Red Pheasant dancer claims championship at 2026 Calgary Stampede Powwow

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“You’re just like, ‘Oh man, like that’s my child, like I’m making them proud as well.’”

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For Baptiste, the championship was the latest moment in a dancing journey that began with her parents, was reshaped by the loss of her sister, and is now being passed on to her own children.

The Calgary Stampede Powwow drew about 900 registered dancers overall. Baptiste estimated she faced about 35 to 40 competitors in her category, split between two groups.

The win left her shocked.

“It was exciting and emotional and powerful all at once,” she said.

Baptiste grew up at Red Pheasant Cree Nation and around the Battlefords, with powwows always being a part of her life.

Her parents introduced her to dancing before she was old enough to remember. She began as a girls’ traditional dancer, later moved into jingle dress and, at about 16, transitioned into women’s fancy dance.

That change came after her late sister, Shi-Anne Baptiste, passed away.

“I was encouraged to dance it for my late sister, who passed away at that time,” Baptiste said. “So a lot of our dancing is dedicated to her.”

Over the years, dance became a connection to family, culture and healing.

“It’s like a way of life; everything is connected spiritually, mentally, emotionally, physically, intellectually,” Baptiste said.

“I do 100 per cent believe that movement is medicine, and that’s part of our medicine to dance.”

That journey carried her into a Calgary arena filled with drums, announcers and dancers.

Baptiste said she still gets nervous before competing, no matter how long she has been dancing. Before a contest, she takes a moment to breathe and pray, asking the Creator for calmness and the strength to dance competitively.

Then the drums begin.

“It’s like in those few moments, it’s like nothing matters, and like reality doesn’t matter; it’s just you and that drum,” she said.

Tish Baptiste, left, poses with her partner, Dane Edwards, after winning the junior women’s fancy dance championship at the 2026 Calgary Stampede Powwow at the Scotiabank Saddledome on Tuesday, June 7, 2026. (Image Credit: Dane Edwards/Facebook)

Behind those few moments are months of work.

Baptiste describes herself as a contemporary fancy dancer, a style involving quick movement, agility, spins and high kicks. She trains through the winter and has her own home gym to prepare for powwow season.

The work includes building the stamina and endurance needed for songs of different speeds and lengths, along with practicing the precise stops required in competition.

What Baptiste carries into the arena also tells part of her story.

She once wore her late sister’s beadwork before transitioning to beadwork that represents both her sister and herself. The beadwork alone took about five and a half months to complete.

Making regalia, she said, requires more than time and skill.

“You got to be in good energy, because what you’re putting into your regalia, that’s what’s going to stay with your regalia,” she said. “Your regalia is a spirit, and when you take care of that regalia spirit, it’ll take care of you. … If you mistreat it, it will leave you,” she said. 

“It represents the healing and family support, the movement, and the comebacks, and proofs that you can walk through storms and still rise.”

“For me, this win is a reminder that all the work and all the healing and all the good thoughts… they matter.”

Now, the way of life Baptiste received from her parents is moving forward through another generation.

She is a mother of four, and all of her children dance. Her daughter dances jingle dress. Baptiste takes them on her travels and teaches them to compete while remaining humble and remembering why they dance.

“Just like my parents, I serve them in this way of life because I have lived through many decades, and I see the goodness that comes with it, and the places that it takes you, the opportunity that it gives you, and just understanding yourself holistically,” she said.

“That’s something that I love to give to my children. I am gifting it to them.”

It is a message she hopes other young dancers carry with them, too.

Baptiste points to a Cree word: Ahkamēyimok.

“Keep moving forward. Don’t ever give up.”

“For the next generation, I want them to know that they belong in these arenas too, to believe in yourself and just go for it,” she said.

“Everyone has what it takes, but it truly does take everything you got to get there.”

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Kenneth.Cheung@pattisonmedia.com