Every morning when Anita Lovelace was working on her jingle dress project, her daughter, Alita Todd, came downstairs and paused in front of the mannequin.

“It just called out for a hug,” Todd said.

The dress began with a pattern used dozens of times before. First the bodice, then the skirt. Long black sleeves followed. Then three rows of traditional silver jingles. But this dress was also built from the stories of families impacted by the epidemic of violence known as missing and murdered Indigenous relatives, or MMIR. 

The materials came from many hands. An elder from one of Lovelace’s sewing classes gave her a bandana from our MMIR Office to use for the neck scarf. An old camp counsellor donated a labradorite ring to secure it. Her sister paid for red paint. Another elder gave gas money so she could travel to northern Minnesota communities.

Community members then covered the dress in red handprints. Most were placed by someone whose family had been impacted by MMIR. They wrote names of their relatives in silver paint, often sharing memories as they pressed their painted palms to the fabric. 

By the time the last handprint dried, there were 51 in total. 

“It’s a healing dress, a medicine dress,” said Lovelace. “Everybody who has had a hand on this dress said they felt something with putting the handprint on there.” 

Starting Aug. 21, that dress will stand in the Fine Arts building at the Minnesota State Fair. It was selected as a finalist in the 2025 Fine Arts Competition from among 2,836 submissions. Only 336 works were accepted, including this jingle dress, which is competing for the top prize in the Textiles category.

If her jingle dress wins, Lovelace plans to donate the prize money to the state’s Gaagige-Mikwendaagoziwag Reward Fund, which offers rewards of up to $10,000 for information in eligible missing persons, suspicious death and homicide investigations.

In Ojibwe, Gaagige-Mikwendaagoziwag means "they will be remembered forever.”

Lovelace wept when she found out that she had been accepted into the State Fair. 

“I cried because I felt like we were going to be seen,” Lovelace said. “These names are going to be seen. We live that every day as Native people who have been affected. All these people [at the State Fair] I just wanted to open their eyes.”

Lovelace and her daughter both described the process of collecting the handprints as healing and deeply personal.

“A couple were so emotional that they were shaking and I kind of guided their hand,” said Todd. “But they felt good once they did it. I think in a way part of the healing is knowing that someone cares.”

“This is such a beautiful honor,” said survivor and MMIR activist Danielle Jack. 

One of their most powerful interactions was with the mother of a teen who went missing from Bemidji when he was only 17 years old.

“I wanted to give her just a great big ol’ hug and cry with her,” said Lovelace. 

Lovelace isn’t exactly sure where the dress will end up after the fair. What she is sure about is that it will be worn at least once in the arena by a traditional jingle dress dancer. 

That, she said, will lock in the medicine and the healing.

“The jingles will sound, and they will sway back and forth,” Lovelace wrote in her artist statement. “It will make that spiritual sound, and it will be beautiful and powerful and healing.” 

Learn about the state’s Gaagige-Mikwendaagoziwag Reward Fund.