Tribe Holds A Winning Hand

There’s an economic dynamo growing in rural North Idaho. The Coeur d’Alene Tribe has become the second-largest private employer in Kootenai and Benewah counties, after Hagadone Hospitality.

The tribe profits tremendously from its gambling casino in Worley. We’re pleased, though, that the tribe continues to diversify into more constructive, productive industries.

Last week, the tribe announced that it hopes to use the burned-out Rayonier lumber mill site in Plummer for an industrial park.

The tribe also has entered into a three-way partnership to manufacture straw particleboard from bluegrass stubble.

We applaud the tribe’s choice of new business ventures.

The tribe might be able to restart the lumber mill, by working with regional timber operators.

The straw particleboard plant not only would employ 35 people, it would help address one of the region’s most vexing questions: What to do with bluegrass stubble, now that field burning is being phased out?

The plant would take straw from 25,000 acres spread across Spokane, Kootenai, Benewah and Whitman counties.

The tribe already employs about 800 workers in the casino, a school, medical center, market and other businesses. The industrial park could be the site of future business expansion.

The tribe obviously cares a great deal about this area and all of its residents.

It’s willing to invest in the industrial park “for the benefit of people who live here,” in the words of Norm Campbell, tribal council member. And it’s willing to take on the financially risky strawboard enterprise to help address an environmental concern.

The tribe is wise, in viewing casino profits as a tool for economic expansion and diversification, and not as a permanent source of revenue. Gambling is a socially damaging enterprise and the region stands to benefit as the tribe moves confidently into other, more productive lines of business.