How Vision and a “Can Do” Spirit Erased Poverty among the Coeur d’Alene Tribe By Robert S. Bostwick Photos courtesy of Coeur d’Alene Casino Resort Hotel It began on a wheat field, and not much of one at
Worley, population 257, doesn’t much resemble the bustling little community I knew as a kid. Located within the boundaries of the Coeur d’Alene Reservation, the white population surpasses the native one because of the Enlarged Homestead Act of 1909. The act targeted land suitable for dryland farming and opened the lands of three Northwest tribes to a lottery. Eighty percent of the Coeur d’Alene Tribe’s holdings passed out of its ownership during that time, and into the hands of homesteaders whose winning tickets entitled them to file a 160 or 320-acre claim. Continue reading
