Opinion ID: 692058
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Reasonable Effort

Text: 21 The Forest Service contends that it engaged in reasonable efforts to identify historic properties in Las Huertas Canyon. The record reveals that the Forest Service did request information from the Sandia Pueblo and other local Indian tribes, but a mere request for information is not necessarily sufficient to constitute the reasonable effort section 106 requires. Because communications from the tribes indicated the existence of traditional cultural properties and because the Forest Service should have known that tribal customs might restrict the ready disclosure of specific information, we hold that the agency did not reasonably pursue the information necessary to evaluate the canyon's eligibility for inclusion in the National Register. 22 During the assessment phase of the section 106 process, the Forest Service mailed letters to local Indian tribes, including the Sandia Pueblo, and individual tribal members who were known to be familiar with traditional cultural properties. Aplt.App. at 159-65. The letters requested detailed information describing the location of the sites, activities conducted there, and the frequency of the activities. Id. They also asked tribes to provide maps of the sites, drawn at a scale of 1:24,000 or better, as well as documentation of the historic nature of the property. Id. 23 In addition to mailing form letters to the tribes and individuals, Forest Service officials also addressed meetings of the All Indian Pueblo Council and the San Felipe Pueblo. Aplt.App. at 177, 181. The officials informed the groups that traditional cultural properties are eligible for inclusion in the National Register and requested the same specific information required in the letters. Id. 24 None of the tribes or individuals provided the Forest Service with the type of information requested in the letters and meetings. We conclude, however, that the information the tribes did communicate to the agency was sufficient to require the Forest Service to engage in further investigations, especially in light of regulations warning that tribes might be hesitant to divulge the type of information sought. 25 Prior to its final determination on April 29, 1993 that Las Huertas Canyon contained no traditional cultural properties, the Forest Service was aware of numerous claims to the contrary. As early as January 5, 1987, the Governor of the Sandia Pueblo informed the Forest Service that the Las Huertas Canyon was an area of great religious and traditional importance to the people of Sandia Pueblo. Aplt.App. at 130. The minutes of a Las Huertas Canyon Work Group meeting on March 10, 1987 reveal that the group knew that Native Americans used the canyon area for a number of ceremonial, religious, and medicinal purposes. Id. at 133. During the period of public comment on the eight alternatives, the Sandia Pueblo supported alternative C, which it believed would be most likely to permit the Sandia members to perform secret, traditional activities in more seclusion. Id. at 135. 26 On August 9, 1989, the Regional Forester took the affidavit of Philip Lauriano, an elder and religious leader of the Sandia Pueblo. Mr. Lauriano listed several long-standing religious and traditional practices which take place in the canyon and alluded to sacred sites which it contains. Aplt.App. at 108-09. In 1992, Dr. Elizabeth Brandt, a highly qualified anthropologist who is an expert on the Sandia Pueblo, provided a detailed ethnographic overview of the tribe's religious and cultural connections to the canyon. 3 Dr. Brandt noted the canyon's significance to the Pueblo as a source of herbs and evergreen boughs, which have been an integral part of certain Pueblo ceremonies for at least 60 years. 4 Id. at 110-11. She also described certain ceremonial paths and sites in the canyon which serve as gateways for access to the spirit world, concluding that 27 [t]hese sites and their functions would be significantly impaired if not totally destroyed as a result of the planned development of the Canyon, thus cutting off spiritual access for religious leaders and those responsible for the actions which occur at these shrines. These sites are critical to the religious practice, cultural identity, and overall well-being of the Pueblo. 28 Id. at 111. Noting the secrecy which is crucial to Pueblo religious and cultural practices, Dr. Brandt expressed concern that the proposed development would allow the outside world to intrude upon and negatively impact these practices. 5 Based on these factors, she concluded that Las Huertas Canyon constitutes a Traditional Cultural District with multiple Sites for the Sandia Tribe. Id. at 112. 29 Furthermore, the Forest Service received communications clearly indicating why more specific responses were not forthcoming. At the meeting with the San Felipe Pueblo, tribal members indicated that [t]hey did not want to disclose any specific details of site locations or activities. Aplt.App. at 177. A representative of the Sandia Pueblo made the same claim at the All Indian Pueblo Council meeting. Id. at 181. Dr. Brandt also commented upon the Pueblo people's general unwillingness to divulge any information regarding their religious practices. Id. at 113. 30 This reticence to disclose details of their cultural and religious practices was not unexpected. National Register Bulletin 38 warns that knowledge of traditional cultural values may not be shared readily with outsiders as such information is regarded as powerful, even dangerous in some societies. Aplt.App. at 88. Joseph Tainter, an archeologist for the Forest Service, acknowledged that [P]ueblos are often reluctant to provide such information and promised confidential treatment of any communications. Id. at 181. The Work Study Group also noted that [k]nowledge of Native American attitudes towards divulging information regarding Forest use and past experience by Forest Service cultural resources personnel indicates [sic] that general requests of tribes for information ... will go unanswered. Id. at 134. 31 Determining what constitutes a reasonable effort to identify traditional cultural properties depends in part on the likelihood that such properties may be present. National Bulletin 38, Aplt.App. at 86. Based on the information contained in the Lauriano and Brandt affidavits, the SHPO ultimately concluded that the properties [ ] may be eligible to the National Register of Historic Places but we do not have enough information to make a determination of eligibility. Aplt.Supp.Br., Addendum 1. 6 We agree. The information communicated to the Forest Service as well as the reasons articulated for the lack of more specific information clearly suggest that there is a sufficient likelihood that the canyon contains traditional cultural properties to warrant further investigation. 7 We thus hold that the Forest Service did not make a reasonable effort to identify historic properties.