JOSIE DANCES

Josie, a young Ojibwe girl, looks forward to dancing in her first powwow, but she needs some special things before she’s ready.

This intergenerational story reveals the extensive preparation undertaken by the fancy dancer’s entire family to get ready for the biggest event of the year. Josie practices her dance steps for many months while the women in her family devote long hours to creating the regalia she will wear. She asks her mother to sew “a fancy shawl outfit.” She asks her aunty to bead her cape and her grandmother to bead her moccasins and leggings. Most importantly, she asks Grandma Greatwalker, “Will you dream my spirit name?” Each time, her elders respond in Ojibwemowin using the name appropriate to their relationship to her, a pattern that continues throughout. (A glossary is appended.) She practices all winter long, continuing when the “spring birds returned, and Juneberries ripened.” The day of the powwow finally arrives. Her excitement grows as she listens “to drummers practicing, the happy cries of visitors seeing family.” After Josie is dressed and ready, she receives her special honor. From Grandma Greatwalker’s dreams, Josie receives her spirit name: “Migiziinsikwe, Young Eagle Woman!” Colorful illustrations rendered in watercolor show the beauty and intricate patterns of traditional beadwork, birchbark baskets, and fine regalia. Both Lajimodiere and Erdrich are citizens of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa.

Sweetly demonstrates how this traditional dance links the generations.