On Sunday, October 25, two things happen on the grounds of Coeur d'Alene Casino Resort Hotel. Out on the course, Circling Raven Golf Club runs its final outdoor day of 2026, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., weather permitting. Indoors in the Chatcolet Room, from 1 to 7 p.m., instructor Shady Cree teaches a class of people to build their own stickgame sets. The golf season and the stickgame season share that Sunday, and from then on the resort's calendar belongs to the second one.
Over the following four weeks, the resort's schedule fills up around a game with deep roots as a winter pastime.
The course closes on a Sunday, and the dates start stacking up
Count the dated cultural and music events the casino lists between the last tee time and Thanksgiving week and you get five. Four of them land in the 13 days from November 8 to November 20.
- Sunday, October 25: Make Your Own Stickgame Set, 1 to 7 p.m., Chatcolet Room, $75
- Sunday, November 8: Make Your Own Pendleton Mittens, 1 to 5 p.m., Chatcolet Room, $100
- Friday through Sunday, November 13 to 15: Honoring Our Veterans $49,000 Stickgame Tournament
- Thursday, November 19: A Night with Isaac Tonasket, 7 p.m.
- Friday, November 20: Winter Blessing 2026, 6 to 8 p.m.
Both Sunday workshops come with a $10 EPC credit and a $10 food voucher, and both are sold online through the event pages. The stickgame set class has you make a set and take it home, taught by an instructor the listing says has been teaching stickmaking for more than 30 years. In the Pendleton mitten workshop you make a mitten while learning about its artistry, tradition and craftsmanship.
The order matters. The first class teaches the game's equipment three weeks before the tournament that is the season's centerpiece.
Why a winter game sets the November calendar
The game goes by several names. An Oregon Department of Education curriculum lists Hand Game, Slahal and Stick Game, and describes a hiding-and-guessing game played by many Pacific Northwest tribes. Each tribe's version has its own form, passed down through generations and played at gatherings and community events. According to an account in American Indian Magazine, published by the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, one team hides marked pieces while the other guesses, singing and drumming go with play, and the rules vary from community to community.
The same article explains the timing:
"Like many traditional Indigenous games, the handgame is a pastime men, women and children used to play primarily in winter, when long, cold nights forced them inside."
The casino's biggest cultural event of the fall falls in that same indoor season.
Three days of stickgame in the Event Center
The Honoring Our Veterans Stickgame Tournament runs November 13 through 15. The casino says it celebrates Indigenous cultural heritage, and the public can watch for free. Every game is played in the Event Center, the same 1,420-seat room the resort uses for concerts.
The $49,000 headline figure is spread across several brackets on the tournament flyer:
| Bracket | Payout | Entry | Format |
|---|---|---|---|
| Main tournament | $40,500 | $100 per team of 3 to 5 | Double elimination |
| Saturday Jackpot 3-on-3 | $5,000+ | $25 per person or $75 per team | Registration 10 a.m. to noon, 1 p.m. start |
| Consolation | $3,500 | Listed on flyer | Single elimination, begins after the first two full rounds |
Friday opens with open games and a traditional material game, with pointers Cody Peone and Herb Stanley listed in an 11 a.m. slot. Main tournament registration runs 10 a.m. to noon, with a material game at 11 a.m. On Saturday, breakfast is served in the Event Center from 10 a.m. to noon or until the food runs out. The flyer calls every start time approximate, so plan on watching a block of play rather than catching one particular game.
For someone who lives fifteen minutes away, a free weekend of competitive play with singing and drumming, on a $49,000 purse, is the most unusual thing on the area's November calendar.
Back-to-back nights on November 19 and 20
Four days after the tournament ends, the calendar peaks with two evenings in a row built around the same performer.
On Thursday, November 19, the casino hosts A Night with Isaac Tonasket at 7 p.m. The listing describes him as a singer-songwriter and motivational speaker who performs original contemporary songs, traditional songs and covers. Right now it's the only upcoming Coeur Stars headline show on the casino's entertainment page.
On Friday, November 20, he plays again at Winter Blessing 2026, which the casino presents as a Native American Heritage Month evening. It's free and open to all ages, and it takes place in the Upstairs Conference Area. The posted schedule:
- Doors open at 5:30 p.m.
- Welcome at 6 p.m.
- Eagle performance by Michael Roberts at 6:15 p.m.
- Concert by Isaac Tonasket at 7 p.m.
- Complimentary fry bread with huckleberry jam at 8 p.m.
Champion dancer Jonathon Nomee is also scheduled to appear. As free, all-ages events go, this is the easy one to bring visiting family to, and it falls the week before Thanksgiving.
The golf goes indoors in November
Circling Raven doesn't vanish when the course closes. It moves inside. The casino's golf page says the Circling Raven Golf Suites open in November and tells guests to check back for a date and time. The suites sit beside the Nighthawk Lounge. They load more than 80 famous courses, from The Old Course at St Andrews to Pebble Beach, and you have to be 18 or older to enter. There are two setups, a 15-foot wide screen and a 31-foot curved screen, and the page says pricing varies for each.
When the resort announced the simulators in December 2024, it pitched them as a year-round option. That isn't how they ran in 2026. The suites page says they were closed for summer 2026, with the space available for banquet bookings in the meantime. So the suites now work like the rest of the calendar: one golf season outdoors, a second indoors, with the November opening as the handoff.
What changes for an ordinary night out
The cultural calendar is the big shift. A few smaller ones affect anyone who drives over for dinner this fall.
Live music has moved. The Nighthawk Lounge music room is closed until further notice. The casino points guests to the Chinook Lounge instead, which has acoustic sets by local musicians on Friday and Saturday nights next to Chinook Steak, Seafood & Pasta.
October menus end with the month. Several seasonal items are listed only for October 1 through 31: Chinook's pistachio pork porterhouse and a pumpkin-spice pecan roll cake, hot-honey tacos at El Coyote Cantina, a loaded-baked-potato pizza at Arrowhead Pizza and Dragon Fire Noodles at Little Dragon Eatery. That leaves one week after the course closes to order any of them.
The lakeside grill is still a question mark. The latest dining update from Conkling Marina, at 20 W. Jerry Lane, posted in July, says the Flip Flop Grill closed after a fire while the marina assessed the damage and worked on bringing in food trucks. At the time, KHQ reported that the owner planned to reopen once repairs could be made, and that the marina store stayed open. Call the marina before you plan a fall lunch there.
The water park has afternoon gaps. If you're heading for indoor swimming at the Coeur Center, the water park is closed weekdays from 3 to 5 p.m. from August 31, 2026, through June 4, 2027.
If you still want an outdoor round, Sunday, October 25 is the last day to play one. Circling Raven's pro shop and range take calls at 1-800-523-2464, extension 7223.
If you're thinking about a home in or around Worley and want to talk through what a full year there looks like, from the last tee time through the winter calendar, Rachael Holzhauser would be glad to help. Schedule a free consultation.
