The Coeur d'Alene Tribe and the Superfund Lake

The Schitsu'umsh, the people Americans call the Coeur d'Alene Tribe, are unusual in the history of Pacific Northwest tribes. They retained a substantial portion of their original homeland. The Coeur d'Alene Reservation, established by executive order in eighteen seventy-three and subsequently reduced by a series of agreements through the eighteen nineties, still encompasses more than three hundred thousand acres in northern Idaho, including the southern third of Coeur d'Alene Lake.

The lake is what makes the story complicated. Beginning in the eighteen eighties, hard-rock silver and lead mining in the Coeur d'Alene Mountains upstream of the lake introduced heavy metals into the Coeur d'Alene River system on a scale that persisted for a century. By the time the mines declined, the lake bottom and the river banks for miles were contaminated with lead, zinc, cadmium, and arsenic at levels that made the Coeur d'Alene Basin the largest inland freshwater Superfund site in the United States.

The Schitsu'umsh, who had maintained the southern third of the lake as part of their treaty rights, sued. They won a landmark Supreme Court ruling in two thousand and one confirming their ownership of the lake bed, and later settlements with mining companies obligated substantial cleanup funding and established federal liability for the contamination. The cleanup has proceeded for more than two decades and is still not complete.

What the Schitsu'umsh retained is both their most enduring possession and a century-long environmental crime scene. The lake is genuinely beautiful. The osprey still nest at the south end, and tribal fishermen still work the water. The cleanup continues. The tribe is still there.