“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 Gourd (Oglala Sioux). “Everybody gets their hair braided for powwows,” Gourd 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,” Gourd 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.”
“To have somebody fix your hair is a very big honor,” says Ashley Phelps-Garcia. “It means that you re trusting them with your spirit.”
“I took to dancing jingle when I was three," says Phelps-Garcia, who grew up watching her mother dancing at powwows also.
“She’s very connected to the land and nature,” Gourd says of Ashley s 17-year-old daughter Nevaeh, adding that the Black Hills and Badlands were the inspiration behind the braid designs.
“Doing intricate braids are like playing a game of Sudoku in your head. You have to stay 10 steps ahead of yourself—know where that braid is going to go, if it s going to fit under another braid. You have to map it all out before you start doing the groundwork.”
Taylor’s braids were inspired by Italian fashion house Versace. “I wanted to have something inspired by the brand mixed with things created by hand, like her braid clips.”
Photographed by Carlos Jaramillo
Hair Design: Reanna Ella Gourd
Styling, Studio Portaits: Marcus Correa
Featuring: Ashley Phelps-Garcia, daughters Nevaeh
Miksuya, Danielle Whirlwind Horse, Taylor Campbell
Special Thanks to The Phelps-Garcia Family, Tracy Nguyen, Tane Talalotu, Christian Allaire, and the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ
