Coeur d’Alene are an Indigenous (native) American people of what is now northern Idaho. Their ancestors have lived in a region spanning Montana, Washington state, and northern Idaho for thousands of years. The language of the Coeur d’Alene is a form of Salish, a language group spoken in the U.S. Northwest and British Columbia. Their name was given to them sometime in the 1700’s or 1800’s by French traders. Coeur d’Alene means Heart of the Awl. An awl is a sharp tool, a reference to the tribe’s sharp trading skills. The city of Coeur d’Alene, Lake Coeur d’Alene, the Coeur d’Alene Mountains, and the Coeur d’Alene River are all named after the tribe. The original name of the tribe was Schitsu’umsh, which means those who were found here or the discovered people.
Executive orders issued from 1873 to 1889 established the Coeur d’Alene reservation, on a small portion of their original tribal lands. It consists of farmland, forest, and the northern Rocky Mountains in the west.
The Coeur d’Alene are known for trading and farming. Selective logging also takes place on the reservation. The Dawes Act of 1887 broke up tribal landholdings of Indigenous Americans into small property units. In 1909, the government allotted 160 acres (65 hectares) of land from the Couer d’Alene reservation to each family in the tribe. The remaining land was given to nonmembers to homestead (settle on). This division made it difficult to farm the land effectively, leading to fewer people farming and a change in the tribe’s culture away from agriculture. In 1970, the Coeur d’Alene council established a tribal farm on land it had purchased back from tribal members and non-members. The tribe grows barley, legumes, and wheat on the 6,000-acre (2,500-hectare) farm using sustainable farming practices.
A casino and hotel run by the tribe opened in 1993. The Coeur d’Alene River has been polluted from mining that took place in the area. Efforts are underway to restore the river and its watershed, the surrounding land that drains into it. The tribe is also working to restore the lake.
Historically, the Coeur d’Alene have lacked proper access to health care, with the reservation clinic overcrowded and in poor condition and the nearest hospitals 45 minutes away. In 1990, the Couer d’Alene and the city of Plummer, Idaho, opened a medical center that offers health care to both Indigenous and non-Indigenous patients.
