Opinion ID: 1324254
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 16

Heading: The Indians' Sacred Land and their Exercise of Religion

Text: The Appellees do not dispute the sincerity of the Indians' testimony concerning their religious beliefs and practices, and the district court wrote that it was not challenging the honest religious beliefs of any witness. The majority concedes that the Indians are sincere. It writes, The district court found the Plaintiffs' beliefs to be sincere; there is no basis to challenge that finding. Maj. op. at 1063. The majority seeks to undermine the importance of the district court's finding, and its own concession, by contending that the Indians consider virtually everything sacred. It writes: In the Coconino National Forest alone, there are approximately a dozen mountains recognized as sacred by American Indian tribes. The district court found the tribes hold other landscapes to be sacred as well, such as canyons and canyon systems, rivers and river drainages, lakes, discrete mesas and buttes, rock formations, shrines, gathering areas, pilgrimage routes, and prehistoric sites. Within the Southwestern Region forest lands alone, there are between 40,000 and 50,000 prehistoric sites. The district court also found the Navajo and the Hualapai Plaintiffs consider the entire Colorado River to be sacred. New sacred areas are continuously being recognized by the Plaintiffs. Maj. op. at 1066 n. 7 (citations omitted). The majority implies that if we hold, based on the sincerity of the Indians's religious belief, that there has been a substantial burden in this case, there is no stopping place. That is, since virtually everything is sacred, virtually any governmental action affecting the Indians' sacred land will be a substantial burden under RFRA. The majority's implication rests upon an inadequate review of the record. The district court conducted a two-week trial devoted solely to the Indians' RFRA claim. The trial record demonstrates that the word sacred is a broad and undifferentiated term. That term does not capture the various degrees in which the Indians hold land to be sacred. For example, Vincent Randall, an Apache legislator, historian, and cultural teacher, responded to a question regarding mountains that were sacred sites as follows: That's your term sacred. That's not my term. I talked about holy mountains this morning. I talked about God's mountains.... Sacred to you is not the other terms. There are other places of honor and respect. You're looking at everything as being sacred. There is notthere is honor and respect, just as much as the Twin Towers is a place of honor and respect. Gettysburg. Yes, there are places like that in Apache land, but there are four holy mountains. Holy mountains. Trial tr. 722-23 (emphasis added). Dianna Uqualla, subchief of the Havasupai, again explained that there are different degrees of sacred: The whole reservation is sacred to us, but the mountains are more sacred. They are like ourif you go to a church there would be like our tabernacle, that would be our altars. That's thethat's the difference like being in Fort Defiance or Window Rock versus going to each of the sacred mountains. The San Francisco Peaks would be like our tabernacle, our altar to the west. SER 1253 (emphasis added). Many White Mountain Apache, Navajo, and Havasupai members refer to all land that is owned, or was ever owned, by their tribe as sacred. For example, Ramon Riley, Cultural Resource Director for the White Mountain Apache, testified that the entire Apache reservation is sacred. Trial tr. at 625, 647-51. Uqualla testified to the same effect with respect to Havasuapai land. SER 1253. But while there are many mountains within White Mountain Apache, Navajo, and Havasupai historic territory, only a few of these mountains are holy or particularly sacred. For the White Mountain Apache, there are four holy mountains. They are the San Francisco Peaks, Mt. Graham, Mt. Baldy, and Red Mountain/Four Peaks. Trial tr. at 639-43. For the Navajo, there are also four holy mountains. They are the San Francisco Peaks, the Blanca Peak, Mt. Taylor, and the Hesperous Mountains. Trial tr. at 739. The Indians allow different uses on sacred land depending on the degree of sacredness. For example, Mount Baldy is one of the White Mountain Apache's holy mountains. Though they consider all of their reservation land sacred in the sense in which that term is used by the majority, Mount Baldy is not merely sacred. It is holy. The record is clear that the Apache do not permit camping, fishing, or hunting on the portion of Mount Baldy under their control, even though they permit such activities elsewhere on their reservation.