LYNG v. NORTHWEST INDIAN CEMETERY PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATION

Legal Principle at Issue

Whether the construction of a paved road through federal land and allowance of timber harvesting by the United States Forest Service violates the Free Exercise Clause when part of such land has historically been used by certain American Indians for religious rituals that depend upon privacy, silence, and an undisturbed natural setting.

Action

Reversed and remanded. Petitioning party received a favorable disposition.

Facts/Syllabus

In 1982, the United States Forest Service prepared a final environmental impact statement for constructing a paved road through federal land, including the Chimney Rock area of the Six Rivers National Forest. This area, as reported in a study commissioned by the Forest Service, has historically been used by certain American Indians for religious rituals that depend upon privacy, silence, and an undisturbed natural setting. Rejecting the study's recommendation that the road not be completed through the Chimney Rock area because it would irreparably damage the sacred areas, and also rejecting alternative routes outside the national forest, the Forest Service selected a route through the Chimney Rock area that avoided archeological sites and was removed as far as possible from the sites used by the Indians for specific spiritual activities. At about the same time, the Forest Service also adopted a management plan allowing for timber harvesting in the same area, but providing for protective zones around all the religious sites identified in the study. 

After exhausting administrative remedies, respondents — an Indian organization, individual Indians, nature organizations and members thereof, and the State of California — filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California challenging both the road-building and timber harvesting decisions. The district court issued a permanent injunction that prohibited the government from constructing the Chimney Rock section of the road or putting the timber harvesting plan into effect, holding that such actions would violate respondent Indians' rights under the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment and would violate certain federal statutes. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed in pertinent part.