The Coeur d’Alene Indian Tribe has earned praise for many deeds and accomplishments.

The Coeur d’Alenes have shown progressiveness in building state-of-the-art medical, dental and wellness centers near their Plummer headquarters and opening those facilities to non-Indians throughout the region. The tribe has made impressive annual contributions of now more than $1 million annually to local public schools that often struggle to make ends meet. It showed patience and evenhandedness with angry eastern Benewah County residents who still aren’t ready to concede that the Coeur d’Alenes own the southern half of Lake Coeur d’Alene and can charge for fishing licenses and dock fees.

Also, the tribe deserves credit for forming bonds with other local governments in the area to bring powwows, dances and culture back to ancestral grounds along the Spokane River each year at North Idaho College and Post Falls. The tribe has embraced the region. The region is beginning to embrace the tribe back.

Now, the Coeur d’Alenes have reached into their treasury again to provide another gift that will grow in importance as gas prices hit the $3 per gallon neighborhood: public transportation. As a result of a matching grant between the federal government and the tribe, the region from DeSmet on the southern edge of the Coeur d’Alene reservation to Hayden will receive free, around-the-clock public transportation for the next three years. The transit system produced by federal, local and tribal governments is a one-of-a-kind thing in this country. As such, it’s not surprising the Coeur d’Alenes are involved.

“This partnership will lead to other partnerships in the future,” Dixie Reid, a Coeur d’Alene councilwoman and Kootenai Metropolitan Planning Organization chairwoman, told The Spokesman-Review. “Their leadership is just great. They’re forward thinking. They have can-do attitudes. … The credit needs to go where the credit is deserved.”

Before the tribe stepped into the picture two years ago, transit enthusiasts in rural North Idaho could only dream of a system that would provide public transportation for the disabled, underemployed, senior citizens and the poor, from Benewah County to North Idaho College, Kootenai Medical Center and shopping areas in Coeur d’Alene, Post Falls and Hayden. The southern route from Plummer to DeSmet is already operating. On Nov. 1, five new buses will start the northern loop from Plummer to Hayden’s Albertsons, equipped with handicap access, bike racks for those who want to ride the popular Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes path to Harrison and beyond, and a seating capacity of 28 to 35.

The tribe will handle operations and the matching grant with the federal government, about $400,000 from its gaming receipts for the first year. Kootenai County will administer the grant. Meanwhile, individuals are already looking into ways to expand the service to St. Maries, where anti-tribe sentiments run high with some. Among progressive governments, however, the tribe has become a welcome friend and an entity that makes things happen.