ELK POINT – It came to him in a dream, Horse Dancer Zane Wade of Frog Lake told Elk Point Elementary School students, staff and guests at Friday’s National Indigenous Peoples Day event,
Wade, a Traditional Dancer for 34 years, said that after he lost his mother, Theresa Wade, “I felt lost, and I went to a sweat lodge ceremony. They told me to pray to my mom. In my dream, she was standing on a hill with two painted horses, and she said to me, ‘Dance like a horse.’ I asked the spiritual leaders and they said to do it for a good reason.”
Still clad in his painstakingly constructed and decorated regalia, Wade said, It makes me feel good to showcase my dances… to be here and do what I do.”
Wade later shared the dance circle with two other talented dancers. The origin of another regalia also originated in a dream, this time a young woman long ago who was seeking healing and was told to make a jingle dress, adding one cone at a time, one day at a time for 365 days, to bring about healing, for the dancer, her family and friends. Elk Point Elementary student Derris Kitchemokaman has been a Jingle Dancer since she was eight years old, and her vibrant moves showed her years of practice and dedication.
Delaney Swedgan’s Fancy Dance outfit was created by her mother and featured a rainbow of flying fringe along with elaborate beading, mimicking the flight of a butterfly.
The history of the two dances was shared by Efrem Saddleback from Maskwacis, who accompanied the dancers with his songs and the beat of his moose hide hand drum, and who told an all too familiar story of being taken from his addiction-plagued family and placed in foster care where his foster mom “taught me a lot.”
His kokum, he said, “Told me about the power of prayer, to believe in myself and then I could be what I wanted. I was singing in the bush at eight years old, my mooshum (grandfather) was a round dance singer and he encouraged me.”
Two special guests from Frog Lake First Nations, Wanda Stanley and Adrienne Waskahat, were also in attendance Waskahat, who had been in St. Paul for a pipe ceremony earlier in the day, told the importance of keeping traditions alive.
“My father was a ceremonial man and I was his helper from a very young age. All he taught me, I shared with my friends. The teachings of our ceremonies are really good and is the best feeling ever. Sweats are interesting, you can learn a lot, I was a jingle dancers, it’s a healing dance, and that dance healed me.”