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How the dress came to be: When I first became Miss N.I.V.A. I had already slowed down dancing Fancy Shawl and I wasn't sure if I wanted to be dancing Fancy every time I went to a Pow Wow or a N.I.V.A. event, so my Mom asked me if I would wear a wing dress. We decided that would be a great idea. So, my Mom and I worked together on ideas for a new dress. After much thought we came up with the idea of my "Veterans Dress." This dress is white with ribbons of each war, I have World War I on my leggings, World War II on the bottom of my dress, Vietnam on my sleeves. I wear a blue scarf and shirt for Korea and I have Desert Storm on my shawl that I carry. Soon I will be adding the colors of Iraqi Freedom to my dress. After a few months of wearing that dress my Mom and I decided that one dress was not enough. I was given a POW MIA patch by one of my Veterans, Dave Smith, and that started this dress for me. First my Mom made me a camouflaged poncho in blacks, grays, and whites, with a matching lap blanket for some of the parades and outdoor Pow Wows I attended. Then we came up the idea of making a black dress with white ribbon and the POW MIA patches, along with feathers made from red, white, and blue material. By now we were not sure how to represent those that we have lost because of war and to this day I am not real sure how we even came up with the idea of using dog tags. I just know I loved the idea from the first moment. After I went to Washington D.C. for the Vietnam Wall Memorial's 20th Anniversary events I decided doing names of just those who were POW's and MIA's was not good enough. I need to remember all of those who we have lost because of War and September 11th, 2001. From there we have made the dress what it is today. My plans for this dress: I plan on wearing this dress to as many events as possible to let the people know that we can not forget those that have sacrificed so much for us, our country, and most of all our freedom. I also plan on making a Fancy Shawl & Jingle dress to go with my Traditional Wing Dress for our POW's and MIA's; so that no matter the style I plan to dance I can always represent those who are no longer here today. There are also two other dresses I am currently designing. One is just for those Killed in Action and the second will be just for those lost because of September 11th, 2001. Until those dresses are finished I will continue to wear the dog tags of those KIA and 9-11 victims on my POW MIA Dress.
Fancy Shawl Dancing and My POW MIA Dress
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