THE LAND. THE LAKE. 
& THE PEOPLE.

From left, Coeur d’Alene Tribal members Dahyii Tihi, North Star Lawrence, Bobbie White (Living Lake Project artist) and Lovina Louie (Living Lake Project steering committee member) wait at City Beach in Coeur d’Alene for the Tribe’s hand-carved “Warch” canoe to land.. Photo from the Coeur d’Alene Press
The Coeur d'Alene Tribe — the Schitsu'umsh, "Those Who Were Found Here" — have held this watershed as sacred since time immemorial, and they still do. Their relationship to the lake is not historical. It is active, ongoing, and sovereign. And in the years since, this watershed has become home, workplace, and gathering place to many others too.
Lake ManagementThe protection of Coeur d'Alene Lake today includes the work of many -  the Tribe, the State, the counties, the Basin Commission, and the communities and industries across the watershed. Each has its own ways to contribute to the lake’s future.

As early as 1991, Tribal staff were conducting lake management studies alongside the U.S. Geological Survey and Idaho DEQ, laying the scientific groundwork for formal planning. That same year, 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 advocacy secured a dedicated restoration partnership for the watershed. In 2001, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Tribal water rights to the lower third of the lake, and the EPA affirmed the Tribe's authority to set its own water quality standards on Tribal waters. The Tribe's Water Resources Program, housed in the Tribe’s Natural Resources Department, continues to lead the Tribe’s monitoring, research, and watershed protection efforts today, supported by colleagues across the Department. 

Bald eagles soar over Wolf Lodge Bay on Coeur d’Alene Lake, where they gather each winter to feed on spawning kokanee. Photo from the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality


In 1996, the Clean Lakes Coordinating Council, Idaho, and the Coeur d'Alene Tribe adopted the first Coeur d'Alene Lake Management Plan. When EPA expanded its Superfund cleanup basin-wide in 1998, it deferred action on the lake itself, giving the plan a chance to work in place of a federal remedy. Idaho and the Tribe each tried to revise it separately from 2002 to 2006, and in 2006 EPA helped broker a version both could support — the current Coeur d'Alene Lake Management Plan, finalized in 2009.

A review of monitoring data through 2018 showed nutrients, lead, and oxygen levels moving in the wrong direction. The Tribe formally stepped back from the plan as a sufficient, stand-alone answer for the lake and has continued to press the EPA to reconsider a federal remedy. Though the Tribe continues to implement the objectives outlined in the plan, it is concerned about the lack of action across the Basin..

Participants in the Basin Environmental Improvement Project Commission’s annual Bunker Hill Superfund Site Cleanup Tour visit a Bunker Hill Mining Company work site tour. Photo from the Bunker Hill / Coeur d’Alene Basin Superfund Site (cdabasin.idaho.gov)


Today, both the Tribe and Idaho continue to implement their roles in the 2009 LMP, and in response to a 2022 data review by the National Academy of Sciences, Idaho, has directed more than $37 million through the Leading Idaho Initiative to phosphorus-reduction projects.  The Basin Commission — a federal, Tribal, bi-state, and multi-county body created by the Idaho Legislature in 2002 to coordinate cleanup and restoration across the whole basin - also plays an advisory role. The Lake Management Plan is a foundation, not a finished answer — the Tribe, the State, and the Basin Commission continue to work through what stronger protection looks like next.


The Land and Water Around ItBeyond the lake itself, the land and water that feed it are their own web of activity and care. The City of Coeur d'Alene is investing in stormwater projects.  Area environmental organizations like Kootenai Environmental Alliance, Idaho Conservation League, and Inland Northwest Land Conservancy work with community members to promote sustainable land practices. 

Spawning kokanee salmon gather over a gravel streambed in North Idaho, their bodies bright red and their heads green. Photo from Idaho Conservation League


Small dam removals and stream and creek restoration are reconnecting habitat between the land and the lake. Everything that moves across this landscape eventually reaches the water.
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Relationships with the LakeEveryone connects with this lake differently — through cultural and spiritual practice, through work, through recreation, through daily life along its shores. Part of what this fellowship explores is how we hold space for all of those relationships without one crowding out another.

Youth headed out across the flats for the Coeur d’Alene Tribe’s annual 2026 Water Potato Day, digging sqigwts the way generations have before them.



The Living Lake Project is built on this foundation.The Arts & Culture Alliance of Coeur d'Alene is honored to work alongside the Coeur d'Alene Tribe and Idaho DEQ as core partners in the Living Lake Artist Fellowship. Tribal staff Idaho DEQ staff contribute directly to the fellowship curriculum, bringing updated, rigorous knowledge and experience to the learning journey. This is not just history, it’s the living expertise central to everything fellows learn and make.

We acknowledge that we live, work, and create on the ancestral homeland of the Schitsu'umsh. We are grateful for their stewardship of this place and committed to honoring that relationship in the work we do together.


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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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