Secwépemc elder has built a legacy through dance

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Secwépemc Elder Peter Anthony is sitting in his living room, surrounded by photos of him and his family adorned in regalia at various powwows.

Today, he is dressed casually, wearing jeans and a plaid button-up shirt as the news plays on the TV in the background.

But his 40 years of dance experience is immortalized throughout the house, and powerful energy radiates from the images and pieces such as an eagle feather bustle that hangs on the wall.

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“I’ve always made my own outfits,” he explains. “I never ever depended on anybody to do that for me. It gives me more pride that I made this.”

Anthony lives at Adams Lake Indian Band near Chase, where he owns and operates a log building company, Sky Eagle Log Homes. But most people know him from his dancing.

Every year from May until September, Anthony travels on the powwow circuit, attending a new event almost every weekend.

Over his long dance career — four decades — Anthony has become a champion on the powwow circuit, competing in the men’s traditional category while learning steps to each dance along the way.

As a child, Anthony says he was chosen by community leaders to learn and engage in his culture. He recalls going up mountains and hearing about the medicines available and learning the Secwépemc ways while walking, riding horses and hunting.

“I went to residential school and a lot of that got taken away,” he says.

As a Sixties Scoop and residential school survivor, Anthony notes he went through hardship in his teens and twenties that led him to getting into trouble and ending up in prison.

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“I ended up doing a lot of drinking in my younger days and partying around,” he says.

He began drinking in his early teens and that connection stayed hidden until much later in his life.

Anthony then went to the Round Lake Treatment Centre where he began drumming and singing. He had heard the music before in the community, but this was his first experience being engaged with the songs. He began to remember his Secwépemc culture.

On the day of his graduation from the program, Anthony was surprised by his brothers. They had heard about his new knowledge of the songs and recruited him into a drum group.

For years, Anthony was a member of the Painted Eagle drum group that travelled around to sing at powwows. After singing for years, his friend and fellow drum group member John Jules mentioned that he should try powwow dancing.

Anthony remembers saying: “I don’t want those folks looking at me, everybody’s going to look at me, I don’t want to go out there and embarrass myself.”

He recalls Jules encouraging him and finding him regalia and a bustle to use.

The Lillooet powwow was the first time Anthony tried dancing. Almost immediately he knew that he wanted to continue on.

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He started making his own regalia — collecting feathers, beading, and putting it all together to create a personalized, intricate and unique outfit.

Each element of the powwow, including the regalia, is considered sacred and Anthony ensures that he keeps that integrity while in his outfit.

“I respect the spirit of my feathers and I respect the spirit of my outfit,” he says.

That first powwow was about four decades ago, and from then on he has been committed to dancing and has never stopped.

To this day, Anthony still creates all of his outfits by hand. He learned to put bustles together with eagle feathers — it takes years as he collects each feather. He uses porcupine hair to create a roach, and beads detailed designs to adorn his outfit.

“It comes attached to you a lot better when you do it yourself, and I just dance better with my own outfit,” he says.

Anthony notes he started attending every powwow in the area, never missing a weekend. For four years he was singing and dancing with his original drum group until the other members began slowing down, but Anthony wanted to keep going.

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“I kept going to powwows every weekend and it helped to keep me sober and it helped me to keep my life straight and narrow,” he says.

Eventually, Anthony began travelling farther and ended up attending powwows across Western Canada and the United States. Anthony has danced in front of large crowds at events such as the Gathering of Nations powwow, which can have up to 100,000 visitors A year and even more spectators through their online broadcast.

Anthony said t it wasn’t until he was around 45 years old that he began winning the contest dances at powwows.

“From all that practice and everything I got recognized,” he says.

After placing in second and third place, Anthony used his winnings to travel even more, giving him more opportunities to dance. It took another five years — when Anthony was 50 years old — for him to start winning first place.

“Things got better then because then I had money to travel around after I would win,” he says.

Dancers tend to follow the same powwow circuits and Anthony had a group of dancers — his fellow champions — who he would travel side by side with. They would camp near the powwow and dance through each day.

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“Powwowing has been my life for 40 years and it has brought me a long way,” he says.

“I still dance and I’m still a champion.”

Even through COVID-19, Anthony continued dancing by entering virtual powwows.

He said his contest wins have even helped to buy the house that he and his family live in. Some weekends, he took away winnings of $5,000 to $6,000.

In the corner of the room trophies that he’s won over the years sit atop a cupboard.

He’s been called a legend by other dancers — but he says he’s been told not to brag and to ensure he is always dancing for the people.

He points out the window to an eagle flying above the reserve against a cloudy backdrop, underscoring this reminder.

In early May, the second annual Rita Rose Anthony Powwow and Stick Games took place at the Adams Lake Indian Band community gym — an event organized by Anthony and his family as a memorial for his late wife.

Involved in the planning and execution of the powwow, Anthony was on the move throughout the event.

While judging the dances, he stood in the middle of the recreation gym as the dancers moved around him with the rhythm of the drums. After choosing the winners for a men’s category, Anthony joined them for a song as they danced around the room.

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When the men’s traditional category came up Anthony was ready to dance. With a horse staff in his left hand and his eagle fan in his right hand he moved gracefully. Following the song and drum beat he danced with enthusiasm as his hands raised and he bowed when the songs called for the movement.

Trent Abraham, a fellow powwow dancer, met Anthony more than 20 years ago while on the powwow circuit and speaks highly about Anthony’s commitment to the dance.

“Whether it was hitchhiking or if he had a ride, he’d still make it to those bigger gatherings and go there to dance; make it powwow to powwow,” says Abraham.

Anthony even inspired Abraham to take his own children on the powwow circuit and travel as much as he can since he regularly saw Anthony bring his children to events, including the powwows in Ts’il Kaz Koh (Burns Lake), which is Abraham’s home community.

At each powwow, Abraham notes that Anthony is willing to dance for each and every drum group and singer, a trait that he says not all dancers possess.

“Peter’s always showed respect to the drums and just danced, it didn’t matter who was singing,” he says.

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Anthony had a heart attack at the beginning of this year but has recovered to where he can dance and he’s still as committed to attending powwows.

“I just started again, so I’m not going to quit dancing — that’s not a question, quitting — I can’t, it’s in blood, it’s in my spirit,” he says.

There are many positives to Anthony’s dancing and he’s still going and not slowing down any time soon.

Dancing “shows me who I am, shows me where I’m from and it’s a really good feeling to know that,” he says.

“One of the best things, I guess, out of this whole thing is how far it has taken me in life and where it has taken me in life.”

Dionne Phillips is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter with The Wren. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.

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