Marge Edwards

Funeral services for Marge Edwards, 59, of McLaughlin, SD, will be Saturday, July 28 at 11:00AM, CDT, at the Sitting Bull School Gym, Little Eagle. Burial will follow at Shoots the Enemy Family Cemetery, Little Eagle, under the direction of Stout Family Funeral Home of Mobridge. A wake will begin with services at 7:00PM Friday, continuing till 12 Midnight at the gym. Marge entered the spirit world July 22, 2012 at Medcenter One in Bismarck, ND. Marjorie Joanne (Shoots the Enemy) Edwards "Wacinkiyapi Win" (Dependable Woman) was born on February 14, 1953 to Sophia (Taken Alive) and Leo Shoots the Enemy at their home in Little Eagle, South Dakota. She attended school in Little Eagle and McLaughlin, SD; Weston, Idaho; Provo, Utah; Grand Forks, ND; Aberdeen, SD; and Colorado Springs, Colorado. Marge met Stanford Edwards while he was a volunteer at the Elkhorn United Church of Christ in Little Eagle in 1972, and they married in 1975 in Crookston, MN. Marge saw many changes in her lifetime on Standing Rock. She was born in a log cabin in Little Eagle and began school speaking only Lakota. She learned to be successful in English language classrooms, graduating from the University of North Dakota with a Bachelors of Science Degree in elementary education in May 1976. She was proud of her participation in the first class of Teacher Corps graduates – and of the fact that her first language Lakota abilities qualified her to fulfill UND's "foreign" language requirement (and she often made fun at the irony of that "only in America" designation). After college she immediately returned to her home community in Standing Rock's Running Antelope District and began teaching first grade at Little Eagle Day School. During her more than fifteen years at Little Eagle Day School, now renamed Sitting Bull School here at its "new" location, Marge taught nearly every elementary and middle school grade – always ready to volunteer to help fill vacancies, and attain new teacher certifications and graduate credits. She also taught middle school, high school, Lakota language, and substitute classes in the Fort Yates elementary and high schools, and taught briefly in Rock Creek and Wakpala. Marge, or Margie as she was known to many, dedicated her life to caring for the educational needs of the next generation. She worked tirelessly as an elementary, middle and high school teacher for more than three decades – often as a Lakota Language/Culture Instructor for the youth of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. She was well respected by her colleagues, and loved by her thousands of students through the years, who she always referred to as "my kids." Marge always incorporated Lakota language and cultural teachings into her general classes and activities. She was famous for her colorful and creative bulletin boards and other classroom decorations utilizing traditional Lakota symbolism, values, and cultural knowledge. Her students looked forward to their class time with her as she was a generous listener, patient mentor, calm advisor and loving influence who showered them with baked treats, snacks, surprise prizes and even prom dresses, movie nights, school dances, carnivals, powwows, fairs and other enjoyable activities she saw as essential for their well-being. Marge was known for her wonderful sense of humor, her amazing sewing, baking, cooking and hostess skills, and her incredible capacity for event planning and organizing – including many family birthdays, weddings, memorial and honoring giveaways, funerals, wacipi honorings, hunka ceremonies, Baha'i Local Spiritual Assembly gatherings and the Hunkpapa Sundance. She served on the Hunkpapa Sundance committee for many years as treasurer, assistant to Leksi Joe Flying By, cookshack host in charge of feeding all the singers and attendees (and recruiting the young women she called "cookshack bunnies" to train in the arts of outdoor cooking and taniġa cleaning). "Mama Marge" always balanced her many contemporary and traditional family commitments as a loving wife, mother, sister, aunt, cousin and grandmother, and she participated in and mentored many young people and peers in the sweatlodge, Sundance and hanbleceya. She enjoyed attending ceremonies on other reservations as well, and in the Black Hills where she often took friends and relatives to Sundances, gatherings and ceremonies – especially at Bear Butte and Harney Peak. Marge made many contributions to her community and tiospayes through education and doing what she enjoyed most – helping her people and the youth of Standing Rock. Marge wrote this past fall, "I am survived by my devoted, beloved husband Stanford, and our precious children Jennifer (Daniel) Weston and Jonathan (Kelli Jo Mooney); Uncle Vernon (Theo) Iron Cloud; Special aunts Mazie Shelton, Donna Red Legs, and Rita Iron Cloud; One sister, Arlene Shoots the Enemy; Special sisters Sylvia and Hazel Culbertson, Nina Mata, and Phyllis Flying By; Special nephews Brandon Shoots the Enemy Gunhammer, Ira Taken Alive, Daniel Alvarado; Hunka sons Cooper Fischer, Zack Long Chase, and James Porras; Hunka brothers Charles Murphy and Richard Vorhees (Glenwood Springs, CO); Special nieces Dawn Little Dog, Denise, Fredericka, Davine and Jewel Gilbert, Lynsie Graves, Antoinette White (Sioux Falls, SD), Marcia Edwards (Justin) Nelson (London, UK), and Leengi (Edwards) Gurung (Derwood, MD); All my special nephews, Harold (Son) Graves, William Graves, Leroy White, Jr., Leon White, Joaquin Tsosie (Phoenix, AZ), Tom Van Norman, Steve Emery, Leon Smith, Kendall (Lisa) Edwards (Longview, WA), Mark Van Norman (Washington, D.C.), Matthew & Mario Kills Crow; Hunka sisters Marianna Bobtail Bear (Yuma, AZ), Dorothy Stickwan Locke, Jacinta Defender, Kristen Bringe, Vivian Delgado (Broomfield, CO), Barbara Vitale (Franklin, NC), Mavis Strand (Bismarck, ND), Sissy Claymore, Jana Gipp (Aberdeen, SD), Marcia Brave Thunder, Kate Aadland (Britton, SD), and Nadema Agard (New York, NY); Hunka daughters Honorata Defender, Kimimila Locke (Al Ain, UAE), Waniya Locke, Naomi One Feather, Leah Long Feather, Roxanne Long Chase (Rock Creek, SD), Kim Conoyer, Susan Rhinehiller, Lisa Lunde , Sunshine Archambault Carlow, Deanne Bear Catches, Tera Cheyenne Jewett, Stephanie Jerome (Denver, CO), Nanobah Becker (Los Angeles, CA), Leina'ala Ley (Honolulu, HI), Jamie (Woody) Vanderhoop (Aquinnah, MA), Erin Shanley (Tucson, AZ), Dr. Liz Hoover (Providence, RI), Deana (Jon Jon) Around Him (Baltimore, MD), Eleanor Kindness (Billings, MT), Shaylynn Raphaelito (New York, NY), Natasha Vasilyeva (Brookings, SD), and Gail Broncho Bill (Oxnard, CA); Foster mother and family in Idaho, Elsie Bastian, Janice Buttars, Saundra Clark; Adopted sons Steve Weston, Jr. (Pawtucket, RI), Thomas Connelly, III (Johnston, RI), Aaron Olbrych (Attleboro, MA), and Bryan Walsh (Attleboro, MA); Special grandaughters Patricia Antelope, Sophia Gilbert, Ashley Little Dog, Alexandria Little Dog, Precious, Petra & Kali Antelope, Effie Mae & Tamara Gilbert, Fronda White, and Elayna Makes Him First; Special grandsons Peyton & Parrish Antelope, William Graves, Jr.; Great-grandchildren Makiah Gilbert Eagle Bear, Erikka & Brooklyn Antelope Eagle Horse; and all my numerous cousins, nieces, nephews, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.