Journal Article

Your Land Is Holy to Me: The Constitutional Battle to Access Sacred Sites on Public Lands

Baumgardner, Paul

2017

Overview

Baumgardner begins with an introduction to the general features of Native American site-specific religions. He delves into the clashing conceptions of property that exist between the American mainstream and numerous Native American tribes. He then explores some of the federal cases and legal precedents relevant to government development of sacred land and Native American attempts to protect these sites. He pays particular attention to Lyng v. Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Association, the only Supreme Court decision that has directly dealt with the issue of religious property claims to public land. He concludes with a communitarian critique of the court's treatment of sacred site protections. In lieu of the current legal standard, he offers a more deferential judicial calculus that could better protect religious adherents' property claims to government land.

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Subject: Access control / American Indians / Claims / Constitutions / Environmental aspects / Freedom of religion / Government regulation / Historic buildings & sites / Holy places / Land / Laws, regulations and rules / Litigation / Native American religion / Native Americans / Native North Americans / Native religions / Political aspects / Precedents / Property / Protective factors / Public lands / Religion / Religious aspects / Sacred places / Sacred space / Sacredness / Supreme Court decisions / Tribes and tribal systems