Main Street, Wyoming; 707; Sacred Sites

Main Street Wyoming is made possible by Kennicott energy company proud to be part of Wyoming's future in the coal and uranium industries which includes exploration, mining, and production. And the Wyoming Council for the Humanities enriching the lives of Wyoming people through the study of Wyoming history values and ideas. Many of the places around Wyoming inspire us which is why thousands of tourists from around the world come here to see our magnificent scenery. But some of these places are more than natural wonders. They hold a very special meaning for American Indians. Join us on Main Street Wyoming where we'll be on location at Devil's Tower and the medicine wheel. We'll be learning more about these sites which are considered sacred by American Indians. And we'll be asking can they be managed when there are competing interests. [Music] [music] [backgroud talking/noise]

In 1906 President Teddy Roosevelt proclaimed Devil's Tower our country's first national monument. Today tourists from around the world visit this unique core of rock which rises eight hundred and sixty seven feet from its base. Since its inclusion in the popular movie "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", visitation the Devil's Tower has risen dramatically over 450,000 people annually stop to see this geologic wonder. The medicine wheel located in the Bighorn National Forest was designated a national

historic landmark in 1970. It is estimated to have been built between twelve hundred and seventeen hundred AD. And is found above timber line at the top of Madison mountain. It is annually viewed by around 18000 visitors. These two sites are part of a national debate with passionate proponents on both sides. Devil's Tower and the Medicine Wheel are considered sacred by American Indians. But what does that mean and how does it impact the way these federally owned lands are to be managed. [music] Our,basically, I think you know, my perspective of what the people in Wyoming, at least in northeastern Wyoming and I know are people that strongly uphold individual rights. And what's happening here at Devil's Tower is a slaughter by the federal government and an erosion of the individual freedoms guaranteed by the Bill of Rights which is part of our Constitution.

If there is no respect, if there is no mut -mutual respect, there is continued desicra-continued desecration of these, ah, sacred sites, and it is, ah, cultural and religious genocide. We won't question American Indians when they say the tower is sacred. Just as we won't question climbers when they say the tower is a premier technical climbing area. We - we take those folks at their word. We've gotten some direction from the executive branch of the government that's really all we have. What we're doing up here is sort of treading new ground and working together with everyone to make it happen there really is no set of guidelines or rules or regulations on how you manage a sacred site, we're working through this with all the parties. [music] In May Of 1996 President Clinton signed an executive order instructing federal land managers that they are to, 1, accommodate access to and ceremonial use of Indian sacred sites by Indian religious practitioners. And, 2, avoid aversely affecting the physical integrity of such sacred sites. The

story of those places held sacred by American Indians is a complicated one. Numerous tribes populate the western plains and mountains. And each has its own set of beliefs and traditional ways of practicing those beliefs. Their history and culture has been passed from one generation to the next orally. And is often not understood by the outside world. The archaeological evidence in some cases will be rather obvious like the medicine wheel or something and it doesn't fit in any other category except ceremonial or religious. We - we just know that it has that aspect there are certain features that clearly indicate this is a sacred site of some sort. Big or small, um, and then otherwise in some sites many areas that the evidence is very difficult to come up with because there is no real physical evidence but only the knowledge of the people themselves. But I can tell you this that they're very serious about it. It is very much of a church to them and, and, and due that kind of respect I think. Several tribes share similar stories of the origin of what they call Bear Lodge. [music] Eight children were

there at play. Seven sisters and their brother. Suddenly the boy was struck dumb. He trembled and began to run upon his hands and feet. His fingers became claws and his body was covered with fur. Directly there was a bear where the boy had been. The sisters were terrified. They ran in the bear after them. They came to the stump of a great tree in the tree spoke to them. He bade them climb upon it and as they did so it began to rise into the air. The bear came to kill them but they were just beyond its reach. It reared against the tree and scored the bark all around with its claws. The seven sisters were born into the sky and they became the stars of the Big Dipper. [music] You have to realize that for 500 years our country has been programmed to say that

the Indian culture doesn't count. We travel to the medicine wheel to visit with members of the group which has been meeting to resolve the management conflicts facing this sacred site. Nicole Price explained why local people have previously not witnessed American Indians practicing their religion at these places. When Indian people were put on reservations. The head of those reservations were Bureau of Indian Affairs person. And at one point in time they were part of the military. They had, their - their word was law. So to speak and the whole thing was you assimilate the Indians. You take away their religion. And you do it with any means you can. And so there were laws passed. The downs/towns? Act was passed in, um, early 1900s that basically said that Indians cannot practice their religions in any shape, way, or form. Indian people had to have a green card to get

off the reservation. The only person who could sign that was the agent. So you didn't leave the reservation to go and practice your religion. The Native Americans then were accused of riding this bandwagon because they didn't talk like that in the past. Well, they didn't advertise to everybody when they went to church. They just went up there. Their religion is very like one person may come and he can vision quest and that's his religion. It's only. . . .it's not like you have a body of like the Methodists. That's not what Indian religion is about. So there's a very different way of looking at that. So not until 1978 when the Native American Religious Freedom Act was passed didn't Indians even know or believe that they could leave their reservations and that they had a right to come back to places like this. There is increasing American Indian interest in the tower starting from in 1978 with the passage of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act. In 1981 there was a major, uh Indian encampment here, um, starting in 1985. Sundance has

been held here annually. The number of group requests that the park has handled from American Indian groups for vision quest and sweats has increased dramatically. The sacred hoop runners 100 young runners that do run the sacred hoop around the Black Hills come each year. So from an agency perspective there's an increasing use of the tower by American Indians. [music] [background noise] [music] [background noise] In addition to being a tourist attractions both the medicine wheel and Devil's Tower have been places of special significance for local residents for many generations. We spoke with Hulett town council member Rod Hackett about Devil's Tower. For us we have a lot of our local people are many generations of settlers you know they were some of the first settlers into the area we have several families that boast of seven generations. Of family members that have lived in and around the tower. And for

them this monument becomes their marker and their identity of who they are and where they are because we're so small out here in the northeastern part of Wyoming. Devil's Tower itself has a big impact. I don't think we'd have, you know, probably a tenth of the traffic if it wasn't for Devil's Tower. Um, obviously we're not a destination point but, um, anybody that goes from Rushmore to Yellowstone if they can fit in the time, always, you know stops at Devil's Tower. I think the usage of the site for religious purposes is really fairly recent it's more of a modern Indian, ah, belief. Ah, the first Sundance that we know of that we have documented took place in 1984. Previous to that time in any of the journals in any of our history books that we have any of the writings from the military that were in the area we have no documentation that the Indians visited here for religious purpose. I think that, um, Crook County is real receptive to the Indians if they, you know, if they would like to come here and

worship, why that's not a problem. Driskills own this property and they, um, they're very receptive to them. They let them camp on their land and, um, they can't pick the choke- cherry boughs in the national park so they let him pick them here on their land and the whole part of the county as far as I'm concerned is, real, you know receptive to 'em. It's no big deal. I, I think as a whole most people are quite concerned. Ah, they're, they're concerned with where does it stop. Most feel like we live out here in an independent state and have tried to be amenable to everyone's rights and everyone's freedom to to do what they can do legally. And so I believe local feeling is that, ah, the native tribes are more than welcome to come and have their religious ceremony. But allow other people to come in, and do what they enjoy doing as well. Rod Hackett is also a Christian pastor and spoke to us about the concept of sacred sites [Guest] From a Christian perspective,

We would look at a holy site or a sacred site as a place where some great religious event took place. A place where there was ongoing religious activity. A place where someone else possibly would call this is holy. An--and so in our usage, yeah, we couldn't allow the Indians even if they would say on a, a religious significance right now that this is holy to them. We would be willing to say yes that probably is true. Uh, so we don't have a problem with that terminology. What happens with our religious sites I believe is what becomes most important from there on. [American Indian singing] The medicine wheel became a focus of concern for local residents, American Indians, and the U.S. Forest Service in 1988. Mary Randolph,the Medicine

Wheel district ranger, described the situation at that time. We started out with a timber sale in this area. We were looking at doing some timber sales within the view shed of the medicine wheel. And so back in '88 the district ranger that was here at that time had brought a group of Native Americans up to show them the timber sale, and they happened to do the meeting right up at the wheel. And while we were standing up there and talking about the timber sales somebody turned and says well what about the medicine wheel. What are you going to do to protect the wheel. Well, we were going to do, we'll do a management plan. You know we'll figure out how to protect it we'll start to do some developments up here. And we were also getting a lot of tourists that were coming up at that time too. So in our infamous wisdom back at that time you know people make the best decisions they can at the time and we thought the thing to do was to do management up there. We looked at building a visitor's center so we could explain to people what the medicine wheel was all about. Looked at improving the roads and the access to the wheel, sanitation facilities, all those kinds of things that would make it more of a developed facility. So that's kind of what got us started because the Native Americans

up said there's a whoa, that's not what we really wanted. And we kind of, oh we didn't know that because we didn't take the time to find out what anybody really wanted up there. We thought we knew the best. The forest service at that point had a plan to shrink the national historic landmark down to 80 feet. that is the circle itself. Right now there's like two or three hundred acres and a national landmark status. So that involves not just the Forest Service but things like the Park Service and so forth. They proposed to reduce that down to 80 feet for the reasons that that would give them the management go ahead to develop the site itself. They had plans for viewing towers because a tourists complained that they couldn't see it well enough in their snapshots. They were going to put parking lots and paths in interpretive signs and so forth. Um, I guess in a certain sense I sort of blew the whistle on that when I got a small contract through the Park Service and went up there and said their pronouncement that there was no other archaeology associated with the medicine wheel is not correct. There are big trail systems going up there that almost certainly are there are villages of teetering campsites that may or may not be associated with it. But until we know that, the national historic landmark boundaries were very appropriate.

That spring we had met with the Forest Service in Sheridan a couple of times. And decided that the Forest Service had absolutely no idea that their section 106 responsibilities were. That they were to meet with Indian people, that this was a sacred area. And we set up the first meeting in May of '88 with the Forest Service from Sheridan, and five Indian people. And they consider that a historic event with the Forest Service because they had never talked to an Indian person before. Throughout these, past, decades this, this Medicine Wheel, Medicine Mountain has been frequented by tourists and..ah..ah...other people that did not really understand, ah....ah... what this, ah place was all about. Ah, The best way that I can put it is that it would be [clearing throat] It would have been synonymous with the church burnings that have been

going on. Ah, the desecration that was going on for, um quite some time. And we realized that we had really three entities that were involved and we had ourselves as the land managers, we had different Native American groups and individuals that were very concerned with what we were doing, And we also had the Big Horn Base, and the community of Lovell. And, and that area down there because they were very interested in this area as a tourist attraction and also because they had been the ones that had been protecting it for the last hundred years they're the ones that got the designation is the national historic landmark. You know they were the ones that originally got the fence built around it to protect it so they have been very concerned about what had been happening up here too. I mean there were some really ugly meetings that we've had where there has been a lot of conflict between a lot of different people. But through the nine years you know we all learn from each other and the education was there. And because of that, you know, we just, we just had to keep working forward and

putting together agreements and working forward and putting together agreements. And we all haven't come up with what we really wanted but I think we've all learned to respect one another. I think we've all learned that there are differences among us and we've had to kind of put them in the background and say what is best for the land space. And I think in, at least for our group, I think that's been our main focus's. We have to keep what's, the best interests of the mountain at heart, not maybe what our goals would be. We've also learned from each other. The people in the communities, the basin community, and us from the Forest Service, we've spent a lot of time with the Native Americans now and we've gotten a better understanding of what this place actually means to them. And I don't think we had that before. I don't think we understood that. We didn't open up our ears and really listen to them. Well I think the, ah...ah... interpretation...ah the on site presence of, of interpreters has increased the awareness, ah, but not only that, the, ah

public relations, the, the relationship between uh federal agencies, tribes, state agencies and the educational process that has taken place but course it has only taken nearly a decade to get to this point and there is still a considerable amount of work that needs to be done. [music] In 1991 the National Park Service directed their parks with significant climbing activities to develop management plans. Devil's Tower, the premier crack climbing place in the country, was among the 30 parks to implement this directive. It's important to understand that what's unique to Devils Tower is that the conflict here related to climbing is recreational climbing in conflict with traditional cultural use. Devil's Tower is the only unit in the National Park Service of those 30, um, where this most significant issue about climbing was climbing on what is to American Indians a sacred site. In other parks and monuments it was

mostly bolting, chalk, ah, human use, trails, litter those kinds of issues. But here it's recreation in conflict with traditional cultural use. [back ground noise] Andy Petefish who owns Tower Guides at Devils Tower, has been climbing for 26 years. {Guest} There's lots of different aspects of climbing. I mean you can climb, almost anywhere and there's emotion involved in climbing and a lot of people get into that aspect of and it's really comparable to like a martial art or some kind of practice where you're refining your movement and you're, basically, integrate all the aspects of being physical and mental and spiritual as a human. And climbing is really demanding on all those levels. Ah, Devil's Tower is probably the best crack climbing in the world bar none. I mean, there, there are no other cracks in the world that I know of on such a abundance number of them, not spaced too far apart where they

run for you know two three hundred feet. Just perfect columns and cracks you know without any big foothold or even some of them have no resting spots at all. A group was formed to address the competing interests of Devil's Tower. And by 1995 the Park Service had completed their draft climbing management plan. That draft plan included six alternatives, ah, ranging from, absolutely no climbing on the tower to, at the other extreme, ah, absolutely unrestricted climbing. Ah, the National Park Service's preferred alternative was a mid ground alternative that called for a voluntary closure to climbing in June. That caus....called for a cross-cultural education program that called for no new bolting but permitting replacement of existing bolts that called for new Raptor protections and that called for clean climber guidelines.

Well we went through the public scoping part of the climbing plan where they have to do the NEPA process and they call for public input, and there were quite a few comrades of mine that weren't really guides or anything but they're lawyers and knew and did research on the topic itself and knew that closing Devils Tower out of respect for American Indian religion was against the First Amendment to the Constitution so there were a large number of us that wrote in during the public comment period asking the Park Service and even the for the public comment period not to close the tower because it was against the law and they didn't listen to us. Um, the, the plan is, ah, conflict negotiation. It is a compromise not everyone got everything they wanted but everyone got something that they wanted, um and the plan's working here on the ground. In the first year we had 85 percent compliance rate from the climbing community for the voluntary closure. We had very few requests for replacement bolting. We had positive comments from the American Indian community about fewer

climbers, fewer bolts being pounded in to a sacred altar. Um, But in March of this year, March of 1996, the Bear Lodge multiple use Association and a commercial guide sued us, ah, for violating the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. They came out with the voluntary closure which is in the plan which really isn't voluntary because they state that people can choose whether or not to climb in June but for the voluntary closure to remain in effect there has to be 100 percent compliance which means nobody climbs. So voluntary closure could then become mandatory as stated in the plan. And they also instituted a mandatory ban on commercial guiding which means that anybody that wanted to hire a commercial guide like myself to climb the tower during the month of June couldn't. So that part of it also wasn't voluntary for you know any aspects of someone who wants to have a safe enjoyable climb, you know, couldn't during June and also I can't work and run my business.

We simply restricted the month of June from climbing for profit. Um, because of the voluntary closure, because of the emphasis of the American Indian community on the sacredness of the tower, and because of the special activities that take place around that time period. Um, and we were sued, ah, in part for, um, from this commercial climber for violating his opportunities to make a profit. Um, and in the preliminary injunction stage, the federal judge upheld his claim and forced me to issue a commercial use license. My individual freedoms which include, which include the government not establishing religion, are, they protect me as an individual and my lawyers also think that they protect business interests as well. The debates regarding treatment of sacred sites reach into the foundations of our country. Constitutional issues still to be interpreted and decided by the highest courts. Some have suggested the possibility of splitting the usage of the tower in the month of June. That is limiting climbing to one

side and ceremonial use to the other. It's not just seeing people on the tower but it's knowing people are on the tower and and that the presence of those outside, and to them, sacrilegious elements have a direct impact on the efficacy of their ceremonies. Um, and so it's important that no one be on the object. Not just, not simply out of sight on the object, but not on the object. [music] I think that, um, there is going to, ah have to be a considerable amount of educational effort. Ah, By Native Americans to, to continue to have their...ah....ah... sacred sites protected. And, ah...ah.. And there has to be a common understanding that these are indeed places of worship. The groups that worked on this are very diverse groups. And we have learned to come together for the betterment of all of us. Not just one group.

And I think that those things should mean an awful lot to the communities around here. My main thing though is...is as a live living example at least to this point is that you can fight back and that apathy will kill people in Wyoming, and it'll kill the Wyoming way of life. And, ah, that's mainly what I would like people in Wyoming to know is that you can fight back the federal government and it's not fun, it's not easy. But if you really believe in your way of life you need to do it. There are extremes on both sides both in the American Indian community and the climbing community, um, that want it all. But this is a shared public resource and this is a plan that's based on mutual respect. I encourage people to come up to the site come see what we've done up here and how we've made it work for people to be able to visit the site see the site learn from it yet accommodate a need that, that the Native Americans have to use this as their sacred site in their ceremonial place of worship. [music]

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