E/CN.4/1992/52 page 87 In view of the fact that the active ingredient of peyote is a hallucinogenic substance, many States maintain exemptions for the religious use of peyote which give the indigenous people the 'right to use the plant for ceremonial purposes'. It has further been alleged that the Congress has recognized that certain substances, such as peyote, 'have religious significance because they are sacred, they have power, they heal, they are necessary to the exercise of the rites of religion, they are necessary to the cultural integrity of the tribe, and, therefore, religious survival'." 73. Additional information was sent under annex II as follows: "According to the sources of information concerning the case of Lvng v. Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Association previously mentioned in report E/CN.4/1989/44 which the Special Rapporteur submitted to the Commission on Human Rights at its forty-fifth session, additional clarifications ought to be made with regard to the case. At the time of the publication of the aforementioned report, it remained pending before a panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the ninth circuit. According to the information received, the case at hand does not concern only a six-mile paved road on government land linking the California towns of Gasquet and Orleans but a 1981 proposal of the United States Forest Service to build 200 miles of logging roads through the Blue Creek Unit where the land is located and remove about 733 million board feet of timber from the area over the next 80 years. Blue Creek, a tributary of the Klamath River, is said to be surrounded by 30,000 hectares of land that make up the Blue Creek Unit, half of which is still reportedly covered with virgin Douglas fir forests. According to the sources, Indians Jimmie James, Sam Jones, Lowana Branter and Christopher Peters together with several environmental organizations took legal action to block this plan since they thought it would destroy the sacredness of the area and hinder the practice of traditional religious ceremonies. In April 1988, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the Indian sacred sites in Blue Creek Unit are not legally protected because the Unit as a whole is the property of the Government. It has been alleged that the Government can have no claim on this land in view of the fact that the Klamath and Hoopa Indian tribes never ceded it to the United States. The treaty concluded on 6 October 1851 was reportedly never ratified by the United States and the Government is said to never have performed its obligations pursuant to the treaty while the two tribes were still removed to small reservations. In addition, these tribes reportedly never agreed to relinquish their right to continue to use and enjoy sacred sites located on these lands. The north-eastern corner of the Blue Creek Unit is reportedly considered to be sacred land by the Yurok, Karok and Tolowa Indian tribes who use several mountain peaks, including Chimney Rock and Doctor Rock, as places of worship. The participants in the tribes' three most important annual ceremonies, such as the White Deerskin Dance, must pray on these mountain peaks in order to prepare for their religious duties. According to the sources, the Yurok, Karok and Tolowa Indian tribes did not participate in nor consent to the 1851 treaty and never gave up their right to use the land."

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