation stories, as Ojibewea people.

There's a pandemic and people are isolated and alone.

The days are shorter and the nights are long.

And seasonal effective disorder is part of that depression spectrum that leads sometimes to suicide.

And it's time we talk about that.

(gentle flute music) The name should not be forgotten.

We put a call out for the names of those we've lost the suicide.

And we want to remember them here today.

Many of you may have been hesitant and we understand you're hurt.

And we also honor the names not sent in.

We are a community and we are in an exclusive club.

No one asked to join.

Our purpose is to support each other and leave our self blame behind.

We hurt because we loved someone.

We need each of us and we need each other.

This is a drum given to me by an elder, (indistinct) And he died before... Before I was ready.

And before I knew all the songs.

An his wasn't suicide, his was cancer.

But Herb told me that those songs need to be sung.

And this is one of them.

And this song is... An old one.

Need to say it was lost for a long time.

And then it came back.

And when he heard this song, it always made him cry.

And I know other songs, but it's, for some reason this is the one I always end up singing when I'm doing any kind of medicine stuff.

The name of the song is "HeartBreak."

And this isn't for the people who have committed suicide.

This is for us.

This is for us left behind.

And I don't think I need to explain heartbreak.

That's in all of us that are left behind.

So... (drum music) (singing in foreign language) (speaks in foreign language) Thank you for listening to me.

(gentle flute music) We remember those names.

And we remember we're here for each other.

- Matthew Teutimez is the tribal biologist for the Gabrieleno band of mission Indians and is involved with the California EPA.

And has spearheaded indigenous guardian programs at local museums and schools.

He also is battling a blood disorder and is a big champion of using herbal medicine to treat himself and elders in his community.

(upbeat music) - [Natasha] Matthew Teutimez is the tribal biologist for the Gabrieleno-Kizh tribe.

Using his background in science Teutimez has learned to modernize traditional medicines to treat himself and others.

- So I'm one of the fortunate ones in our tribe that was able to attain a bachelor's of science in the biology, as well as my master's.

But for me, my true education came in with my uncle who taught me the traditional knowledge about our plants and our animals.

And taught me the uses and the benefits in terms of taking the science and the tradition and putting them together to make sense.

And what that made me realize is that science is only now documenting what our families have always known for eons and eons.

One of the main concepts that my uncle teaches us is how the plants and the animals were actually created before us.

They were put on this earth prior to humans.

Therefore they are older than us.

They are our elders.

Our elders are meant to teach us.

I unfortunately was born with a genetic disorder called hemophilia.

And that disorder throughout my lifetime has caused a lot of pain.

I was getting overwhelmed.

So I'm taking 1000s of milligrams of Ibuprofen, of Tylenol.

These were very toxic to my inner organs, mainly my liver, my kidneys.

It was actually literally killing me.

That detriment led me to go to my uncle and say, "Hey, you know, are there any plants "that I can use that will help me?"

And so he then took me out and started showing me all the different plants.

And I was familiar with these plants already.

I just didn't know their capacities.

As our native plants work locally, where they only go to the spot that is hurting 'cause that's where you apply it.

And they do not have to go through your organs and do damage as they're going through.

Without my uncle providing that traditional medicine knowledge, the ecological knowledge that our tribes still has, that information would have been lost.

And I would still be taking Tylenol and Ibuprofen and potentially not talking to you today.

It was that serious.

- Teutimez grows plants at several local gardens to educate the public about the plants their tribe uses traditionally.

So do you wanna tell tell me a little bit about the plants here?

- I would love to.

Today we're here at the homestead museum, a beautiful location that has actually planted native varieties here that give an example of many of the different native plants that we have here.

And a lot of them are medicinal plant.

This particular guy is one of our favorites.

This one is Willow.

And so also Willow has a high amount of a compound within just its new growth of Salison.

And Salison is a very, very useful compound.

And that's the same compound That's on the wart remover, same compound that's within the active ingredients of Aspirin.

All of these medicines that we readily use today all were derived from this plant.

- [Natasha] While at the homestead museum, we sat down with Andrew Salas the tribal chairman of the Kizh nation.

He told us the tribe was named for their dome style huts made of Willow.

- The history of our tribe goes back thousands and thousands of years.

Us personally, our tribe, our nation.

We go back, it's estimated 12,000 years but we like grandma and grandpa always said it goes back further.

We're the DNA to this area.

- So what did it mean for you guys when the Spanish came and started the mission system?

How does that make California tribes different?

- Well, when the Spanish arrived here, it was basically the beginning of the end for our people.

We thought as the oral history goes is our ancestors believed that they were gods of some kind but it turned in more later, I would say into a nightmare.

The sorrow that I have behind the mission is the atrocities that happened there.

Pertaining to my ancestors.

- And the Gabrieleno-Kizh tribe isn't federally recognized yet?

- No.

- Tell me what that means for you and for your father.

- I didn't even introduce my father.

My father is Ernie Perez Teutimez Salas.

He's our chief, he's our spiritual leader of our tribe.

And through him, we have a rich history.

We're the foundation of California history here in Southern California in this early basin.

I mean, we're the direct descendants of this area.

And we have everything to prove it but yet we still struggle for that federal recognition.

- [Natasha] Despite the tribe not being federally recognized they still help the government protect the land.

In 2018, Teutimez became the first member of a non-federally recognized tribe to be elected to the California Environmental Protection Agencies tribal advisory committee.

The committee helps Cali PA look at issues with an indigenous perspective.

Teutimez has advised on projects like putting fish back in the L.A. river and helping the state reach it's air quality goal of zero emissions.

- So in our capacity of being on the tribal advisory council with California EPA.

We get to meet with different boards, departments or organizations and discuss a lot of the strategies that they're utilizing to help clean up our environment.

And one of those particular meetings was with the air resources board.

And during this meeting, they were describing to us how they're going to create these little sensors.

And so I'm thinking, hold on, do they know about black Sage?

So this point right here is black Sage.

For environmental purposes, what we're finding out is that because this plant is so sensitive to many of our toxic compounds that are being emitted by many of our vehicles and our machines that are going on in our environment.

It can be used as an indicator of the air quality.

And so our plants have so many capacities to them 'cause when we go back to our story of the Willow it's about those relationships and not just our relationships with humans, it's our relationships with those that have also been given the breath of life.

And that's these guys.

And that's what's important.

(gentle flute music) - I'm Brenda Child, a professor of American Studies and American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota.

I'm Red Lake Ojibewea.

I guess I had the way I feel about the pandemic is that I never really wanted to see one happen, but if another one had to happen, I'm kind of glad it happened during my lifetime.

Because as someone who studied and thought for years about the pandemic of 1918, 19.

It's interesting to see, to be part of society, to be part of Indian Country during this pandemic.

We know that when we get very sick, there is your body has to recover.

But what we also perhaps are less attentive to is the psychological healing.

I know people who've had chronic disease or sudden illness, all talk about the psychological dimension.

I think Western medicine until recent years has dismissed the psychological dimensions of healing.

And this is something that Ojibewea in American Indians know very well.

They know that art and dance and songs and beauty the creation of a Jingle Dress, are all part of healing.

And it's when art becomes medicine.

(gentle flute music) - [Ernie] For more information about Native Report.

Look for us on the web @nativereport.org on Facebook and on YouTube.

- Thank you for spending this time with your friends and neighbors across Indian country.

I'm Rita Aspinwall.

- And I'm Ernie Stevens.

We'll see you next time on Native Report.

(upbeat music)