Plummer: Heart of the Coeur d'Alene Reservation

The town of Plummer sits inside the Coeur d'Alene Reservation and serves as the headquarters of the Coeur d'Alene Tribe, whose people call themselves the Schitsu'umsh, meaning those who were found here.

The Schitsu'umsh have lived in this lake and forest country for thousands of years. The reservation itself was established by executive order in eighteen seventy-three, reduced over the following decades through a series of agreements that cost the tribe most of their original homeland. What remained, centered here around Plummer, became the administrative and economic heart of tribal life.

Today the tribe operates as a full government with an elected council, a chairman, and its own court. They run the Coeur d'Alene Casino and Resort near Worley, a short drive north, which funds health care, education, and language preservation programs for their citizens. The tribal headquarters on A Street in Plummer is where the nation's business gets done.