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Devils Tower in June – 22 years after the voluntary June closure started – What do people think now?

Stagg54 Taggart · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Dec 2006 · Points: 10
Lucas Barth wrote:

That is, the National Park Service, in order to protect and manage personal ritual areas, needs data on the location of these sites. The Native Americans interviewed realized this, but also pointed out that, in many cases these locations are by religious custom not supposed to be revealed, and that Indian people would be acting in a culturally inappropriate manner by doing so. Thus, to provide needed data to the NPS to protect their religious interests they risk behaving counter to their religion"

How convenient...

jg fox · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Jun 2015 · Points: 5

There is a lot of people here pontificating their views of not climbing a sacred rock formation for one month.  If Devil's Tower is so sacred, why climb it at all?  Why not support a permanent ban like Shiprock that is sacred to the Navajo?  Track down the Miwoks and other tribes that lived in Yosemite and ask for their take on El Capitan and Half Dome?  Maybe the tribes in Alaska should be consulted whether Denali, Foraker (Sultana), Hunter (Begguya), and Mooses Tooth should be climbed?

Or we can quit deluding ourselves as climbers and accept that the best way for climbers to have respect for natural geological formations is not to deface it with pitons or bolts when possible.

Bill Czajkowski · · Albuquerque, NM · Joined Oct 2008 · Points: 20
Lucas Barth wrote:

From my post on the supertopo thread.

...There are many documented artifacts and sites on the shoulders of the tower and near the tower within the monument. These are not advertised to the general public ...

There's a move that inspires trust, confidence, cooperation.

Matt Stroebel · · Philadelphia, PA · Joined Apr 2011 · Points: 115

As someone who is planning a trip to Wyoming this June, the voluntary ban isn't well advertised both on mountain project and the NPS site. It's there, but the general info about climbing and the park is what is advertised best and catches the eye. The climbing ban takes some scrolling/clicking to get to. 

Maybe we could start by changing the mountain project description to advertise the ban better. For example, the guidebooks at the red river gorge have a big "closed" watermark over each page of a closed area, which catches the eye and you immediately know the area is closed. We need something like that if we want people to see the ban, the current link is tiny and easily glanced over. 

Mark Rolofson · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Jul 2010 · Points: 1,000
  pfwein wrote:

As noted, there are serious First Amendment (establishment clause) legal issues with making the "voluntary" closure a non-voluntary closure.  Lucas is either unaware or unwilling to acknowledge those issues.

In my view, there are also serious legal issues with the current "voluntary" closure, especially when it is coupled with a threat to punish the climbing community if virtually all climbers do not "voluntarily" accept the "voluntary closure."  If nothing else, there is a disturbingly Orwellian aspect to the use of the word "voluntary."

Anyone seriously interested in this issue would do well to take a few minutes to read the comments of "Dingus McGee" (Dennis Horning) on that corresponding Supertopo thread, http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.php?topic_id=2975165&tn=120

Dingus McGee has deep personal knowledge of the process led to the current "voluntary" closure and pioneered many classic routes at DT. 

I have to agree with both Pfwein & Dingus McGee on this issue. If there is a threat of this ban becoming mandatory, if enough climbers don't volunteer to stay away in June, then perhaps the issue needs to be revisited.  Should the ban ever become mandatory it should be revisited in court. 

I don't like the precedent this voluntary ban could set at other crags with some possible spiritual signifance to some tribe. Just take a look at what happened at Cave Rock, where the voluntary ban wasn't accepted.  There is a permanent no climbing ban with bolts being removed.

Furthermore it is my understanding that the ban on all new bolts at DT is the result of the Indian tribes.  They claim that driving a spike into DT is like driving a spike into them. It seems like climbers have been singled out as a user group here by the NPS. 

As a nation we are unwilling to give the Indians back any real land. So as a white dominated society, its easy to hold up a sacred rock formation with a climbing / new route ban as some form of atonement for our cultural sins. It's convenient for land managers & bureaucrats.  The only group to give anything up are climbers. The rest of society is in no way impacted.  It doesn't really amount to a hills of beans. The Indians are free to practice their religious ceremonies here & no one is stopping them.  Climbers can choose to stay away in June out of respect for the Indians. If it becomes a mandatory ban then our right to climb on public land has been violated. There is a constitutional issue at stake & as Dingus pointed out the cultural artifacts issue has no legal standing. 

Doug Hemken · · Madison, WI · Joined Oct 2004 · Points: 13,668

I think the Park Service is much more pragmatic than many of you give it credit for.  It finds itself in a three-way agreement (tribes, climbers, NPS) where the proportion of June climbing should not increase because climbers have agreed to take care of it themselves.  If those numbers increase, the Park Service will eventually be forced to revisit its climbing management plan, and any new plan wouldn't count on climbers doing anything voluntary, because we will have demonstrated that we can't.  Writing a new CMP would be a long and contentious process (as is faintly echoed here), and  who knows what would be the result - all bets would be off.

Ironically, as the popularity of the Tower as a climbing destination drops,  even a steady *number* of June climbers could become an increasing *proportion*.  It would be in the guide services interest to pump up their business outside of June, unless they want to bet that a new CMP would be in their favor.  A new CMP would be a big gamble:  climbers could either "win big" (meaning no restrictions) or lose the farm.

And the precedent that the climbing community cannot curb its own enthusiasts would eventually have repurcussions well beyond Devils Tower.  Win or lose.

Kiri Namtvedt · · Minneapolis, MN · Joined Nov 2007 · Points: 30

I read most of the comments and scanned the rest so I'm not totally sure if someone already made this point, but I suspect it's in the NPS's interest to keep a voluntary closure successful rather than switching to a mandatory one because mandatory would require greater policing and thus some kind of "punishment" for infractions.  That would require additional manpower and patrolling and would be a budgetary issue as well as changing the nature of the experience.

In my opinion it's pretty silly to be resentful about a one month climbing ban.  That said, numbers seem to be steady-ish and additional outreach and education will probably maintain that situation. 

Tom Blackburn · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Jun 2016 · Points: 0

It is unconstitutional to close climbing at Devils Tower Wyoming either for commercial or recreational reasons. 

Dennis, Hollis, and Paul were helpful in the initial stages of fighting the tyranny of the feds trying to manipulate the Indians once again, but they were not around at all for the multiple gun fights in Federal Court, and neither was Frank Sanders - He was to busy trying to secure his blood money inheritance from his Father and Mother so he could procure Devils Tower Lodge and finally move back to Devils Tower. 

The true Cowboys in this Story are the few local individuals that signed on as plaintiffs in the case and stayed the course.

The Supreme Court would not hear the Voluntary Closure Complaint based on Standing. It's VOLUNTARY!!! you stupid sheeple. 

Case in point here is Chris Hedges challenge to the NDAA which was also was thrown out of the Supreme Court for standing reasons, but a far more serious issue than a bunch of well endowed trust funded war mongering assholes trying to climb Devils Tower in June. NDAA = no Habeas Corpus and unlimited detention.

Read George Orwell for christ sake or Manufacturing of Consent. 

The Government does not give a shit about you or the Indians. Wake the hell up!

Ponder the Words of the late Russel Means whom was at the Indian Encampment at Devils Tower that was shot at along with many other Indians by local inbreed hillbillies!

Published on Jan 20, 2011

The United States is one big reservation, and we are all in it. So says Russell Means, legendary actor, political activist and leader for the American Indian Movement. Means led the 1972 seizure of the Bureau of Indian Affairs headquarters in Washington, D.C., and in 1973 led a standoff at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, a response to the massacre of at least 150 Lakotah men, women, and children by the U.S. Seventh Cavalry at a camp near Wounded Knee Creek.

American Indian Russell Means gives an eye-opening 90 minute interview in which he explains how Native Americans and Americans in general are all imprisoned within one huge reservation. Means is a leader for the Republic of Lakotah, a movement that has declared its independence from the United States and refused to recognize the authority of presidents or governments, withdrawing from treaties it made with the federal government and defining its borders which cover thousands of square miles in North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, and Montana.

Means explains how American Indians have been enslaved within de facto prisoner of war camps as a result of the federal government's restriction of their food supply and the application of colonial tactics, a process that has now also been inflicted on the United States as a whole which has turned into, "one huge Indian reservation," according to Means.

Means warns that Americans have lost the ability of critical though, and with each successive generation become more irresponsible and as a consequence less free, disregarding a near-perfect document, the Constitution, which was derived from Indian law. Means chronicles the loss of freedom from the 1840's onwards, which marked the birth of the corporation, to Lincoln's declaration of martial law, to the latter part of the 19th century and into the 20th when Congress "started giving banks the right to rule," and private banking interests began printing the money.

Nol Huther · · Burlington, VT · Joined Dec 2014 · Points: 1,652
Tom Blackburn wrote:

It is unconstitutional to close climbing at Devils Tower Wyoming either for commercial or recreational reasons. 

Dennis, Hollis, and Paul were helpful in the initial stages of fighting the tyranny of the feds trying to manipulate the Indians once again, but they were not around at all for the multiple gun fights in Federal Court, and neither was Frank Sanders - He was to busy trying to secure his blood money inheritance from his Father and Mother so he could procure Devils Tower Lodge and finally move back to Devils Tower. 

The true Cowboys in this Story are the few local individuals that signed on as plaintiffs in the case and stayed the course.

The Supreme Court would not hear the Voluntary Closure Complaint based on Standing. It's VOLUNTARY!!! you stupid sheeple. 

Case in point here is Chris Hedges challenge to the NDAA which was also was thrown out of the Supreme Court for standing reasons, but a far more serious issue than a bunch of well endowed trust funded war mongering assholes trying to climb Devils Tower in June. NDAA = no Habeas Corpus and unlimited detention.

Read George Orwell for christ sake or Manufacturing of Consent. 

The Government does not give a shit about you or the Indians. Wake the hell up!

eli poss · · Durango, CO · Joined May 2014 · Points: 525

Lucas Barth · · Moab, UT · Joined Aug 2008 · Points: 446

Hi Folks,

Now that June 2017 has passed I wanted to give an update about the June closure statistics. This year there were 297 climbers in June compared to 373 last year. This is about a 21% reduction in climbers from last June. It remains to be seen how the rest of the year goes to determine the number of climbers in June as a percent of annual, but I'm guessing that number will also be lower.

grog m · · Saltlakecity · Joined Aug 2012 · Points: 70
Kevin DB · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Jul 2012 · Points: 295
Lucas Barth wrote:

There are many tribes that have geographical, historical, and cultural connections to the Tower. I can't answer for them. Some native people care about the closure and some do not. Just like any user group, opinions are going to vary. The climbing management staff at Devils Tower is currently trying to engage the native american community in this conversation.. 

If it's really that important, shouldn't you not climb there at all? 

Tom Blackburn · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Jun 2016 · Points: 0

Kevin DB:

You gotta it! Nice to hear from a introspective thinker! What about the Grand Tetons, sacred peak for sure "The Tetons", so why doesn't the bullshit Access advise people not climb there? Or how about Mount McKinley now called Denali. 

The whole thing is bullshit! The Tower is not Sacred for Just One Month, and rock climbers are not desecrating it. The Rock Climber would Walk to the Base of the Tower from the entrance to climb the Tower. 

It is the insane that  Fat Bikers and Baby Boomers that have reduce their Freedom  to being able to drive to the visitor center June. 

Close the Roads and tear out all the Infrastructure in the Monument and lock the gates at the entry for those that are only willing to walk, and the only people that would venture to go up base of Devils Tower would be the Rock Climbers and Bird Watchers. "Men from the Boy's" so to speak. 

Cooperations like the Access Fund and Exon do not really have the publics well being in mind, they just need to cover their bottom line, pay their directors exorbitant salaries and send their executives on exotic vacations by means and extracting money/labor from the indoctrinated slaves.

The Truth!

Tom B.

Stagg54 Taggart · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Dec 2006 · Points: 10
Tom Blackburn wrote:

Kevin DB:

You gotta it! Nice to hear from a introspective thinker! What about the Grand Tetons, sacred peak for sure "The Tetons", so why doesn't the bullshit Access advise people not climb there? Or how about Mount McKinley now called Denali. 

The whole thing is bullshit! The Tower is not Sacred for Just One Month, and rock climbers are not desecrating it. The Rock Climber would Walk to the Base of the Tower from the entrance to climb the Tower. 

It is the insane that  Fat Bikers and Baby Boomers that have reduce their Freedom  to being able to drive to the visitor center June. 

Close the Roads and tear out all the Infrastructure in the Monument and lock the gates at the entry for those that are only willing to walk, and the only people that would venture to go up base of Devils Tower would be the Rock Climbers and Bird Watchers. "Men from the Boy's" so to speak. 

The Truth!

Tom B.

They just call it voluntary because legally they can't ban climbers, however they just want everyone to feel good.  So stay home and "feel good" about yourself or climb... Your choice (but be prepared to prepared to be publicly shamed if you dare to defy the "self-righteous" crowd).

Jesse Bryant · · New Haven, CT · Joined Aug 2014 · Points: 681

Imagine you're the manager at a church that now also serves as a public community space since all the other community spaces have been burned down. The space is now used for many things—concerts, parties, book readings, etc.—and on Sunday people have asked that during service no one is playing guitar or drinking beer because those activities directly interfere with the holiness of the service. Sure, on Sundays you can be in that space reading, working, drawing, whatever, but playing guitar is different, right? Because it directly interferes with peaceful setting that allows for prayer to take place.

And as the church manager you think, well, we have this rule that says this space is now multiple use, that people should be able to use it for whatever they want. But just in this one instance, and just on Sundays, perhaps we could just ask those people who come here to play guitar together to do that someplace else. "They'll understand," you think, "because they can see how this interferes with the church service. Heck, this place has been a church way longer than people have been playing guitar anyway!"

A good chunk of the guitarists can see the interference and choose to not jam out during Sunday mass, but there are a few that stay and play. And you realize, wow it doesn't really matter if there are 2 or 20 people playing guitar in this space, it still interferes with the service regardless. But you can't tell them to leave because of the community contract. Some of the guitarists even say that playing guitar is their religion, just the same as Christianity is for those other people, which you know makes very little sense but don't want to further stir up the dust.

You're in a bind that hurts even more when you think that, wow, the guitarists also were the ones that burned all the other churches and that's why this church is so god damn important. You're stuck. You don't see a way out except asking the guitarists to please stop showing up and disrupting Sunday mass. "Please." But they come anyway. They even have extensive conversations on guitarist online forums where many of them are worried that if they are banned from playing guitar on Sundays in this church, then all churches will start banning guitar on Sundays even though not all churches meet on Sundays, that not all Christians are at all the same, and that a lot of Christian culture is in complete disrepair.

The guitarists continue to show up on Sundays. You have no idea what to do.

Greg D · · Here · Joined Apr 2006 · Points: 883

Well, just let the guitarists play with the organists during mass.  It might pep things up.

Suburban Roadside · · Abovetraffic on Hudson · Joined Apr 2014 · Points: 2,419

. Some of the guitarists even say that playing guitar is their religion, just the same as Christianity is for those other people, which you know makes very little sense, , , ,

so your view of my religion makes "very little sense ? .. .Your  religion makes nonsense into gospels (as if the stories were true)  all of which makes no sense 

 so go wack off the way you want and let climbers wackoff the way they want to. (It is all self-flagellation, in search of bliss) 

Climb the tower in june , every june -  part of the following of the scriptures of The Climbing  faith -  which promises safer passage

 by adherence to following nature & to practice in the most conducive temperatures for the given place..

Go west on the yearly hadge, stopping 1st at the 1st best church on the route to the Grand Chapel of my religion -  some big ditch we all also stole from the true  peoples of this land

Suburban Roadside · · Abovetraffic on Hudson · Joined Apr 2014 · Points: 2,419
Jesse Bryant wrote:

Imagine . . . The space is now used for many things— that allows for prayer to take place.

And as the church manager you think, well, we have this rule that says this space is now multiple use, that people should be able to use it for  . . .

 Some of the guitarists even say that playing guitar is their religion, just the same as Christianity is for those other people, which you know makes very little sense but don't want to further stir up the dust., [sick] REALLY?!  Isn't this a tempest in a tea cup - that you started?

REALLY ?!  Isn't Your posting  just a tempest in a tea cup;   stirring up the dust!?

You're in a bind that hurts even more when you think that, wow, the guitarists also were the ones that burned all the other churches and that's why this church is so god damn important. You're stuck. . . . . Sundays, that not all Christians are at all the same, and that a lot of Christian culture is in complete disrepair.

The guitarists continue to show up on Sundays. You have no idea what to do.

. Some of the guitarists even say that playing guitar is their religion, just the same as Christianity is for those other people, which you know makes very little sense, , , ,

so your view of my religion makes "very little sense ? .. WTF? Playing music is their religion & puts them in touch with what they find worthy of reverence!

.Your  religion makes nonsense into gospels (as if the stories were true)  all of which makes no sense 

 so go wack off the way you want and let climbers wackoff the way they want to. (It is all self-flagellation, in search of bliss) 

Climb the tower in june , every june -  part of the following of the scriptures of The Climbing  faith -  which promises safer passage

 by adherence to following nature & to practice in the most conducive temperatures for the given place..

Go west on the yearly Hadge, stopping 1st at Devils Tower, the 1st best church on the route to the Grand Chapel of The One True religion .

Some big ditch, closer to the western shores of this land that we all, also stole from the true  peoples of this land

Fehim Hasecic · · Boulder, CO · Joined Jun 2013 · Points: 215

I’ve just read an article from a guides perspective that I found on another thread and apparently she found “an excuse “ in her mind to climb in June.

I haven’t climbed DT yet, but when the time comes my planing will be made around voluntary closure.

Guideline #1: Don't be a jerk.

Wyoming, Montana, Dakotas
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