Tribal Law Stirs Dissent Property Sales And Inheritances Overseen By Coeur D’Alenes’ Council

The Coeur d’Alene Tribal Council reportedly has decided to hold hearings on its controversial new law regulating property sales and inheritances.

Several people spoke against the law at a general council meeting Saturday, according to tribal member Lynn Deno, who attended. The meetings are closed to nontribal members.

“They want two more meetings and more input,” Deno said of the tribal council. “They’re feeling us out. They know there’s dissent, and they don’t like that.”

Tribal chairman Ernie Stensgar could not be reached for comment Monday. Tribal press liaison Bob Bostwick referred questions to communications director Donna Matheson, who also couldn’t be reached.

The tribal council on Jan. 5 passed a resolution saying no Indian-owned land on the reservation can be bought or inherited by non-Coeur d’Alenes without the consent of the tribal council.

Stensgar has said that common sense will prevail in the council’s case-by-case decisions.

But many on the reservation, including Deno, fear they won’t be able to leave their land to their non-Coeur d’Alene spouses or children who aren’t eligible for tribal membership.

“A lot of the dissent is coming from kids that are just getting married,” Deno said.

Petitions opposing the law are circulating in the reservation towns of Plummer and Worley.

Deno, 66, is one of only a handful of non-Indian enrolled members of the Coeur d’Alene tribe. His grandparents were among five homesteading families in the area when the federal government declared it the Coeur d’Alene Reservation in 1887. The Coeur d’Alenes’ chief adopted the families into the tribe.

As a tribal member, Deno’s land is now considered reservation “trust land,” and thus is tax-free. But if his children can’t inherit his land, Deno said he’ll be forced to try to put his 406 acres south of Worley up for sale.

“I said (to the council), `You’re giving me one option - to take my land out of trust and to get rid of it,”’ he said. “I don’t want to. But my kids aren’t going to get a decent break.”