“Hair is very important to our people,” says Ashley Phelps-Garcia, a jingle dancer and enrolled member of the Oglala Lakota Nation. “We were taught, and teach our children, that the hair holds all of our memories. It’s your medicine, your power.”
The first person outside of Phelps-Garcia’s family whom she allowed to touch her hair was braider Reanna Ella (Oglala Sioux). “Everybody gets their hair braided for powwows,” Ella says, referencing a single three-strand plait or French braids for women and two plaits for men. “The style is so normalized that it’s overlooked. But with our adornments, we want the best beadwork, the best quillwork, the best sidestep, the best dance—why not make the braids a bigger deal as well?”
Each design she creates is completely custom to the individual sitting in front of her and typically takes about two hours. “My hands are really sensitive,” Ella says. “Before I start, I will run my hands through the hair just to look at its overall quality. But I’m not just looking at hair health. I can feel how their vibe is. I don’t know if that’s a thing, but I can just feel them through my hands, just by touching the hair.”
