Most of the people of the Five Civilized Tribes of the southeastern United States were forced into the Central Plains of the United States, and the forced assimilation of Native American families into agricultural settler societies and, later, urban communities left Native Americans without access to the sacred sites where they and their ancestors had traditionally held their religious ceremonies.

Native American spiritual culture is tied to place, making some ceremonies difficult or impossible to practice when removed from their original context.

[9][10] President Jimmy Carter said, in a statement about the AIRFA: In the past, Government agencies and departments have on occasion denied Native Americans access to particular sites and interfered with religious practices and customs where such use conflicted with Federal regulations.

In many instances, the Federal officials responsible for the enforcement of these regulations were unaware of the nature of traditional native religious practices and, consequently, of the degree to which their agencies interfered with such practices.This legislation seeks to remedy this situation.

Twelve months after approval of this resolution, the President shall report back to Congress the results of his evaluation, including any changes which were made in administrative policies and procedures, and any recommendations he may have for legislative action.

[13] Native American tribes had traditionally been closely associated with their lands, and their religious practices and beliefs were based in specific geographic areas.

Lyng v. Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Association (1988) is a landmark case in the Supreme Court's decisions affecting Native American religion under the AIRFA.

[14] The fact that land desecration is allowed to happen so easily is a result of the absence of enforcement and stability within the terms of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act.

Under Lyng v. Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Association, in 1988 the tribe filed suit against the government for denying their rights to religious freedom under the first amendment by ruling in favor of the United States Forest Service.

Tribal leaders testified that the road would destroy parts of the pristine mountains and high country that the tribes considered sacred and essential to their religious beliefs and practices.

[15] The Theodoratus Report was a comprehensive study prompted by the American Indian Religious Freedom Act during Lyng v. Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Ass'n (1988) and conducted by the United States Forest Service in order to evaluate policies and procedures to protect Native American religious cultural rights and practices.

[16] This study was done in order to provide definitive information on the effects of the Forest Service's actions on Native American religious culture in high country.

This study was completed in April 1979 and was titled Cultural Resources of the Chimney Rock Section, Gasquet-Orleans Road, Six Rivers National Forest and was written by Dr. Dorothea J. Theodoratus, Dr. Joseph L. Chartkoff, and Ms. Kerry K.

[17] It was a compilation of ethnographic, archaeological and historical data that identified the culture contained in the area that the Forest Service proposed to be the site of the Chimney Rock Section of the Gasquet-Orleans Road.

In its final recommendations, the report criticizes the Forest Service for ignorance of the physical and historical significance and religious importance of the site proposed for road construction.

However, nothing within the AIRFA prevented the Forest Service from ignoring the warning of its own commissioned report concerning the destruction of the Yurok, Karok, and Tolowa religious traditions.

The Supreme Court advocated its decision to refuse the countenance of the religious valuation of land as representing its responsibility towards enforcing the First Amendment rights of the Native American plaintiff.

[25] Due to the criticism of the AIRFA and its inability to enforce the provisions it outlined in 1978, on June 10, 1994, the House of Representatives Committee on Natural resources, and later the Subcommittee on Native American Affairs, met to bring about H.R.