EDITORIAL: Quite simply, there are no better neighbors

Even the most recent Kootenai County newcomers are likely aware that the Tribe runs a top-notch casino and golf course just south of Coeur d’Alene. But our neighbors to the south are so much more than tourism magnets.

Roughly 2,200 tribal numbers inhabit the 345,000-acre reservation. This proud Native people’s land today is less than one-tenth its ancestral home, 3.5 million acres across Montana, northern Idaho and Washington. Mother Earth is revered, and if the land is the body, then Lake Coeur d’Alene is the life-giving soul.

In a landmark U.S. Supreme Court 2001 decision, the Coeur d’Alene Tribe was awarded ownership of the lower third of Lake Coeur d’Alene. Some scholars believe that provision actually fell short; that the entire lake should be under tribal control.

But one of the hallmarks of good neighbors is working together, especially through complicated and potentially life-altering challenges for all concerned. And that has long been the drum beat to which all of us newcomers — because in this sense, we are — have danced with our Coeur d’Alene Tribe brothers and sisters.

That kind of cooperation benefits all. Thirty-one years ago, facing financial hardship, the Tribe opened the Coeur d’Alene Casino. Ten years later, Circling Raven Golf Club began welcoming golfers from around the world. 

Many tribal members now have good jobs thanks to these thriving businesses, but so do even more non-tribal citizens. In its various capacities, the Tribe directly employs some 1,700 people. As part of its gaming compact with the state, the Tribe gives millions of dollars to area schools and nonprofits, showing how cooperation can far exceed what disparate entities could accomplish on their own.

We’ll remind you about some other great neighbors: The Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations. While the Tribe is perhaps best known for its guardianship of natural resources, KCTFHR has focused its energy and its intelligence on people of this region living, working and playing together safely and for mutual benefit. 

Founders of the organization, including Tony Stewart, have always understood the essential place our Coeur d’Alene tribal brothers and sisters hold in North Idaho — one that precedes our own by many, many thousands of years.

That’s why KCTFHR honored the Tribe during the organization’s 25th annual gathering last weekend. If we’re not going to pay the Tribe rent, the very least we can do is pay them our unwavering respect.