Spirits of the Present: Legacy from Native America; Return of Blue Lake

sixties but it's been clear that the president made in america i had a couple of the homes of the village at times traditional cryer is called for the people to start the day i think readers are urging people to come to the plaza and celebrate the return of their sacred and thanks to the creator and all the people helping the decades long battle for the people of taos return of lake to the townspeople is one of the most important religious freedom victories for american indian people many indian people today feel that their way of life is under direct attack by the supreme court of the united states in this programme producer katy perry hill will take us to the markets of talks explore the american indian religious freedom act and i meet with the leaders of

the native american church the outcome of their legal battles will affect the status of all minority religions in the united states on september fifteen sixteen point he enlists object so from plymouth england to seek refuge from religious persecution the story of the jews religious freedom is one of the best known stories in american history on the hall in washington dc just a block from the nation's capital rubin snake want a bagel elder a native american church member speaks to a crowd gathered to protest the supreme court's ruling against a centuries old paley religion he is surrounded by his family and other native american church members who like the pogroms and sixteen twenty have come seeking

religious freedom it is tragic to say however that we are now in a situation in the united states of america where we can no longer take such a fundamental right the free exercise of religion for granted as vulnerable as the heritage of religious liberty has been in america religious liberty is now in jeopardy or all minority religions we could always quite confidently through the first amendment guarantees of free exercise of religion and all that ultimately we will prevail oh unbelievably mr zvi to every american who treasures their right to worship god without government interference

as people take the constitution and the freedoms it gives us for granted if you're a protestant nor jewish you probably never think twice about constitutional guarantees if however you're on a seat or a native american the right to worship in your own way has become seriously reduced over the past six years by the supreme court american indians have had to fight for their right to worship since this country was founded water agro on is staff attorney with the native american rights fund or not not as part of a coalition of legal trouble environmental and religious groups known as the american indian religious freedom coalition they're seeking congressional action to protect the first americans and the first amendment from his office in boulder colorado alcoholic offered this look at american history in nineteen eighty two it's been five hundred years since christopher columbus arrived in the new world and a sense that they'd get down to the present one of the basic features of the

indian and white relationship has been one of a religious intolerance on religious discrimination by europeans against the indigenous religions of opium western hemisphere and that has been one of the cornerstones of federal indian policy historically and there has been two separate the american indian from his religion and his culture his way of life and a hand much of the year federal policy of the last century was to carry that policy out to infect suppress tribal religious which were there was a total ban placed on tribal religious ceremonies from haiti nineties all the way up to nineteen thirty four for example i'm and so there's been a long history of violent religious rights of america's needy peoples our nation is rich in cultures and rich and religious traditions although the dominant religious groups or judeo

christian there are many lesser known religions as well they all share a common heritage they have been important to this country only native american religions are indigenous to this continent and there are as many active native religions as there are tribes but they differ from the dominant religions in this country in a big way they are no longer protected by the constitutional right to the free exercise of religion a constitutional right is supposed to be in violet is supposed to be something that you cannot disturb and the supreme court reserves the right to speak to constitutionality supreme court deals with whether or not something falls within the protection of the us constitution one of the founders of the constitution james madison you once said that property people aren't the first experiment about liberty it appears that the supreme court is experimenting quite deeply and dramatically with without religious feeling his country

but with indians in nineteen ninety the ruling that sounded an alarm for our minority religions around the country was smith versus the state of oregon also known as the pay any case decision is of course a devastating blow to anybody who appreciates the freedom for religious practice that this country is traditionally a four and citizens of the united states john lavelle santi dakota founder center for the spirit an organization in oakland california dedicated to the protection of the indian traditions al smith a clamor is a profound figure internationally indians are writing oatman in oregon he worked as a drug and alcohol abuse counselor is also a member of the native american church as a result of using paley he was fired by his employer lavelle explains i believe the employer gave him the option of a training program for employees who relapsed he explained his employer that there's nothing wrong with him

and so the employer fired him out then applied for unemployment compensation and was denied by the state of oregon for quote misconduct and quote work related misconduct this is one of the categories that can prevent that person from getting unemployment compensation but how smith objected vehemently to this characterization of his religious practice and is going to church as well misconduct so he appealed the time that the ruling of the employment division of oregon the other case went up to the oregon supreme court twice and then went to the us supreme court twice in a very complicated series of appeals would basically what happened was that the oregon supreme court ruled twice in his favor the supreme court overturned oregon's rulings wilder ago mark explains that twenty or thirty years the federal government as well as about twenty eight states have provided

for religious exemptions for native american religious use of peyote and have done so without experiencing any law enforcement problems and even though the medical problems as well as ever ever been documented with a native american religious use and the centuries of documentation concerning this is the indigenous religion but when this case got to the level of the supreme court the state of oregon that asserted that if the first amendment required an exemption for native villages use of peyote that this would go undermine our nation's drug war the supreme court but that argument and went to very great lakes two are denying our religious protection for the native american church making it i think our country's first innocent victim of the

drug war in that area of religious freedom the justices' decision was a radical departure from the way the court looked at religious freedom cases in the past for thirty years the court has used what is known as the compelling state interest test in these types of cases the compelling state interest test requires that the government shows some justification for not allowing an exemption for religious practitioner who objects to allow that burdens their practitioner mark explains the full impact of the supreme court actions he says the court essentially did three significant things first it is guarded the traditional compelling state interest test which was used by the federal courts for decades to protect her first amendment rights of american citizens the court ruled that that particular a balancing test which it had previously applied to strictly protected religious freedom and therefore through without using a very

disturbing rationale that we have too much religious diversity in our american society and that this diversity was simply a luxury that a democratic society could not afford secondly the court exempted a huge body of criminal law and civil statutory law that is generally an application from the reach of the first amendment itself and in effect re wrote the first amendment or the first amendment basically reads the congress shall make no law prohibiting the free exercise of religion but the supreme court in the smith case basically revolted to say congress shall make no alarm extra chromosome was original application hostile to religion which is about ninety nine point nine percent of our statutes on the books and that means that our

nation went after the smith case has less religious freedom liberties are safeguards or guarantees and most other democracies in some non democratic nations in my opinion that the court also went further to suggest that freedom of religion protections we're not protecting poland the courts unless there was some other first amendment rights such as freedom of speech or freedom of association that were also being infringed upon by the first amendment and so as you can see that the supreme court very seriously weakened the first amendment free exercise of religion protections for americans in incentives that the decision was handed down that it was not only devastating for native people but it prompted a a large outcry by non indian religious groups as well i just didn't know how one continues

to educate our individuals when it should be the kind of respect for other people's way of viewing the world of communicating with the sacred maintaining their sacred journeys to the way that big either hit them as troubled specific people dr henry man a full professor at montana state university in missoula duggan man teaches native american studies courses are native american women and she is an authority on indian religions only as she likes to be called is cheyenne her indian name is host of ono which means the woman who comes to offer prayer she is the coordinator of the air for a coalition for judeo christian sacred sites are areas exist in other parts of the world but for native americans this land is sacred as we talked about the importance of

protecting sacred sites she told me what happened to her on a pilgrimage to his side's sacred to the cheyenne as a sign of the very kind of hamlet to fight and with wisdom from tacoma park at the northwestern edge of the black hills stands say you know not in every copy of cute it was the shy anthony covered the homeless which is just literally european novelists is can translate into english very quickly as they help that counts or the giving out because he gave to one of the cheyenne people bargain than ever because it's our spiritual center of the universe and three from people that are operated as the state hired somebody has account of my fun it and i mean it pilgrimage to armed conflict and so

hillary mann and her son had to leave the mountain and go to nearby sturgis south dakota and wait for the stores to open so they could buy under orange plastic vests and i realized that that you can be infinitely adaptable and flexible for some reason or another i personally did not feel right brain is hunter orange vests but it's very important for us to go up on the mountain to pray and so we walked in the back and failed and all they could hear these white was shopped around hunters were out and my son was so reliable it's very apprehensive about making sure that that we didn't get shot and so nonetheless that threat really detracted from the kind of concentration that that individual needs to have what they are communicating and training for virtual direction imagine your church imagine you and your family go to worship and kind of dance around in a church

a ticket booth in front of your sacred shrine and you're searched the religious books opened and other ceremonial objects confiscated and desecrated you and your family denied entry except by special permit how would you feel sound a little implausible well these types of religious infringement of her regularly to indian people in nineteen seventy eight the senate select committee for indian affairs conducted hearings around the united states they found over thirty thousand examples of the indian religious infringement sudan harjo we've had problems with border crossings confiscation sacred items violation of medicine bottles indian inmates had few if any cultural traditional religious rights regarding hairstyle hair sweat lodges free access for medicine people to come in and minister and we have very

limited options and ways to get into court to protect our own polling places suzanne shown harjo president and executive director of the morning star foundation for the past two decades harjo has been one of the most active leaders battling for religious freedom in nineteen seventy eight she headed the review process on indian religious practices for the senate select committee for indian affairs this led to the passage of the american indian religious freedom act originally we wanted to provide protections for sacred places for ceremonial use of everything we need for ceremonies to provide for repatriation of our dead relatives and sacred objects from museums and educational institutions and federal agencies what was intended in the original effort was to bring the native peoples under

the protection of the first amendment causes regarding the free exercise every night and so in nineteen seventy eight the american indian religious freedom act became a law but offered little protection for indian religions and since it's inception tribes have become increasingly aware of the fact that it doesn't have any protection for continuity of american indian religions even though it sounds wonderful on paper so most like many of the chilies that this united states entered into with american indian tribes i am set live from korea rids and pieces of the paper that doesn't really have any kind of strength or commitment for all its good intentions the american indian religious freedom act where airfare has not protected tribes from government interference in religious practices because indians are the only people who say great lands are on our adjacent to federal lands native americans and the

us forest service are often at odds in the nineteen seventies in northern california three tribes the care of your own and tal law sought to stop the forest service from building six mile stretch of road which we go right to the heart of an area sacred to them this road would commit the cans of gas get in orleans and became known as the the road although the go world would enable the forest service to harvest timber more efficiently government witnesses testified that the road would destroy the religion of the tribes in nineteen eighty eight the battle ended up doing on the supreme court ruled in favor of the united states forest service the united states government and so excited i guess the message is very clear in terms of where we as american indian side in relation to the supreme court because it's more important for the united states forest service to develop a stretch of road show for them to just blatantly destroy

maybe religion of the three detroit protection of sacred sites is one of the main issues of restoring religious freedom to indian people the high desert mountains of northern new mexico is home to the cause people for sixty four years they fought for the return of their sacred like like his is a central creation point and a central ceremonial point four towers for that taos pueblo people end it was making the people collectively ill and individually heart sick and weak and two be denied access to that area and to not have full control regarding it in nineteen seventy one they struggle ended in victory the return of blue lake was one of the most important trials

for indian people in nineteen ninety one twenty years after the victory that taos pueblo held a celebration while bruno now seventy nine was one of the leaders of like battle he dedicated twenty five years to his people he says people there using those planes he's interested six months all

the joys of the regions and a place that where they go forward to talk to the spirit and the american people should understand that that it's about privacy enjoyable protestant ms binns you're not we are protecting areas where our people go to do one thing and one thing only to pray for the good of the world and to pray for a very specific the ancient world plants animals birds fish oh our most important holy people do is pray for the good of the world and that's what all important holy people

do in everyone's virtual believe in everyone's religion is to bring a round that kind of balance to the world that we know because the supreme court's decisions have broader implications of coalition of indian tribes national religious organizations environmentalists and others have joined forces to make the american people are aware of the danger to all non dominant religions in this country the american indian religious freedom coalition is seeking amendments to strengthen the nineteen seventy eight law they want full protection for religious freedom for all americans charity for needy people in the united states two sixth secure passage of this legislation because presently we have no legal protection whatsoever to practice on these ancient tribal relations which means so much to our culture as well as to the cultural heritage of everybody and we do

not know what alternatives we would have if this kind of legislation fails because as needy people we really don't have the option to emigrate great two more tolerant countries the core of our cultures in the very essence is a spirituality as a people and that is what is a tourist hot right now in terms of where the united states supreme court has left us are pecans and if you take away our religions eventually destroy the culture to the people and the tragedy is that the united states have to be a little bit more respect to the people that we have risked that have led to outline their shared this beautiful hundred continent with him during jiang unfortunately as american indians and it seems to be that with the position

of having to fight for the right to be indians the right to remain indian the right to continue to practice our spiritual way and one of the founders of the american indian coffee with colin once pointed out that american indians are using the society as the so called miners get married that out as paris reasonable minds to be kept poisonous gases indians are used in society to detect a poisonous gases in the legal and political atmosphere that whenever there is such poisonous gas in our atmosphere it's indian people suffer first as the smallest thing most vulnerable minority ethnic groups one commentator described as smith decision as the state of being driven to the heart of them of the bill bryant's and that's exactly what's happening though if we allow this decision to step into the wildest kind of music you too could pick a hole in the supreme court or we can look forward to one by one other constitutional protections falling away and leading us without the protections that we cherish so much in this

country and they're supposed to be the heart of our understanding of constitutional democracy religious freedom in america a question of play was written produced the narrated by katy perry spirits of the present the legacy of native america is a co production of the native american public broadcasting consortium of radio one john research and he gets medical director jon kyl associate producers michael johnson and into the lane robins series producer katy perry executive producers were like light on johnson and leslie hornig the music composed and performed by buffy sainte marie spirits of the present is available and five why go through the wireless

carriers that call one eight hundred seventy three he's zero for four these that american express discover and mastercard except call wanting to complete review for ordering information this program was provided by the corporation for public broadcasting and the smithsonian institution's educational outreach identified it's been the place to play at you