Is there a way to fix the base point on an animated rig?

My issue I'm having is that even with masking, my animations are effecting the position and rotations of other bones masked off from those animations. I had assumed the root of the rig was a fixed transform, but it seems to use (I'm guessing here) the center of gravity of the rig. For example, if I move (via code) while using a walk animation, masking off the rest of the rig but the feet, and using the hips or ribs as the root of the rig, the hips and arms still bob and move. Is there any way to set this to animate from the root? Thanks for any insight you can give guys.

 

Go into the actually animation's settings. You should be able to change what is controlling the root motion. Notice the Based Upon options too.

 

Used it again.
Awesome!