Idaho’s Forgotten War

COEUR d’ALENE — It was the winter of 2006 when documentary filmmaker Sonya Rosario received an urgent phone call from Valerie Fast Horse, a member of the Coeur d’Alene Tribe.

Rosario, of Meridian, learned from Fast Horse that then 73-year-old Amy Trice, former chairwoman of the Kootenai Tribe, had double pneumonia.

“She said that if we lost this voice, Idaho would lose its history and the Kootenai Tribe would lose its history,” Rosario said.

Rosario seized the opportunity to document what happened in Bonners Ferry on Sept. 20, 1974, the day Trice led her people to officially declare war against the US Government in order to save them from poverty, isolation and possible extinction. Maureen Donlan, Cda Press, Full Story.

Facinating story. How interested are you in Idaho history?