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1988
The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act passes Congress, infringing on tribal sovereignty, but also allowing tribes to create gaming operations.
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1991-92
Following those new federal laws, a gaming compact is negotiated and finalized between the Coeur d’Alene Tribe and the state of Idaho, allowing gaming to start on tribal lands.
1993
The one-building Coeur d’Alene Tribal Bingo Hall opens for business on March 23 — 30 years ago this month.
1998
As the operation grows, the complex’s first full-service restaurant opens to diners. Today there are eight unique dining areas and lounges.
lived for 150 years and ruled the Tribe between 1660 and 1760, issued his famous prophecy: During times of hardship, men with crossed sticks and long black robes will come to the people.
This foretold the two forces that would shape the Coeur d’Alene’s history: illness and religion. Between 1777 and 1842, 90 percent of the Tribe was killed by smallpox and other foreign diseases against which Native Americans had no immunity. The Tribe’s numbers dwindled to around 500.
Then came missionaries like Father DeSmet and other Jesuit priests, who converted all but a handful of the remaining members to Roman Catholicism. As a result, the Coeur d’Alenes began to concentrate around church and school buildings and became Palouse-area farmers.
Shrinking Lands
But this way of life didn’t last long. The discovery of precious metals in the region accelerated the migration of Euro-American settlers in the 1860s. The United States government began taking increasing steps to suppress and confine Native Americans.
In 1873, an executive order by President Ulysses S. Grant established the Coeur d’Alene Reservation — just 600,000 acres of what once was millions of acres of ancestral land. The Dawes Act of 1887 later forced the Coeur d’Alenes to become individual as opposed to collective landowners. Subsequent federal acts shrank the size of the reservation even further to just 345,000 acres, much of which was considered undesirable for white settlement.
What followed was more than a century of challenge and further hardship.
“When you think about what can be done to
2001
The Coeur d’Alene Casino becomes a proper resort by adding a hotel to accommodate overnight guests.
