HISTORY
Miners work the original Bunker Hill outcrop, known as the “Glory Hole,” in Kellogg, circa 1897. Photo: Barnard Studio, Barnard-Stockbridge Photograph Collection, University of Idaho Library
Through their stories, the Schitsu’umsh share how for thousands of years, they resided along their lakes and waterways that provided their sustenance, their system of transportation, and their spiritual foundation.,, Their landscape encompassed of what is now North Idaho, eastern Washington and western Montana, with Coeur d’Alene Lake at its center.. The lake was not a backdrop to their lives, it was the organizing center of cultural, spiritual, and material existence. They fished, gathered, harvested, and lived in relationship with this watershed across seasons and generations, practicing reciprocity in their care of lands and waters, with the responsibility they carried for future generations. .
Since time immemorial, the Schitsu'umsh held, and still hold, this lake and the surrounding lands as sacred. As the Tribe has written: "We held, and still hold, the lake and surrounding lands as sacred, as the source of spiritual as well as physical sustenance."
That relationship has been tested. The arrival of settlers, a century of industrial mining and timber harvest, and federal land policies all reshaped the lake and the lives of the people who had always called it home. And still, the schitsu'umsh remained.
In the 1880s, massive deposits of silver, lead, and zinc were discovered in the mountains east of the lake, in what is now known as the Silver Valley. For nearly a century, the area boomed. Mines and smelters operated around the clock, employing thousands of people and producing enormous wealth. But the waste from all that extraction had to go somewhere, and for decades, it went into the waterways and surrounding floodplains.
Contaminated tailings and mine waste were deposited directly into the South Fork of the Coeur d'Alene River, which flows west into the lake. Tribal elder Felix Aripa frequently shared how his elders recounted seeing the river turn white. Over time, an estimated 80 million metric tons of metals-contaminated sediment accumulated in the lakebed, with more entering each year with spring floods. The affected area spans 166 river miles across northern Idaho and eastern Washington, roughly 1,500 square miles in total, making it one of the largest Superfund sites in the country.
More than 15,000 acres of land still have lead levels high enough to be toxic to birds and other wildlife. Fish, waterfowl, and the ecosystems that depend on the river and lake continue to be affected today.
For the Coeur d'Alene Tribe, the damage was not only ecological. The Tribe's annual sqigwts, water potato harvest, a centuries-old cultural and subsistence tradition, was pushed to the southernmost part of the lake as contamination spread north. The fisheries that were the primary source of their diet for millenia were devastated by the pollution, damage that was further exacerbated by the introduction of non-native species that brought the population of Westslope cutthroat down to less than 1% of its historical catch. The loss of the Tribe’s First Foods has resulted in ongoing cultural, spiritual, and physical health impacts. For the Coeur d’Alene people, the environmental and cultural losses are inseparable.
The Human Cost
In 1973, a fire at the Bunker Hill Smelter damaged the system that filtered its emissions. For months, unfiltered smoke poured into the air over the surrounding communities. Children in the valley were exposed to dangerous levels of lead, so many, and at such high concentrations, that it is considered the worst case of childhood lead poisoning in American history.
The Fight for RestorationThe Coeur d'Alene Tribe didn't wait for the federal government to act. In 1991, after a century of watching the birds and fish sicken and the river run white with suspended metals, the Tribe initiated the first natural resource damage lawsuit of its kind under federal law, demanding that mining companies restore what they had destroyed. Over 30 years of litigation, that act of advocacy secured a dedicated restoration partnership for the watershed — work that is legally distinct from, and funded separately from, the ongoing federal cleanup and remediation described below.
Cleanup began in the 1980s and is still ongoing. The EPA, working alongside Idaho DEQ and the Coeur d'Alene Tribe, uses a range of approaches: removing contaminated soil, containing waste, treating water before it enters the river system, and monitoring conditions across the site. Progress has been made, but the scale of the contamination means this work will continue for generations.
Why This History Matters
The Living Lake Artist Fellowship exists in direct response to this history. The lake's challenges didn't appear overnight, and meeting them requires knowing where they came from, and who has been fighting for the lake all along. That is the foundation this fellowship stands on.
Uniting artists, scientists, and communities around the health and future of Coeur d'Alene Lake and its watershed"
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The Coeur d'Alene Arts & Culture Alliance is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with a mission to enrich the community by connecting people through the arts in North Idaho.
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