COEUR D'ALENE RIOTS

(1890s), in U.S. history, recurring violence at silver and lead mines around Coeur d'Alene in northern Idaho. When union miners struck in the summer of 1892, mine owners employed nonunion workers, hired armed guards to protect them, and obtained an injunction against the strikers. On July 11 striking miners attacked the mines and engaged in armed conflict with the guards, during which a mill was dynamited. Martial law was declared and order was restored by state and federal troops. In 1894 and in 1899 federal troops were again used to crush strikes at the mines.