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Ivern Broken Nose, right, works with kids at Camp Minsi last year. He was killed in an accident Monday night.
Man killed in road accident recalled as proud Native American
By Andrew Scott
Pocono Record Writer
January 16, 2008
TOBYHANNA
— Wherever he went in this country, Ivern Broken Nose, a full-blooded
Lakota-Sioux, wanted to enlighten all people about Native American
heritage.
Whether it was attending a powwow or protesting to
improve the quality of life in the Native American community, making
beaded designs or teaching children about cultural traditions, Broken
Nose was dedicated to keeping his people's ways alive.
But, the
44-year-old Tobyhanna resident was killed Monday evening when he was
hit by a pickup truck on Route 611 near Hemlock Drive in Tobyhanna.
Broken
Nose ran out of gas and called his wife, Judith, to come refill his
tank, said his stepdaughter, Antoinette Dodson. Broken Nose then began
walking along the snow-covered road and was struck by a northbound
Nissan driven by Dean Flowers, 50, also of Tobyhanna, police said.
Flowers said he did not see Broken Nose in the road until it was too late to stop.
Judith Broken Nose arrived on scene and saw flashing lights.
"She
got out of the car and told the people she was looking for her husband
and they said he had been hit by a car," Dodson said, adding that her
mother is so upset she can't even speak. "She just dazes. She looks up
and she just dazes. She's in a daze."
Ivern and Judith Broken
Nose were married about eight months ago. Dodson said he was the only
person who ever made her mother truly happy.
"I'm very worried about her," said Dodson. "She loved him very much."
Effort
resident Chuck Gentle Moon DeMund of the Lenape nation first met Broken
Nose, who grew up on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota, in the
early 1990s. The two were at a powwow in Shawnee.
"It's a sad way for a life to end," DeMund said. "I considered him my adopted brother."
In
the 1990s, the two joined the fight to get the 10,000-year-old
archeological Black Creek site in Vernon, N.J., on the New Jersey
Register of Historic Places. They won that fight, preventing a hockey
rink from being built on the site, DeMund said.
In September
1999, DeMund and Broken Nose joined the Amnesty International march in
New York City to protest the continued imprisonment of Native American
activist Leonard Peltier. Peltier, 63, is serving a double-life
sentence for the 1975 murders of two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge
reservation.
"Ivern loved his family and he loved his people," DeMund said. "He always tried to promote his people wherever he went."
East
Stroudsburg University English professor Lesliee Antonette, advisor to
the Native American Students Organization, met Broken Nose in February
1998. Broken Nose, DeMund and others visited the campus for a Native
American maple ceremony, performed to give thanks for the coming change
of winter to spring.
"He would come and be part of tribal
cultural events for the students," Antonette said. "He had a
self-deprecating sense of humor, but he was very gentle and kind."
He
was also a good teacher who knew how to fascinate children with lessons
and stories about Native American culture and folklore, particularly
that of the Lakota and Sioux. He proved this with the Cub Scouts last
summer at Camp Minsi in Mount Pocono.
"Mr. Broken Nose taught
the scouts, staff and parent volunteers about his tribe's heritage and
answered many questions during a special camp-wide program," said Cub
Scout den leader Susan Jorstad. "He explained that his nomadic Plains
tribe's ancestors migrated with the buffalo, which they hunted. He
himself grew up on a reservation, speaking the language of his people
and learning English as a second language at a Jesuit school.
"He
also explained that Indians wore feathers to represent their individual
accomplishments, similar to the beads awarded to the scouts to wear on
their totems," Jorstad said. "He emphasized the Indians'
resourcefulness and practice of wasting nothing, and urged the boys to
live by the scouting adage to 'leave no trace.'"
Jorstad said she was startled to hear news of Broken Nose's death, but is grateful that many had the chance to learn from him.
"I hope that someone else from his tribal community will continue his valuable efforts to share their history," she said.
Broken
Nose is survived by his daughter, Rebbecca, 19, and a son, Justin, 21,
both of EastBrunswick, N.J.; his parents, Tex and Leona Broken Nose of
Oglala, S.D.; a brother, Cedric Broken Nose of Rapid City, S.D.; and a
sister, Collette Eagle Boy, Rapid City. He was preceded in death by a
brother, U.S. Army veteran Lowell Broken Nose, 42, of Manderson, S.D.
There is no word yet on when or where a memorial ceremony will be held.
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This article was 'liberated' from http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080116/NEWS/801160330 |
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