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

 Via WBUR

September 16, 2025

Eugene Tapahe: Strength In Unity, Tetons National Park, the native land of the Shoshone, Bannock, Gros Ventre, and Nez Perce People, 2021

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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 Sante 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)

Eugene Tapahe Art Heals: The Jingle Dress Project Exhibit Extended

 

Drawing thousands of attendees and counting, the important exhibition by artist Eugene Tapahe titled Art Heals: The Jingle Dress Project has been extended through September 28, 2025. 

Word of mouth and the recent article in Pasatiempo: Standing On Ceremony. has sparked tremendous enthusiasm, with many guests making repeated visits and an overwhelming number of requests to extend the exhibit for school groups and those who have not yet seen the exhibit.

The public response to the exhibition has been overwhelming, with viewers visibly moved by the powerful photographs that have raised awareness of many Native American issues, such as land acknowledgment, women’s rights, and, most importantly, the epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW). 

View the exhibit on-line here.

Read the article in Hot Mirror: "Eugene Tapahe's photographs from his Art Heals project commanded attention—not merely for their striking colors juxtaposed against nature's beauty, but for the profound story they tell."