NETT LAKE- Four years after the death of Bois Forte elder and traditional healer Gene Goodsky, his granddaughter Ashley Goodsky is organizing a special jingle dress healing dance she hopes will bring people together through tradition, remembrance, and healing.
The special is planned for Saturday night, June 6, during the annual Sah Gii Bah Gah Powwow at Nett Lake. Unlike many powwow specials, Ashley said this one will not be a competition.
“When you hear special, you hear a contest, but this is not a contest,” she said. “Wanting to pay out all the dancers after the special is my way of showing appreciation and thanking them for showing up, sharing their teachings, and being there for one another.”
Goodsky said the idea has been building since her grandfather died from COVID in 2022.
“It took me four years to coordinate this event,” she said. “I had no idea what to do, where to go, how to start.”
But this year felt different.
“This being his fourth year that he’s passed, I’m like, if now is not the time, there’s never going to be a time,” she said.
For Goodsky, the jingle dress dance has been part of her life almost from the beginning. She said she was around powwows and jingle dresses “ever since I could walk,” and won Junior Miss Sah Gii Bah Gah when she was about nine years old.
Today, she describes dancing as something that keeps her grounded and moving forward.
“It’s like it’s just an energetic pull,” she said. “It’s the drums that just keep me going forward. The traditions with our jingle dress and all our teachings is that you keep moving forward. You don’t go backwards, you keep going forward.”
She said the old-style jingle dress tradition centers on healing, both personal and communal.
Until last year, every jingle dress Goodsky owned had been given to her by relatives or community members.
“People gave them to me because they knew I was gonna use them,” she said.
Some of those dresses she wore for more than 20 years. One was cut off during a medical emergency. Another slowly lost its jingles over time.
“You use things enough, they’re just gonna fall apart,” she said. “This is what happens.”
Last year, she bought her first jingle dress, one she said immediately felt right. Its colors reflected teachings passed down from her grandfather, particularly blue and green symbolizing sky and earth, along with red and orange representing missing and murdered Indigenous women and children.
“This dress is calling my name,” she recalled thinking.
Goodsky said the healing focus of the special feels especially appropriate given her grandfather’s lifelong work helping others through traditional teachings and medicine.
“He bent over backwards to help anybody that he could,” she said.
During the pandemic, she helped him organize Zoom teaching sessions that evolved into broader cultural gatherings focused on healing songs and jingle dress teachings.
“COVID was trying to keep us away from gathering,” she said. “But this was more than just a gathering, it was in us.”
Goodsky said the losses that inspired the special did not end with her grandfather’s death. Her mother died in December after years of struggles with mental health and substance abuse, a loss Ashley said still weighs on her.
“Mental health, it can be so heavy,” she said. “My mom struggled with mental health for a long time, especially after my sister died. She was never the same.”
Goodsky said the grief and unanswered emotions surrounding those losses helped deepen her determination to organize the healing special.
“This jingle dress healing special is being done not really for myself, but for everybody in our community,” she said. “We’ve just had so much loss with death and mental health and addiction.”
She hopes the special will also help strengthen connections for younger dancers and families. Already, she said, people have been talking about making new jingle dresses, helping youth create regalia, and planning to participate.
“People are talking about making jingle dresses. ‘I’ll be there,’” she said. “It’s inspiring. It’s very motivating.”
The special is expected to begin around 8:30 p.m. Saturday following grand entry songs and drum performances, although Goodsky laughed that “Indian time” means the exact timing may shift.
“We’re here to dance, and we’re gonna dance to what comes to our hearts,” she said.
Those wishing to donate to support the special can contact Ashley Goodsky directly through Facebook. Goodsky said she prefers donations be made by June 5 to help organizers finalize payouts for dancers and helpers.