A Victory for Devils Tower

On April 3, 1998 a Federal judge in Wyoming ruled that the National Park Service’s attempt to protect religious practices at Devils Tower is constitutional. The Park Service had instituted a climbing management plan which included a voluntary ban on climbing during the month of June, at the height of ceremonial activity for the 20 Native American tribes that consider Devils Tower a sacred place. (Eighty-five percent of climbers chose not to climb the tower in June of 1996 and 1997).The U.S. District Court’s ruling dismissed a lawsuit filed in 1996 by several commercial climbing guides who argued that the voluntary ban violates the First Amendment prohibition of government sponsorship or establishment of religion. Judge William F. Downes wrote, “the government may (and sometimes must) accommodate the religious practices and…it may do so without violating the Establishment Clause” of the First Amendment.

Mountain States Legal Foundation has appealed the decision. Steve Gunn of the Indian Law Resource Center observed, “These appeals are very expensive,” and this is a clear indication of how high a priority it is for conservatives to stop government recognition of and protection of Native American sacred sites on federal land.

“It’s not that Indians should have exclusive rights at Devils Tower. It’s that that location is sacred enough so that it should have time of its own. And once it has had time of its own, then the people who know how to do ceremonies should come and minister to it. That’s so hard to get across to people.” — Vine Deloria, Jr., Lakota scholar –