The Kootenai Tribe (also spelled Kutenai) is the smallest tribe in Idaho, and is located the furthest north, near the Canadian border. The tribe's 120 members live near Bonners Ferry.
The Kootenai of North Idaho are one of six bands of the greater Kootenai Nation. The other groups are in British Columbia and northwestern Montana. Traditionally the Kootenai followed the cycle of the salmon, which was their main staple food. They moved from Columbia Lake in British Columbia through Kettle Falls in northeastern Washington and into Idaho. They also fished for sturgeon and whitefish and hunted deer, elk and caribou. They supplemented their diets by gathering berries, roots and wild vegetables.
The Kootenai of Idaho resisted attempts to put them on the Flathead reservation in Montana. For a while, the federal government ignored the small landless tribe. Then in the 1900's the government set aside parcels of land for each member to farm. They had no experience in that arena and much of the land was eventually leased to white farmers. In 1930, when the Grand Coulee Dam was built, it destroyed the salmon runs on which the tribe had depended.
In 1934, the Idaho band had the opportunity to become a tribe under the Indian Reorganization Act, but voted not to become an IRA tribe, feeling that there were too many constraints on its sovereignty.
In 1947, Congress recognized the Kootenais as a tribe, but the members still had no formal reservation land. In 1974, the tribe gained national attention when it declared war on the United States in order to gain a reservation. It turned the road through their land into a toll road, charging each vehicle 10 cents and demanding that the U.S. government negotiate with it. In October 1974, President Gerald Ford signed legislation creating a 12.5 acre reservation for the tribe, but the tribe now has 2,000 acres in individual trusts. The tribe is still frustrated with its small land base. It is now undertaking economic development with a casino, motel and fish hatchery.