Irma Rooks Bear Stops
Services in Wambli, SD
April 10, 1998
Funeral Services are being held in Wambli SD today forFuneral Services are being held in Wambli SD today for Irma Rooks-Bear Stops, a Wounded Knee Warrior woman who stepped up to be among the Wounded Knee Leadership in 1973. She was a treaty rights activist who testified during the Wounded Knee Trials in Nebraska in 1974 following the charges made against Wounded Knee Activists involved in 1973 Standoff. We hope the people will remember her and the tremendous sacrifices she made in those earlier years.
On December 16, 1974, The US Distr Ct of Nebraska, Lincoln, held a trial to hear testimony on the motion to dismiss charges against the Wounded Knee Defendents before the Honorable Warren K. Urbom. "The Sioux Treaty Hearing" was called to dismiss claims against 65 defendents charged in the 1973 Wounded Knee Liberation. The defendants claimed the US had no jurisdiction on Lakota Land under the 1868 Ft Laramie Treaty. The defendants asserted a little known concept back then, something called Sovereignty.
Irma Rooks Bear Stops was among the defendants. "The sacred Pipe was given to us from the Great Spirit. Whatever promises are made through the Sacred Pipe are to be honored and respected. Using the Pipe to live by is really hard for people. you cannot fool the Great Spirit. The Pipe always comes in forst with everything. The promises that you make are included - such as with the Treaty." She testified.
"The 1868 Treaty meant that the land rightfully belongs to Mother Earth and the Great Spirit. We are supposed to live on it and take care of it so that it can provide all the things. No white man shll come into the reservation. We are supposed to govern ourselves. We are supposed to take care of our own." She told the court.
"The treaty was made with the Sacred Pipe. Lakota people honor that Treaty. The 1868 Treaty is taught to us since we were young the older people talk about it because that is the way of our history. In the future, when people read the writing of the 1868 Treaty, they will understand that there is alot of difference. The Government did not understand what the Indians were trying to tell the government, and it is assumed that is what they wanted."
Irma is remembered...Mitakuye oyasin.
Robert Quiver jr, Lakota Student Alliance PO Box 225 Kyle, SD 57752
