Williams Lake First Nation searching for owner of jingle dress found in abandoned storage locker
The Williams Lake First Nation (WLFN) is trying to reunite a jingle dress with its owner, after it turned up in a local thrift store.
Brandon Hoffman, the manager of marketing and communications with WLFN, said the dress, along with a blanket, were turned in to WLFN Kukwpi7 (Chief) Willie Sellars by the thrift store owner earlier this year. The shopkeeper had come into possession of the items after he purchased an abandoned storage locker, where he discovered the items in a suitcase.
Sellars said the shop owner gifted the items to him, in hopes they could find the rightful owner.
"He found the regalia and knew it was something that has a story, now we're a part of the story," Sellars said.
Fortunately, the hand-off happened before the thrift shop burned down in March.
"It was a pretty great shop. I'm a bit of a thrift store hound myself, so I was there all the time," Hoffman told CBC's Daybreak Kamloops host Shelley Joyce.
Sellars brought the items to WLFN councillor Dancing Water Sandy, who makes regalia, Hoffman said.
"She cleaned them all up as best as she could and gave them a smudging and a blessing to hope that they go off into the world and find their rightful owners."
The jingle dress is a dark green colour with silver, white and yellow accents, a white fringe and, of course, bells attached, most of which are on the skirt.
A large raven adorns the blanket, in black and white, with mother of pearl buttons sewn all around it.
Following the smudging, Hoffman's team took photos of the dress, blanket and suitcase and posted them to social media. Soon after, they located the owner of the blanket: Nadine Brown of Bella Bella.
"The blanket was gifted to me about 15 years ago," she said. "The design on the blanket was made specifically for me. It's a one-of-a-kind blanket."
Brown lost the blanket about seven years ago when she loaned it to a friend who was going to make another one. When they lost contact, she thought her blanket was gone forever.
But the owner of the dress remains a mystery, as Hoffman and the nation continue their search.
"We've got some potential leads, but no solid hits yet," Hoffman said.
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