September 19, 1944 - September 1, 2005
   


Steve in June 2005


Steve was a leading activist for the rights of Native people in North America. In the late sixties he participated in the Fishing rights struggles in the Puget Sound area of Washington State.

In 1972 Steve helped to organize people traveling to Washington DC on the “Trail Of Broken Treaties” caravan. The hundreds of Native people that went to Washington brought attention to the injustices of Native Tribes by the US government. The caravan people took over the BIA building and held it until the government negotiated with them with promises to investigate the many complaints of the tribes.

In 1973 Steve helped organize another caravan to bring supplies, and warriors to Wounded Knee during the AIM confrontation with the FBI and US Marshals.

In 1975 Steve again used his organizing skills to help establish the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee (LPDC), which is still operating today seeking the release of his cousin Leonard. Steve led the LPDC for 13 years developing the “Spirit of Crazy Horse” newsletter.

  
 
 
  Steve traveled throughout Europe and the United States speaking of the injustices to Native People, especially the case of Leonard Peltier.

Steve was also a ceremonial leader. In 1971 he helped establish a spiritual camp on the Spokane reservation. The spiritual gathering brought medicine men from the Six Nations, Hopi, Sumash, Cree and Lakota.

In 2001 Steve was diagnozed with lung cancer. After having a lung operation he helped his brother James Robideau to organize the Dakota Youth Project by using his home in Rapid City as a safe house for the youth that had unstable homes and no place to go. During this time Steve was also active in helping prisoners incarcerated in the prisons and jails. This past year he occasionally took his sacred pipe into the county jail in Rapid City to pray for the brothers there.

Steve was a good father to his children and took time to counsel and help other youth that his children made friends with. He encouraged them to learn the sacred ways and to be a part of the ceremonial way of life. Two of his sons take part in the Lakota Sundance Ceremony.

 
 
 


Steve 1973 with braids and his borthers Ben Jr. and James

In 2004 Steve had to face the fact that there was a new tumor growing in his lung. On September 1, 2005 he eventually lost his battle against cancer.

His family and friends will miss him very much but they are also happy that his pain and suffering is over and he is now with his relatives and ancestors who have already passed on into the spirit world.

In The Spirit of Crazy Horse