COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho — The Coeur d'Alene Tribe is asking for the public's assistance after a group of Tribal School students were allegedly racially harassed during a field trip last week.
According to the Coeur d'Alene Tribe, a group of students were walking in McEuen Park in Coeur d'Alene when a group of middle-aged men began harassing and mocking the children's Native American heritage. Police are investigating, and the tribe said it is offering a $25,000 reward for any information that leads to the identification and conviction or civil judgement of the suspects.
On Friday, the tribe said students from the Coeur d'Alene Tribe School were on a field trip and were walking in McEuen Park near the Third Street boat ramp. As the students were walking, the tribe said a group of middle-aged white men started harassing the children. The men allegedly mocked the children "with gestures imitating feathers behind their heads." One of the men allegedly told the children, "Go back to the f***ing reservation, you aren’t allowed here.”
“This pathetic, ugly display of disrespect and harassment occurred in the center of a busy public space in broad daylight. We are not going to sit back and watch our community deteriorate into a place where people believe it’s ok to treat people differently based on the color of their skin,” said Chief Allan, the chairman of the Coeur d’Alene Tribe. “These racist cowards felt emboldened enough in our community to approach a group of Native kids in public and essentially tell them to ‘go back where they came from.’ Quite an ironic charge, given that Coeur d’Alene is our homeland and our people have always been here and always will be.”
The Coeur d'Alene Tribe is offering a $25,000 reward for any information that leads to the identification and conviction or civil judgement of the suspects.
This is not the first reported incident of racial harassment in Coeur d'Alene. In late March, the Utah Women's Basketball team and the University of California Irvine Women's Basketball team stayed at the Coeur d'Alene Resort for the NCAA Tournament games in Spokane, Washington. On Thursday, March 21, the two women's basketball teams were walking to dinner in downtown Coeur d'Alene when a truck with a confederate flag stopped and began yelling racial slurs, including the N-word. No criminal charges will be filed related to this incident.
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