Tribe Elder Lawrence Aripa Dies

Lawrence Aripa never stopped teaching, even from his deathbed.

He tape-recorded his last lesson from Sacred Heart Medical Center last week. Aripa - artist, storyteller and vice chairman of the Coeur d’Alene Indian Tribe - died Sunday at age 72.

His words, played Monday to a grieving tribal council, were “to remember our tribe, not the individual. … If we worked for the betterment of the tribe, it would help the individual,” said Ernie Stensgar, tribal chairman.

Aripa had heart bypass surgery in 1983 and again in 1992 and had been ill much of the past year. He arrived at the tribal council meeting on Sept. 1, answered roll call, gave the invocation and excused himself, Stensgar said.

From there, he went to the hospital.

“We knew him as a very gentle person,” Stensgar said. “He reminded us there was a circle of life and where we fit in that circle.”

“If heaven can be a better place, it will be because he’s in it,” added Bob Bostwick, tribal press secretary.

One of the last people fluent in Schitsu’umsh - the traditional Coeur d’Alene language - Aripa was best known for his talent as a story teller. He spent many hours in a rocking chair in classrooms, telling Coyote stories that Bostwick describes as “a traditional Indian way of telling stories about the world so it made sense…fables that explained the way things were.”

When people approached him about accepting awards or accolades, he would tell them, “if the children remember the Coyote stories, that’s all I want.”

Some are preserved in a book published by University of Oklahoma Press in 1995, entitled “Stories that Make the World: Oral Literature of the Indian Peoples of the Inland Northwest As Told by Lawrence Aripa, Tom Yellowtail and Other Elders.”

Aripa was born in Desmet in 1926. His father died a short while later, Stensgar said, and he was raised by his mother and grandparents who taught him Coeur d’Alene, Spokane and English.

He left Plummer High School at age 16 to join the U.S. Navy, and served three years with the Signal Corps in the Pacific Theater during World War II. He then attended the College of Education in Great Falls, Mont.

During the 1950s, Aripa played trumpet in Joe Garrick’s Jazz Band throughout the Northwest.

He married Christine Lowley in 1956. They later were divorced. They had no children.

His work career included six years with the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad - later renamed the Milwaukee Road.

Beyond story telling, Aripa’s legacy is his enormous talent for art.

He went to the Institute of American Indian Art in 1970 to be a student, and they made him a teacher, Bostwick said. Later, Aripa put pen strokes to political purpose with cartoons chastising efforts to abolish Indian reservations.

Aripa ultimately opened a successful Indian art store in Plummer after his return to the Coeur d’Alene Reservation. He joined the tribal council in 1983 and was elected vice chairman in 1990.

“All of the successes, all of the programs that have happened over the past 15 years - the Benewah Market, the wellness center, the new school - he’s been a key part of that,” Bostwick said. “He was a traditional Indian man and a modern tribal leader.

In addition, Aripa took on the role of unofficial chaplain to the tribal council and peace maker.

“He was a bridge builder, he was always the voice of reason and a source of stability,” Bostwick said.

Aripa is survived by his brothers Hillary “Skip” Skanen and Henry Aripa and sister-in-law Connie Skanen.

SERVICES A wake for Lawrence Aripa, Coeur d’Alene tribal vice chairman, will be held today and Wednesday in DeSmet, Idaho. Rosary will be Wednesday at 7 p.m. Mass will be Thursday at 10 a.m. in DeSmet with burial to follow. Thursday has been declared a day of mourning by the tribe, and all Coeur d’Alene tribal offices are closed.