Leander Dreaver and his mother Jessica Rabbitskin are celebrating a miracle after Dreaver’s pow wow regalia was returned over the weekend.
Dreavers’ regalia was in a red suitcase with a Canadian maple leaf and a Gathering of Nations 2024 sticker on it when it was stolen while his truck was parked on 10th Street East.
Rabbitskin was working finishing closing down her booth at the PAEX Trade Fair on Friday when she received a phone call.
“I was going around the truck, very static call it was a spam call. I usually just block those calls. But I answered it and it was an older male voice,” Rabbitskin explained.
The voice was coming in and out and Rabbitskin picked out the details of a red suitcase found and got the person to stay on the line.
“It’s like, yes, we lost the red suitcase. He goes ‘okay, I found a red suitcase’ ,” Rabbitskin said.
Dreaver’s regalia is stored in this suitcase.
The person was waiting for their daughter to come so they could drop off the suitcase. Rabbitskin got in her vehicle and entered the address in Google Maps and it was close to the Exhibition Grounds. The person came out of the house carrying the red suitcase.
“And then he was trying to explain, hey, how he ended up with it. And I just told him no, no, it’s okay I don’t need to hear the story. You don’t need to explain yourself, we’re just happy to have it back,” Rabbiskin said.
Rabbitskin said it was almost like a miracle that it was returned because they thought by now it would have been sold off in pieces.
Dreaver and Rabbitskin are members of Big River First Nation and Dreaver pow wow dances around the province. Dreavers’ regalia includes beadwork Rabbitskin created herself. Some of it, she began working on before her son was even born.
Rabbitskin explained that the regalia has more than cash value to the family.
“Any regalia is valuable. It’s got some monetary value, but it’s got a lot of the family and spiritual value and cultural value to it too,” Rabbitskin said.
“In that sense a lot of people who don’t understand the First Nations culture with regalia and dancing. I don’t think they see that part really until they really know the culture. They see the monetary value, but they don’t see that side.”
Rabbitskin said that celebrating Indigenous culture through dance and beading is a large part of the family’s life.
After getting the suitcase back she sent Dreaver a photo of it because he was at the Exhibition and then Dreaver called her and was surprised it was back. Dreaver came home later Friday night and opened the suitcase.
She said it appeared that nothing was missing from the suitcase and whoever found the case appeared to have folded the regalia inside.
According to Rabbitskin the person who found the suitcase overheard people talking about having it and it was stored in a plastic bag.
Since the items were stolen Rabbitskin, who had been reaching out via news media and social media looking for where her son’s regalia might be. S
“I posted it nationally and on all the different pow wow pages, the different crime stopper pages,” she said.
She thanked everyone for their prayers and shares that led to the suitcase being found.
“Everybody was sending prayers and everything and we’re so grateful for all the prayers all the shares, even everybody who pressed like that added to the to it going more viral. All the comments, all the reactions to it, all the prayers,” Rabbitskin said.
Rabbitskin said that she plans to take Dreaver to the man’s house to thank him for helping get the suitcase safely returned.
