Abstract
The 1853 Mission of the Sacred Heart, in Cataldo, Idaho, is the oldest extant building in the state. Yet for millennia, indigenous people have created buildings for a variety of human activities within the lands that in 1890 became the state of Idaho. Descendants of these people live on and off reservations of the five federally recognized tribes in Idaho today. Like other residents of the state, indigenous people have built and are continuing to build structures that serve their contemporary lifestyles. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, however, U.S. government officials and missionaries directed building projects on indigenous lands. This paper examines architecture associated with one tribe - the Coeur d'Alene - and asks whose narratives shaped these buildings and how the buildings have shaped the lives of the Coeur d'Alene people.