Medicinal Monday... the Power of Ribbon Skirts

Spirituality has always been an essential part of healing for most of mankind.  Although healing practices and beliefs vary from Native American community to community, person to person, there is a common thread to most Native American belief systems. The Creator, Mother Earth, Father Sky, or the Great Spirit, among other names, refers to a universal source that is looked to for guidance and healing by both Native American individuals and their communities. Ribbon skirts are an important element in Native American healing and spiritual beliefs that have gained more national recognition in recent years.  

Ribbon Skirt  - Dante Biss-Grayson @ Institute for American Indian Studies 

Ribbon skirts in America recently gained national recognition when the Interior of the Secretary, Deb Haaland wore a traditional ribbon skirt, made by Agnes Woodward/Plains Cree for her swearing-in ceremony in Washington, D. C.  The vibrantly colored skirt worn by Haaland was embellished with imagery of corn and butterflies and covered in colorful ribbons as an expression of cultural pride.  When asked what it meant to Woodward to make the skirt worn by Haaland she said,   “The ribbon skirt today reminds me that I have power and that I carry a responsibility, to teach the future generations that they belong here and that they have the right to take up space however they choose. It’s about taking back the shame that I carried as a young girl. When I wear a ribbon skirt, I am asking people to notice that I am confident in who I am as an Indigenous person, and I am asking them to respect that,” Woodward says. “Really that’s what they mean to me, the shedding of that shame.”

Historically, the first ribbon skirts were made from hides and decorated with natural dyes. After the introduction of silk ribbons by European traders, new skirts were created using new material while keeping their historical meaning and teachings. Woodland Indians used the ribbons as a unique decoration, a form of applique not seen before in Europe. The first recorded instance of ribbon work applique was on a Menominee wedding dress made in 1802. In this way, ribbon skirts show the resilience and pride of Native American culture and the way they adapted to western culture but made it their own by creating the ribbon skirt.

Ribbon Skirt  - Dante Biss-Grayson @ Institute for American Indian Studies 

Culturally and historically ribbon skirts are important as a source of resilience, pride, healing, and empowerment. Recently, they have come to represent causes like missing and murdered indigenous women and girls. Many Native American women have taken to wearing ribbon skirts, every day.  “Women today say it’s like armor – it’s protection,” said Eunice Ketchemonia-Cote, a great-grandmother on the Keeseekoose Reserve north of Kamsack in Saskatchewan, Canada. 

Today there are many reasons to wear ribbon skirts. Tal Tootoosis shares that “It’s teaching them [women] to be empowered and that they already are resilient. Women already have power. A woman is protected because she is a woman. And when you have that understanding you learn boundaries.” These skirts have become a universal symbol of resistance, land and water protection, and a symbol of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG). I believe that wearing a ribbon skirt, regardless of tribal affiliation, is an honor."