And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: From: Pat Morris <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> U.S. officials deny actions hurt logging http://www.billingsgazette.com/ By MICHAEL MILSTEIN Gazette Wyoming Bureau SHERIDAN, Wyo. - Federal officials have admitted in court papers that they held up logging to reconsider the effects of truck traffic on the Medicine Wheel in the Bighorn Mountains, but deny that their plan to protect the prehistoric stone structure advances Native American religion at the expense of logging and other commercial use. In an answer to a lawsuit filed by Wyoming Sawmills in Sheridan, federal authorities said that their management of the Medicine Wheel will not unduly restrict logging in Bighorn National Forest. Wyoming Sawmills earlier this year sued the U.S. Forest Service in federal court, contending that the agency's plan and related agreements to protect the Medicine Wheel in consultation with Native American tribes "unconstitutionally require the Forest Service to establish and promote Native American religious practices." The Sheridan sawmill argued that the Forest Service had held back planned timber sales in the area of the Medicine Wheel due to the concerns of Native Americans. Federal attorneys recently filed an answer to the lawsuit that focuses on a document known as the Historic Preservation Plan for the Medicine Wheel. The Medicine Wheel Coalition on Sacred Sites of North America, a Native American group, has also joined the lawsuit on behalf of the government and filed a response of its own that in places is identical, word for word, to the one filed by the government. In its response, the Coalition "admits that the HPP places restrictions upon timber harvest in order the (sic) accommodate the free exercise of religion by Native American Indians. But the Coalition says the Forest Service's actions "can be justified as a remedial measure to counteract the history of discrimination against Indian religions." The government, in its response, admits "that on Oct. 1, 1997, the Forest Service withdrew the Horse Creek timber sale from 'immediate sale' in order to complete consultation with the signatories to the HPP on the potential effects of logging truck traffic on the Medicine Wheel." Federal attorneys also acknowledge that an amendment to the forest management plan designed to put the Medicine Wheel plan into effect "changes the management direction and standards and guidelines prescribed for those management areas within the area of consultation as defined in the Historic Preservation Plan." But the government's answer contends that the plan does not change prescriptions for management of federal land beyond the specified 18,000 acres within sight of the Medicine Wheel, as Wyoming Sawmills had argued. The Medicine Wheel Coalition, meanwhile, "admits that the purpose of the HPP is to accommodate the free exercise of religion by Native American Indians at Medicine Wheel and Medicine Mountain and that the HPP is designed to create a special emphasis area which will protect the site for that purpose and as a nationally important traditional cultural property." Both the government and the Medicine Wheel Coalition argue in their responses that Wyoming Sawmills lacks standing to contest the plan and fails to state a claim under which the court can grant relief. Wyoming Sawmills had filed an appeal of the Medicine Wheel plan shortly after its approval, but Forest Service officials denied the appeal. The sawmill then sought help from the Denver-based Mountain States Legal Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the multiple-use mandate for federal lands in the West, which filed the lawsuit on behalf of the sawmill. The lawsuit contends that by closing the road that runs past the Medicine Wheel to logging trucks, the Forest Service has effectively banned logging on all public lands accessed by the road. But the response of the Medicine Wheel Coalition says the Forest Service plan for the Medicine Wheel involves actions "authorized by and consistent with the special trust responsibility which the federal government has to Indian tribes and Indian people and the government-to-government relationship between Indian people and the federal government." "All actions taken in regard to the subject matter of this case were authorized by and consistent with the government's authority to accommodate the free exercise of religion on its own lands," the Coalition response says. "Because the government owns the Medicine Wheel and Medicine Mountain, the government may take special measures to accommodate free exercise." The Religious Freedom Restoration Act "requires the government to take no action substantially interfering with the free exercise of religion absent a compelling governmental interest and no less restrictive alternative," the Coalition response says. "The HPP can be justified as a remedial measure to counteract the history of discrimination against Indian religions. Reprinted under the Fair Use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of international copyright law. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ UPDATES: CAMP JUSTICE http://shell.webbernet.net/~ishgooda/oglala/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
