Pedestrian killed in road accident recalled as proud Native American

[Thunderwolf, MSN, RN]

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.

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