“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 normalised 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 honour,” says Ashley Phelps-Garcia. “It means that you’re trusting them with your spirit.”
“Ashley is made of love and joy,” braider Reanna Ella Gourd says of the inspiration behind the hair look. “I swear she’s lived a thousand lives. Her family, they’re so intertwined with each other, they move like an engine. They’re so considerate. And I think that’s the first thing I thought of whenever I saw her. Her hair had to be hearts.”
“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