Sacred Sites and the Perpetuation of Religious Beliefs: Indigenous Understandings and Western Perspectives within Legal Frameworks

Abstract

The way in which land is understood and perceived among American Indians and non-Indians is the cause for vast cultural misunderstandings and divisions between the two groups. For American Indian communities, attachments to place are at the core of religious practices, therefore intrinsically linking the importance of one to the other. This thesis attempts to better understand the way in which American Indians maintain connections to sacred sites, the challenges of access to those sites, and how their conceptualizations differ from Western models of value. This thesis examines the ability of federal policies, cases, legislative processes, and legal frameworks to protect American Indian sacred sites when the cultural context in which this protection is afforded has undeniable discrepancies to American Indian beliefs.