Devils Tower Climbing Controversy::

Climbing Devils Tower

For as long as the Lakota Sioux remember, they have been sundancing, vision-questing, praying, and conducting sweat lodge ceremonies at the base of Devils Tower. These are still practiced today, and since the ban on Indian religions was lifted with the passing of AIRFA in 1978, there has been a resurgence in Lakota ceremonial activity at the site.

There has been a resurgence of another kind. Non-Indian enthusiasts have flocked to the Tower to climb the tantalisingly challenging rock-faces. For the Lakota, this poses the greatest threat to their sacred site and religious practice there.

Ever since its official designation as a National Monument by President Theodore Roosevelt, a cluster of trails, campgrounds, picnic areas, restaurants, gift shops, a small museum and even a Post Office have developed around the National Monument, which costs, to date, $8 to get in. The Tower has attracted a growing number of recreational visitors but it is the growing numbers of climbers that has caused the most concern for Indian tribes, who use the site primarily for ceremonial purposes. The numbers for climbers have risen from a mere 312 in 1973 to over 6,000 in 1995. June had become one of the most popular months for climbing - a month that coincides with the Lakota's Summer Solstice ceremonies in the sacred Devils Tower-Bear Butte-Inyan Kara ceremonial triangle.

The usage-conflict between the June sundance at Devils Tower and the rush of June climbers reached crisis point in the 1990s, and the National Park Service was forced by tribes to undertake a review of the situation and to obtain testimony during public forums held over a period of two years. The Final Climbing Plan (FCMP) was released in March 1995, and sought to accommodate the conflicting usage of the site.

The FCMP made many observations, among them the following:

"Recreational climbing at Devils Tower has increased dramatically from 312 climbers in 1973 to over 6,000 annually. New route development in the last ten years resulted in accelerated route development and bolt placement. Today the tower has about 220 named routes. Approximately 600 metal bolts are currently embedded in the rock along with several hundred metal pitons. Devils Tower is world famous for its crack climbing, which depends primarily on removable protection placed by climbers in cracks. Activities performed by the numerous climbers on the tower during the spring through fall climbing season have affected nesting raptors, soil, vegetation, the integrity of the rock, the area's natural quiet, and the rock's physical appearance. Some American Indians have complained that the presence of climbers on the sacred butte and the placement of bolts in the rock has adversely impacted their traditional activities and seriously impaired the spiritual quality of the site" (US Department of the Interior 1995).

The presence of the climbing bolts on Mato Tipi prompted many Lakota, for example, to ask whether the presence of climbers and their metal bolts hammered into the Vatican or a European cathedral would cause as much outcry and shock among Christian worshippers. The site was compared to a cathedral. "Would you tolerate someone banging nails into your church, and on a Sunday?" was (and still is) the common Lakota response. Other complaints have included the noise levels of climbers and other tourists during a time (particularly the summer) when people are praying and seeking spiritual guidance and communication.

The FCMP issued a 'Finding of No Significant Impact for Devils Tower National Monument' and its stated, all-encompassing, purpose was "to protect the natural and cultural resources of Devils Tower and to provide for visitor enjoyment and appreciation of this unique feature". In order that no more physical impacts be made to the Tower, the plan provided that no new bolts or fixed pitons be permitted. Existing bolts and fixed pitons, could, however, be replaced. Moreover, access trails had to be rehabilitated and maintained, and climbing equipment had to be camouflaged. The ultimate stipulation of the plan, however, was that, in "respect for the reverence many American Indians hold for Devils Tower as a sacred site, rock climbers will be asked to voluntarily refrain from climbing on Devils Tower during the culturally significant month of June".

The National Park Service made a ban on commercially-guided climbs mandatory, to be effective from June 1996. This was supported by President Clinton, who, in May 1996, signed an Executive Order stating that each executive branch managing federal lands must "1) accommodate access to and ceremonial use of Indian sacred sites by Indian religious practitioners and 2) avoid adversely affecting the physical integrity of such sacred sites."

The FCMP's mandatory ban was contested in court by a coalition of interested persons, and on June 8, 1996, it was overturned by the United States District Court for Wyoming. Many Indians subsequently commented on the unreliability of 1978's American Indian Religious Freedom Act (AIRFA) to protect them in cases of sacred sites and ceremonial observances.

Still unsatisfied with the FCMP's request for a voluntary ban on climbing in June, one litigation outfit, the Mountain States Legal Foundation, filed a suit on behalf of itself and a handful of climbers to argue that the FCMP's 'establishment' of religion (that states that Indians have the right to use the Tower ceremoniously) violates the First Amendment. The Cheyenne River Sioux tribe intervened, but the federal judge, William Downes, preliminarily ruled in favour of Mountain States. However, in 1998, he denied that the FCMP violated non-Indians' First Amendment rights or that it unilaterally sought to promote Indian religions, and he ruled in favour of the voluntary ban, stating:

"The simple request that climbers refrain from climbing during the month of June out of respect for American Indian religious and cultural values seems to be a permissible accommodation of American Indian religious practices, in light of the government's legitimate interest in protecting and preserving their inherent right to exercise their traditional religions, including their access and use of sacred sites."

After the ruling, William Perry Pendley, president of the Mountain States Legal Foundation, stated that, "The Park Service says Devils Tower is sacred. What does that mean for a Christian that takes the Ten Commandments seriously? The National Park Service is asking the Christian believer to enter a belief system that is blasphemous" (Rapid City Journal, 1996).

The most recent attack on Devils Tower for the Lakota occurred during my fieldwork, in 1998, when it was threatened by the development of a local airport by and for the residents of the closest town, Hulett. Oglala elder, Johnson Holy Rock, met with local residents and federal government officials to oppose the airport on the grounds that planes would come too close to the Tower and would also disturb ceremonial observances. The matter has yet to be settled.

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