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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Coeur d’Alene Tribe’s Chief Antelope honored in sculpture along river

Coeur d’Alene Tribe member Jeanie Louie, left, and her granddaughter Northstar Garvais Lawrence, 10, spoke at Monday’s dedication of the statue of her great-grandfather, Chief Morris Antelope, along the Spokane River in Coeur d’Alene. Antelope is remembered as a strong advocate of the rights of the Coeur d’Alene Indians. (Kathy Plonka / The Spokesman-Review)

Chief Morris Antelope was known to be fair and just, a strong advocate for the rights of his people at a time when the Coeur d’Alene Tribe began to follow the ways of the missionaries and settlers and turn to farming and ranching.

More than 150 years after his birth on Lake Coeur d’Alene, a bronze statue honoring the life and legacy of Chief Antelope now sits next to the Spokane River near North Idaho College.

The work by Coeur d’Alene artist Cheryl Metcalf was dedicated Monday afternoon in a ceremony attended by Antelope’s descendants, including the tribe’s current leader, Chief Allan, the great-great-grandson of Antelope.

Allan said he was humbled to speak at the dedication. “I’ve been very blessed in my life,” he told a crowd of about 75. “This is one of the most honorable things I’ve gotten to experience in my time as chairman for the Coeur d’Alene Tribe.”

He also noted that Monday was the birthday of his great-grandmother, Mary Antelope, Antelope’s daughter.

The statue is a gesture that helps bridge the tribe with other communities, Allan said. “Because we’re all brothers and sisters, that’s the way I look at it.”

Jeanie Louie, Antelope’s great-granddaughter, and Louie’s granddaughter, 10-year-old Northstar Garvais Lawrence, also spoke at the dedication. They and other descendants crowded around the statue for group photos afterward.

“I think it’s beautiful, and it’s a great depiction,” Louie said.

She said she especially likes how her ancestor is watching the water. “That was our way of life since time immemorial, was living off the water,” she said.

“Chief Morris Antelope” was commissioned by the Coeur d’Alene Arts Commission and funded by ignite cda, the city’s urban renewal agency.

Antelope’s Indian name was Ats’qhule’khw, which means “Looks at the land.” Metcalf sculpted him kneeling with a contemplative gaze toward Lake Coeur d’Alene and the hills beyond.

The location is in the area of the tribe’s historical gathering place, Yap-Keehn-um. The statue is along the Centennial Trail bulkhead where River Avenue meets Rosenberry Drive.

“He’s right on the water. He’s probably where they would have crossed,” Metcalf said. “He’s kind of got a faraway look.”

She modeled the sculpture from a single photograph of Antelope as well as a traditional headdress she was shown from the tribe’s collection of artifacts.

“I had one photo I could find online, and it was waist up, so I made up the rest. That’s all I had to go by,” she said.

It took nearly 10 months to complete the piece, including the bronzing at an Oregon foundry. Well into the process Metcalf finally saw another photo of Antelope that showed his full size.

“And he was actually a smaller man,” she said. “But I told them I was building him really big and they said that was awesome.”

Antelope was a leader at a time of profound cultural, economic and spiritual change for his people. As Metcalf researched his life, she was struck by how he balanced his native customs with his Catholic faith, introduced to the tribe by the priests at the Cataldo mission.

“I would imagine it was a bit of a struggle for him … to keep their way of life as well as fit in to the white man’s life,” she said.

Louie shared a story of how the Catholic boarding schools had required Indian children to gather all their buckskins, feathers, moccasins and other traditional clothing to be burned in bonfires, stripping them of their native identities. But Morris Antelope hid his clothing and the buckskin dresses made by his mother and grandmother, saving them from the flames.

It was an act of defiance and courage that resonated with Metcalf in her choice to depict Antelope.

“The biggest thing that stood out to me is how hard he worked for the Coeur d’Alene Indians to be able to have their fishing rights, their right to cut trees down on their property without a permit, to wear the clothing they wanted,” she said.