Richard William Barrett Sr.

Richard William Barrett Sr., age 75, of Red Lake, MN died Monday, February 12, 2018 at the Red Lake Hospital.

Funeral Services will be 12:00 p.m., Monday, February 19, 2018 at the Red Lake Humanities with Fr. Jerry Rogers officiating. A wake will begin at 1:00 p.m., Saturday, February 17, 2018 at the Little Rock Community Center. Interment will be in St. Mary’s Catholic Cemetery, Red Lake. Arrangements were entrusted to the Olson-Schwartz Funeral Home, Bemidji.

Honorary casket bearers will be, Al Pemberton, Roman “Ducker” Stately Sr., Dan King, Floyd “Buck” Jourdain, Eugene “Bugger” McArthur, Roland Hill, George Gaasvig, Pat Schneider, Kelly Dahlen, Frank “Sonny Man” Barrett, Adrian Beaulieu, Mike “Paparazzi” Barrett, Jay Huseby, Pat Brown, Dr. Gregory Anderson, Dr. Michael Borromeo, Guy Packineau, Joel Rhode, John “Ringo” Needham, Alice Benaise, Jeremy “Slim” May, Red Lake Housing Authority Staff , Red Lake Housing Finance Staff and honorable mention AMERIND.

Active casket bearers will be, Duane “Boogins” Cobenais III, Derrick Cobenais, Derald “Ola” Cobenais, Dion Barrett, Alex Barrett, Andrew Barrett, Brandon Graves, Mike Jourdain, Charlie “Whee” Charnoski, Kenneth Graves, Harlan Johnson and Randy Benais.

Richard William Barrett Sr. was born July 15, 1942 in Red Lake, MN to Adolph and Rachel (Chaboyea) Barrett. He grew up in Redby but resided in Little Rock District. He attended St. Mary’s Mission School and Red Lake High School. Richard married Lucy Green December 4, 1965 in Milbank, SD. He worked at the Red Lake Cedar Fence Plant, then Red Lake Sawmill and then he became the marketing Specialist at Red Lake Forest Products. Richard Owned and operated his own used furniture store called Barretts Furniture.

Richard has served on the Red Lake Reservation Board of Commissioners (BOC) for the Housing Authority since 1968. He also served as the BOC Chairman for the Red Lake Housing Finance Corporation.  He has been the Little Rock District Representative for the Red Lake Tribal Council since 2001.  He worked for Red Lake Forest Products for more than 50 years. He received his Lumber Grader Certification from St. Cloud State University and completed a Lumber Sales Certification course from the Bureau of Indian Affairs.  He was involved in the creation of the National American Indian Housing Council (NAIHC) and the Great Lakes Indian Housing Association.  He served on the NAIHC Board from 1975 to 1979. Richard was very proud to be one of the founding members of the AMERIND Risk Management Corp. which was created in 1986 and was granted an operating charter by the Red Lake Band of Chippewa. In 1990 he became the secretary for AMERIND. There was a very short window of opportunity to obtain the charter and representatives of other tribes had taken the lead in getting their tribe to issue a charter. At the last moment it became clear that the other tribes efforts were failing and Richard took it upon himself to speak with then Chairman Roger Jourdain who immediately saw the benefit that AMERIND could bring to Indian Country and called an emergency Tribal Council meeting that resulted in the issuance of the corporate charter. For over 31 years AMERIND has served the insurance needs of Indian Country.   He was currently a member of the AMERIND Cell Commission.  He received the Wayne Ducheneaux award in 2011.  This award was intended to recognize the leadership and service of members who are active within Amerind Risk.  He was also selected as the 2015 Minnesota Indian Housing Professional awardee.  Richard was the recipient of many awards and recognitions.

He enjoyed hunting, trapping, fishing, gambling, collecting memoirs, attending high school basketball games, spending time with his family and was known by friends and family to be a jokester.

He is survived by his wife, Lucy Barrett of Red Lake; sons, Richard “Rick” (Michelle) Barrett Jr. and Gary Lee Thunder both of Red Lake; daughters, Cheryl Thunder and Michelle Cobenais both of Red Lake; 9 grandchildren; 15 great-grandchildren; sisters, Peggy Whitefeather of Redby, Mary Ellen Winegardner of Redby and Corinne “Corky” Georanson of Minneapolis.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Adolph and Rachel Barrett; brothers, Darrell Barrett and David Barrett; son-in-law, Duane Jr. Cobenais; brother-in-law, William (Sonny) Green and sister-in-law, Margaret (Helen) Benais.

Online guestbook at wwwOlsonSchwartzFuneralHome.com

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