Accident victim recalled as proud Native American

By Andrew Scott
Pocono Record Writer

TOBYHANNA, S.D.— 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 East Brunswick, 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.