05/21/2026
Today we’d like to highlight Band Member Zhaawanookweban, the late Linda Marie Wade (Koslowski). We are adding the “-eban” to her Ojibwe name to indicate she has passed. She was born in 1944 in Walker, MN to Lawrence Wade and Rose M. Shingobe (Barstow) and passed away at home in 2017. Through her life, Linda was married twice, had 5 biological children and adopted 2 more. She had many grandchildren and great grandchildren. Coming from a family of 7 children, she has always had a large family to celebrate her life with, including her big drum and lodge family.
Linda went to St. Mary’s Junior College for a counseling degree for drugs and alcohol and attended Native American Educational Service (NAES) College for her bachelor’s degree. She was passionate about helping others and worked in St. Paul, MN offering legal aid to help people with legal resources and maneuvering the court system. She was also a seamstress but was injured while working and retired to work mostly for herself. She made regalia, moccasins, and even quilts for many people over the years.
Her beadwork was exceptional, as was her ability to create powwow regalia. Linda lost count of how many regalia outfits she completed. The women’s traditional powwow regalia and one of the jingle dresses in our exhibits were made by this artist.
She described the way she learned as, “My mother told me, ‘If you want to dance, you make your own dress. I’m not going to make it for you, because you won’t respect it.’ So, I took the dress apart one time, piece by piece. And then I put it back together, and that’s how I learned.”
Linda was an accomplished dancer and artist. She often danced at powwows in traditional buckskin, she was crowned champion 3 times before retiring. She was also a hoop dancer. She started hoop dancing before women really practiced the art and would dance in men’s regalia. She would dance with 18 hoops in exhibitions! Two pictures we are sharing here are of Linda hoop dancing at the Native American Center of Southeastern Minnesota Powwow, which took place March 30th and 31st of 1991. The photos were taken by Jim Welch for the Rochester Post Bulletin.
