The Coeur dAlene

Culture

1. Who are the Coeur dAlene? Native American people and one of eighty-five federally recognized tribes in the
state of Idaho.
2. Where do they live and how big is their territory? The place "where the old ones walked" includes
almost 5,000,000 acres of what is now north Idaho, eastern Washington and western Montana
3. How did they view buffalo hunting? With the coming of horses, young Coeur d'Alene men
journeyed east to hunt buffalo. These journeys, however, were not necessary for survival. They were
viewed as adventures, and even rites of passage, for youth who would emerge into manhood and into
leadership roles.
4. Who gave them the nickname? The Frenchmen
5. What does Coeur dAlene mean? Heart of the awl

Council

6. How does the council interact with the U.S. Government? The chairman or a council member may
deal directly with the President of the United States, or with the leaders of congress, or with the
members of the president's cabinet. The halls of congress and of the executive branch of the federal
government are familiar territory, but with the same elected tribal leaders must return to the
reservation and possibly be faced with a decision involving an intra-family dispute. They steer their
own ship of state, and in doing so, they pray for wisdom.

Departments

7. What is the ultimate goal of the tribes elected leaders? Restoring the tribe's self-sufficiency.

8. How will they achieve this? That will come with economic development, high employment, and the
providing of educational opportunities.

9. Choose of the 16 departments and summarize (not copy and paste) its function. The public works
department. The public works departments mission is to empower the Coeur d Alene tribal people.
They have set different categories of goals and each one is for the power of their people. The
categories include, administrative, public works, economic development, community development,
and data collection and organization.

Environment

10. What is the Coeur dAlene Basin Restoration Project? Created to repair the environment. It also
works to resolve ownership of Lake Coeur d' Alene

11. What happened to the watershed? Over a 100 year period the mining industry in Idaho's Silver
Valley dumped 72 million tons of mine waste into the Coeur d' Alene watershed.

12. What did the Supreme Court decide in 2001? The tribe's quest to resolve ownership was decided
by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2001. The U.S. Supreme Court recognized that the Tribe has always
been the owner of the lower one-third of Coeur dAlene Lake and other related waters.

Reservation
13. How did the ancient Coeur dAlene earn their livings? Coeur d'Alene Indians earned their livings
through what was provided in nature: lakes and streams churning with trout and salmon; forests
complete with elk, moose and deer, mountains and meadows with huckleberries and camas roots,
wetlands with waterfowl and water potatoes.

14. What is the reservations current economy based on? The reservation economy is based mostly on
its productive agriculture.

15. What are 2 other parts of their economy? The Coeur d' Alene Tribe's 6,000 acre farm produces
wheat, barley, peas, lentils and canola. The reservation countryside includes about 180,000 acres of
forest and 150,000 acres of farmland, most of that farmland owned by private farmers

16. What is the shadowy St. Joe? The shadowy St. Joe" is one of North America's premier trout
streams, flowing from the Idaho-Montana line down to the south end of Lake Coeur d' Alene.

Sovereignty

17. Look up and define sovereignty. Sovereignty is understood in jurisprudence as the full right and
power of a governing body to govern itself without any interference from outside sources or bodies.

18. What does the statement, The Sovereignty of Indian tribes is INHERENT, mean? That means it
existed since time immemorial, and is recognized as such in the Constitution of the United States.
States and tribes have equal legal and constitutional status in their dealings with the federal
government.

19. What is the most common government-to-government relationship between the U.S. government
and Indian nations? Is the power of Congress to make treaties?

20. What is unique about the tribes in Idaho? Truly the original Idaho. While tragedies of war and
near genocide existed here, tribes remain on reservation lands that represent small portions of their
original homelands. These tribes, the Coeur d' Alene, Kootenai, Nez Perce, Northwestern Band
Shoshoni Nation, Shoshone-Bannock and Shoshone-Paiute, maintain jurisdictional and sovereign
authority over their lands, upheld in decisions by the Idaho Supreme Court and the United States
Supreme Court.

21. Why do tribal members say they commitment to preservation and control of their heritage?
Because of their commitment to future generations, because of their connection with the land, and
because of their connections to their ancestors buried in it.

Warriors

22. Why are the following dates/events/places important to the Coeur dAlene tribe?

a. D-Day, June 6, 1944: the day allied troops carried out operation overlord, of the massive
military invasion of Europe at Normandy, France - two Coeur d' Alene Indians, Carl Sol Louie and
Norbert Joseph were present and accounted for.
b. Belgium Border: Later that fall, on November 21, 1944, the brother of Felix S. Aripa - Moses,
or mu'is - was killed in action at the Belgium border as allied troops moved inland towards Germany.
c. Stalag 17: Gabriel Aripa, a nephew to Felix and Moses Aripa, was actually taken as a prisoner
of war and had to learn how to survive when he spent time in the big German POW camp known
famously from books, movies, and history as Stalag 17.
 d. The Italian Alps: In World War II Marcus Nicodemus distinguished himself with his
leadership, as recognized by his superior in the U.S. Army's 10th Mountain Division As sergeant, he
was instrumental in leading his squad in special elite operations, such as the battle for Mt. Belvedere,
in the treacherous Italian Alps that were strategic to allied advancement through secret paths into
Germany.
e. The Pacific Theater: Private First Class Adolph Alphonse Alexie was killed in action in the
South Pacific. He was on Okinawa Island on April 6, 1945 and was buried in the 96th Infantry
Division Temporary Cemetery there.

Elmer Falcon died of wounds he received in combat on the island of Layte in the Philippines. Falcon
was the first husband of Margaret (Joseph) Stensgar, the mother of current Coeur d'Alene Tribal
chairman Ernest L. Stensgar