By HDN Staff
GREAT FALLS Liani Leigh Stiffarm, 4, died July 19, 2001 during tonsillectomy surgery at Browning.
Wake, rosary was Sunday at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church at Ft. Belknap. Funeral Mass was Monday morning at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church. Burial was in the Big Warm Cemetery at Lodge Pole.
Stiffarm was born on June 18, 1997, to Monica Dillon and Emerson Stiffarm Jr. She was given the Indian name Wah-gee-ya-ti-jaw-ha Wi-chin-ja-na (Sundance Thunderbird Girl).
She was filled with many questions about things such as the stars and where puppies and kittens come from. She took pride knowing she was able to help out with chores. She was more than willing to help with laundry, making the beds, vacuuming the carpet and helping in the yard.
Stiffarm enjoyed sledding, running and jumping in the rain, feeding the ducks, geese and other animals. She was learning to rattle her tongue, just like mommy and grandma do. She also enjoyed Hayos (Powwows), going to the Sundance and camping in grandma and grandpa's Hayos trailer. She was also fond of attending the Sacred Heart Church when visiting from Great Falls.
She was preceded in death by both paternal grandparents, Emerson and Eilene Stiffarm; maternal grandfather, Dewitt "Pinky" Dillon; paternal grandparents, Mae and Paul Stiffarm, Dora and Erving Flying; maternal great- grandfathers, Joe Buck and John Capture; maternal great-grandmother, Grace Pourier; cousin Derek Dillon.
Survivors include her mother, Monica Dillon and father Emerson Stiffarm Jr.; sister, Dannell Marie Stiffarm of Great Falls; maternal grandparents, Kim and Jolene King, and great-grandmother, Florence LongKnife Capture, all of Fort Belknap; maternal great- grandparents John and Lorraine Dillon of Wyola; numerous grandmas, grandpas, aunts, uncles, and cousins.
Adams Funeral Home of Malta is in charge of arrangements.
