Mother pleads for return of stolen traditional dresses for daughter
The mother of an Indigenous dancer who participated in the FSIN Spirit of Our Nations Powwow is asking for help after her daughter’s traditional regalia was stolen from her vehicle.
“It’s so heartbreaking,” Tanya Eagle Speaker said in an interview.
“Both my other daughters made (the dresses) for Kalli ... now she’s not functioning well, she’s just so angry and so hurt. A part of her is missing.”
The theft occurred while Eagle Speaker had stopped for a meal before leaving the city on her way home to the Kainai Nation in Alberta. While she was inside the Mcdonalds location on 22nd Street West on Tuesday around 6 p.m., someone smashed the rear passenger window of her truck and took off with two suitcases inside.
“We were so careful. We locked the vehicle and parked close, did everything right,” she said.
While one suitcase contained clothing for the trip, the second — a Captain America-branded suitcase — contained two sets of beadwork in blue and turquoise, a custom-made brown belt and seven handmade traditional jingle dresses.
Eagle Speaker says they filed a police report immediately, but are hoping someone in the city might have information that would lead to the return of the stolen goods. She said it will be difficult for whoever took the dresses to sell them, as they are one-of-a-kind items that are easily recognizable.
“There is so much prayer and good energy that have gone into it — that’s really personal,” she said. “We are very forgiving people. If they could just reach deep down and do the right thing, we’re not out there wanting to prosecute.
“We just want to have that faith again that there are good people out there.”
There is so much prayer and good energy that have gone into it — that’s really personal