Tribal golf courses make good use of land

Appropriately, they hold some of the last open land.

Appropriate because they had the first land, rolling acres that have over time, treaty and travail been reserved from the onslaught of modern development.

Land, in most cases, a golf-course architect would die for.

It made sense that once Indian gaming had produced the casino, the tribes would follow the profitable path of the full-service resort, hotel, RV park, and, eventually, the golf course.

The early results are stunning.

Nationally, there are nearly 40 resort courses on Indian land.

There is no more idyllic golf resort in the Northwest than the Circling Raven course on the lands of the Coeur d'Alene Tribe in Northern Idaho.

The course is built on 620 acres, four times the amount of land usually set aside for golf.

Its size requires you use a cart, but somehow the destination is worth it, holes on the back nine in their private passages, amphitheaters that play host to bear and elk and are about as far away from the gated community as you can get.

Because of the available acreage — the reservation is more than 345,000 acres — and the tribe's sensitivity to the environment, the course doesn't just deal with its wetlands, it embraces them.

The whole place has a sense of being unhurried, of being whatever the tribe and the architect — Gene Bates — wanted it to be. It meanders, almost casually, through woodlands, wetlands, and grasslands, a perfect Palouse kind of place.

You could easily make the case that Circling Raven is the aesthetic equal of the more famous Coeur d'Alene Resort north along the lake, and as a golf course even better.

The two choose not to be rivals, but friends, marketing together. Along with the good, inexpensive public golf in nearby Spokane, they are an intriguing destination with the cost of Circling Raven — around $70 including a cart — halfway between Coeur d'Alene Resort and Indian Canyon in Spokane.

In a little more than 10 years, the Coeur d'Alene Indians have gone from running a small bingo hall in Worley, Idaho — some 30 minutes south and east of Spokane on Highway 95 — to overseeing a 100,000 square-foot casino, a 202-room hotel and a golf course selected by Golf Digest magazine as one of the country's best new offerings in 2003.

The long-range plan is to double the size of the casino and the hotel, and add a second golf course across the street where the land is endless. Besides gambling, golf, conventions and concerts, the tribe has enriched the area's recreation with a 70-mile bike trail that goes north past the lake.

South, in Eastern Oregon, the Confederate Tribes of the Cayuse, Umatilla and Walla Walla have built a golf course in the arid reaches of the Blue Mountains — Wildhorse — that is also wonderful in its serenity. The course is located east of Pendleton just off I-84.

"There is no steering the golf ball through houses or driving through housing developments to get here," said Laine Wortman, the head pro, himself part-Indian. "You see how the course fits into the surroundings. We've had elk on the fairways and cougar tracks in our bunkers. The tribal culture accepts golf: you see what the creator has done."

One of the guys working in the pro shop, Nathan, is Native American as well as a near-scratch player.

"We have supplanted the local country club in the supply of the best young golfers for the high-school teams," said Gary George, who manages the Wildhorse Resort and Casino.

"Not long ago, the kids didn't have anything to do. As the tribal executive, I had to make payments to local juvenile detention facilities to house them.

"We don't do that as much anymore."

Wildhorse is a more moderate operation than Circling Raven, nicely answering the needs of a golfer who wants golf and a hotel room for less than $100. Besides the casino, hotel and RV park, there is a very compelling museum called the Tamastslikt Cultural Institute.

The greens crew at Wildhorse is made up primarily of Indians. The five people working behind the desk at the Circling Raven hotel were all Native Americans.

Unemployment has dropped from 70 percent on the Coeur d'Alene reservation to 15 percent. The same story with different numbers is true at Wildhorse.

"Every tribal member who wants a job," said George, "can have one."

"There are more jobs than there are tribal members," said Bob Bostwick, a spokesman for the Coeur d'Alenes. "We've gone from a dust-bowl economy to the second largest employer in Northern Idaho."

In Washington, the Skagit Tribe oversees both Semiahmoo and Loomis Trail, the two great courses near Bellingham, in conjunction with its casino. There have been rumors that other tribes who operate casinos are looking to enhance their destination with a golf course.

George, the manager at Wildhorse, went to college on a scholarship paid for by his tribe, money that came from a land settlement with the federal government.

"Coming here was a great opportunity for me to give back," George said. "We wanted as a tribe to get into something that would create jobs but wouldn't be harmful to our environment.

"Golf is a nice fit for us."

And for the last land.