Native Sun News Today: Cops called on Lakota family mourning loss of daughter

Thursday, February 7, 2019

Mourning Woope at Mother Butler

By Ernestine Chasing Hawk
Native Sun News Today
nativesunnews.today

RAPID CITY – For Dave and Sydney Claymore mourning the loss of their Woope has been painful as they recently lost their beloved Cinca (daughter) after a long battle with kidney disease.

The Claymore family is a respected Tiyospaye (family) in He Sapa (Black Hills) and Syd and Dave are known throughout Lakota Country and beyond for the endless hours they’ve spent attending to Woope at her bedside and their relentless quest for a healthier life for her.

However they couldn’t keep their Woope with them any longer and she made her journey on January 26, 2019. She was only 35 years old.

Knowing Woope’s wake and funeral would be attended by hundreds of friends and family members, they sought out a place that could accommodate all the attendees. They also planned to erect a tipi, in which to place the body of their baby girl. The only suitable place they could find was the Mother Butler Center at 231 Knollwood Drive in Rapid City.

However for the past several years it has been the policy of the St. Isaac Jogues Parish to allow the use of the Mother Butler gym and kitchen area until 10 pm In the rental agreement contract, the parties agree that at 10 pm the building is to be locked and six people are allowed to remain with the body overnight.

However like many traditional Tiyospaye, they along with their family and friends wanted to spend the last waking hours with their beloved Cinca, Takoja na Ina at a traditional wake ceremony with singing, drumming and prayers throughout the night.

At precisely 10 pm, staff of St. Isaac Jogues and the Mother Butler Center, Kookie Ramos, who is the janitor tasked with enforcing the policy, began to inform everyone they must leave.

At around 11 pm, when Ramos began to realize that many family members wished to spend the night, he began shouting, “Please leave, please,” and said not to a stage a sit-in which would accomplish nothing and yelled that if they did not leave he would have to call the police. He also said Woope’s body would be taken back to the funeral home and the place would be locked up.

Ramos’s fiancé was also telling everyone still in attendance to leave and that Ramos would lose his job if everyone didn’t leave and that the police were going to be called.

Woope Claymore, Mniconjou Lakota, battled lupus for most of her adult life. Family photo

Four police cruisers arrived and parked in the Carmike Theater parking lot behind Mother Butler. Several police officers went inside and spoke to Dave who informed them he and his family wished to stay with the body of their Woope, which is the traditional Lakota way.

“I was angry, sad, hurt, and scared among the many other emotions going through me during the incident,” Syd said on Facebook. “Takoja Cashus came and sat on my lap pleading with me to leave cause he didn't want the cops to take his Nina (Woope's body), me, him and everyone else to jail. The loud shouting and aggression that came from the janitor was abusive.”

Syd said she and Dave have attended many wakes and funerals at Mother Butler where they sang traditional songs and witnessed what she called “disrespectful behavior” from the staff of St. Isaac Jogues.

“My parents Sidney and Shirley Keith taught respect for all. But I know and have seen the abuse of our relatives (Lakota/other nations) by the church manager and this janitor. I expected them to be harsh but I didn't think there was gonna be the yelling, intimidation, threats of them taking my daughter’s body,” she said.

Many of those in attendance recorded videos of the incident and posted them on social media and garnered hundreds of responses.

“The videos are sad to watch. I haven't seen all but I don't need to, I was there,” Syd said and when the police arrived she believed they were kinder than the staff of Mother Butler.