A VISIT TO COEUR D’ALENE CASINO RESORT

On January 19, 2015, Marilyn and I took a break and decided to visit this resort as we had a two day complimentary room from a previous visit to the Casino at Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. That always helps in making a decision!

I am inspired to write about our First Nations people. It will be limited to my exposure and relationships rather than an historical account which I will leave to the many researchers who have already written about this subject matter in a positive and sometimes destructive fashion, depending on their personal biases.

I need to identify my past so that the reader maybe determine how I may have developed my understanding of First Nations people.

I am a descendent of Doukhobors who had settled and in Saskatchewan in 1899, amongst three reservations already there. So these Russian-speaking people became neighbors to the descendants of the resident migrants who apparently came down from Eastern Russia some 20,000 years ago.

Or did they simply move North as the ice melted from the Aztec and Inca nations already in North America?

We lived near three Cree reservations: Keys, Cote and Kissakosee nestled between the communities of Pelly on the North, Kamsack on the South and Canora to the west. My initial exposure (in the fifties) was to see these natives walking around the community, almost aimlessly with no agenda, or simply “hanging around”.

At harvest, we would have one or two come to work and help. After two or three days, they would want to be paid and leave even though the help was still required. There was no apparent incentive to accumulate wealth.

Yes, I wondered about the residential Catholic school at St Phillips and the reasons for same.

I played competitive sports and attended several festivals where I observed Powwows and other native events and became convinced of their beautiful culture that always left me wanting to know more.

In my professional years, I was privileged to have two native brothers erect all the steel, roof and wall panels for the International Pavilions at Expo ’86. This was the first time that I was able to understand the capability of Crees in an entirely different perspective.

I was also able to be chosen to build a one acre sized school designed by First Nations at Nelson House Manitoba, near Thompson. There the fire walls penetrated the roof to display thunderbirds. The 600 student school was staffed with over 40 First Nations Educators. My firm used many of the residents in the various Trades. This was in smart contrast to the negative reputation of the former Residential Schools

Yes, but the dated stigma was still there for both groups of peoples that we had to counteract. I was part of the “Dirty Douks” and they were the “Lazy and Drunken Indian”

All of us in North America needed to change the dated “stigmatization” we seemed to establish before we got to know each other.

I had visited many Casinos in the USA and Canada which were an excellent result of committees that decided these sources of revenue should be designated to the First Nations and constructed on Native lands. As in the school that I had build, the designs and construction were all to the highest standards with top workmanship.

I would compare the Coeur d’Alene resort in Idaho to that South of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

So it has taken me some time to get to my main objective in this article. In the two days that Marilyn and I stayed at Coeur d’Alene, we experienced:

1. Top notch rooms and cleaniness in a very professional manner
2. We liked the selection of appointments which were used in decorations which provided a strong education into the culture of the Coeur d’Alene Tribe
3. The food was of the highest standard, presentation and selection
4. The friendliness is in keeping with the historic information that was available for guest to read
5. The professional dress, smiles and every staff action that made a welcome easy to enjoy

To me, it was such pleasure to see a transformation of the native image to fitting First Americans and in my country, the First Canadians. The pride that was prevalent in all that we met was fitting.

The fact that some of the net proceeds is being donated to Education, from the operations, is a demonstration that the Coeur d’Alene Tribe is doing isr responsible part within the community.

Marilyn and I are still smiling!

Written by Elmer Verigin January 25, 2015