By Angela Brown

Elder Jenny Spyglass finds healing, joy in dancing the powwow, sharing traditions

Jun 18, 2021 | 3:48 PM

Leading up to National Indigenous Peoples Day on June 21 battlefordsNOW is featuring Indigenous professionals, storytellers, entertainers, artists and others. Stay tuned for more throughout the week.

For more local stories celebrating National Indigenous History Month and Peoples Day click here.

Jenny Spyglass serves in many roles.

She’s a respected Elder and a former chief. She is the first female appointed to Battlefords Agency Tribal Council and the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations Senate, as well as the first female appointed from Mosquito, Grizzly Bear’s Head, Lean Man First Nation.

She is also a powwow dancer who embraces her culture and traditions.

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Spyglass will be wearing her beautiful regalia and taking part in a traditional dance for a virtual event in North Battleford on Indigenous Peoples Day that will be broadcast live on Battle River Treaty 6 Health Centre’s Facebook Page.

Spyglass who will be turning 80 years old later this year, says she enjoys dancing the powwow and keeping her culture alive.

“I am proud to be traditional, and I’m proud to be who I am,” she said.

She loves wearing her regalia and taking part in powwow dances whenever she is able before the COVID-19 restrictions. And she plans to continue when everything is back to normal.

Spyglass says she especially appreciates being able to create her own traditional dresses to wear during the powwow.

“I make my own regalia,” she said. “I started sewing; I didn’t know I had a gift.”

When she was young, she didn’t have an interest in sewing, but as she grew older she developed a fascination with the craft.

Today, Spyglass enjoys dancing with her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

For Spyglass, keeping her culture strong is important to her.

Dancing the powwow has helped with her healing, as a residential school survivor. Two of her children died tragically when they were young. The powwow helped her overcome her grief.

“I was about 52 or 53 years old when I started dancing…,” she said. “I was grieving and mourning so bad that when I heard the drum, it did something to me. So I started dancing. That’s my healing. I went through a lot, but now I’m healed, and this is where I stay.”

Spyglass also cares about her language. She speaks Cree with her family and friends, and says she loves to speak in her mother tongue.

“I love praying in my language because it means a lot to me,” she said. “I can say all the words that I always want to tell the Creator in Cree.”

“My mum used to say, ‘You were born with a language so that’s the one you speak. It makes you strong when you speak your language,’” Spyglass added.

As an Elder in the community and schools, Spyglass appreciates being able to share her traditions, and provide guidance to the youth so they will be able to pass on these traditions one day to future generations too, just as she does now.

“I’m proud to be who I am today,” Spyglass said.

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Angela.Brown@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow