Description
The Coeur d'Alene Tribe are a Native American tribe and one of five federally recognized tribes in the state of Idaho. The Coeur d'Alene have sovereign control of their Coeur d'Alene Reservation, which includes a significant portion of Lake Coeur d'Alene and its submerged lands. In Idaho v. United States (2001), the United States Supreme Court ruled against the state's claim of the submerged lands of the lower third of Lake Coeur d'Alene and related waters of the St. Joe River. It said that the Coeur d'Alene were the traditional owners and that the Executive Branch and Congress had clearly included this area in their reservation, with compensation for ceded territory. This area was designated in 1983 by the Environmental Protection Agency as Bunker Hill Mine and Smelting Complex, the nation's second-largest Superfund site for cleanup. The modern Coeur d’Alene Tribe is the sum of uncounted centuries of untold generations. In the tribe’s own ancient language, it is called Schitsu’umsh, meaning “Those who were found here” or “The discovered people”.
Language
The Coeur d'Alene Language (snchitsu'umshtsn) is a southern interior Salishan language. The Salishan languages were spoken throughout the Pacific Northwest, including British Columbia (Canada), and the U.S. states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana.
Culture
Tribal traditions include a respect and reverence for natural law, and for responsible environmental stewardship. The tribe is active in the protection, conservation and enhancement of fish and wildlife resources; as well as conservation issues that impact tribal land and water resources. Traditionally the tribe had a flexible kinship system with both paternal and maternal lines recognized within the extended family. People may claim ancestors on either side, and address all cousins the same. This enabled them to have a flexible society, as they would live in differently sized groups during different seasons, in order to adapt to the environment. These tribes traded among themselves an with dozens of tribes far away on the Pacific coast. Ancient trade routes connected the Coeur d’Alene’s with the Nez Perce, the Shoshones and the Bannocks to the south and southeast. To the east were the tribes of the Great Plains and the vast herds of buffalo. With the coming of horses, young Coeur d’Alene men journeyed east to hunt buffalo.