Art heals: Through The Jingle Dress Project, Navajo artist honors missing and murdered women

WBUR | By Here & Now Newsroom

Published September 16, 2025 at 8:58 AM PDT

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This limited-edition photograph was taken at the Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, the native land of the Shoshone, Bannock, Gros Ventre, and Nez Perce people. (Courtesy of Eugene Tapahe)

Navajo artist and photographer Eugene Tapahe had a dream during the COVID-19 pandemic of women dancing in Yellowstone National Park in jingle dresses, traditional pow wow regalia. From that dream, he started The Jingle Dress Project, photographs of his daughters and two of their friends in various settings, as a gesture of healing and a way to bring attention to the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women.

The exhibit is at the Monroe Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico, through September 28. Host Peter O’Dowd speaks with Tapahe and his daughter Dion Tapahe, who appears in the photographs.

This is a limited-edition image from the Art Heals: The Jingle Dress Project photo series. This image was captured at the Salt Flats in Utah, native land of the Goshute people. (Courtesy of Eugene Tapahe)

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.