BEAR LODGE MULTIPLE USE ASS'N v. BABBITT

No. 98-8021.

175 F.3d 814 (1999)

BEAR LODGE MULTIPLE USE ASSOCIATION, A Wyoming Non-profit Corporation; Andy Petefish, doing business as Tower Guides; Kenneth D. Allen; Gary W. Anderson; Gregory Hauber; Wes Bush, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Bruce BABBITT, in his official capacity as United States Department of the Interior Secretary; Roger G. Kennedy, in his official capacity as Director of the National Park Service; John E. Cook, in his official capacity as Rocky Mountain Regional Director, National Park Service; Deborah O. Liggett, in her official capacity as Superintendent of Devil's Tower National Monument; National Park Service, Defendants—Appellees, Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe; Romanus Bear Stops; Burdell Blue Arm; Arvol Looking Horse; Steven Vance, Defendants-Intervenors—Appellees, Group of Concerned Scholars; Medicine Wheel Coalition on Sacred Sites of North America, Northern Arapaho Tribe, Sissetonwahpeton Sioux Tribe, Upper Sioux Indian Community; National Congress of American Indians; The Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs; The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty; Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions; Clifton Kirkpatrick, as Stated Clerk of the General Assembly; The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.); Enright Bighorn, as Stated Clerk of the Dakota Presbytery in the Synod of Lakes & Prairies and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.); The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; Friends Committee on National Legislation; General Conference of Seventh-Day Adventists; National Jewish Commission on Law and Public Affairs; Prison Fellowship Ministries; Union of American Hebrew Congregations; Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, Amici Curiae.

United States Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit.

April 26, 1999.


Attorney(s) appearing for the Case

William Perry Pendley (Todd S. Welch, with him on the briefs), Mountain States Legal Foundation, Denver, Colorado, for Plaintiffs-Appellants.

Jared A. Goldstein, United States Department of Justice, Environmental & Natural Resources Division (Lois J. Schiffer, Assistant Attorney General; John A. Bryson, United States Department of Justice, Environmental & Natural Resources Division, with him on the briefs), Washington, D.C.; for Defendants-Appellees.

Steven J. Gunn, Indian Law Resource Center (Steven C. Emery and Thomas J. Van Norman, Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, Eagle Butte, South Dakota, with him on the brief), Washington, D.C., for Defendants-Intervenors-Appellees.

Peter G. Griffin, Jacobson, Buffalo, Schoessler & Magnuson, LTD., Minneapolis, Minnesota: Jack F. Trope, Sant'Angelo and Trope, P.C., Cranford, New Jersey: Steven C. Moore and Walter R. Echo-Hawk, Native American Rights Fund, Boulder, Colorado: Kevin J. Hasson and Eric W. Treene, The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, Washington, D.C., for Amici Curiae.

Before PORFILIO, McKAY, and TACHA, Circuit Judges.


PORFILIO, Circuit Judge.

Devils Tower is a National Monument, as well as the place of creation and religious practice for many American Indians. Rock climbers use the Tower for recreational and commercial climbing ascents. Over the past 30 years rock climbing on Devils Tower has dramatically increased, affecting the environment and the spiritual life and practices of American Indians. To address the various concerns, the National Park Service (NPS) developed a Final...

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