E/CN.4/1999/58/Add.1 page 21 economic projects to be undertaken on sacred sites, which is tantamount to profaning them or destroying them. It was underlined that conflicts concerning the use and protection of sacred sites between traditional Native American religious practitioners, developers and land managers were likely to continue to affect Native Americans unless clear guidelines for protection were established and enforced. Similarly, legislation to protect animals or prohibit the use of certain plants may affect Native American religious practices, such as those requiring the use of eagles' feathers or the consumption of the peyotl cactus. Finally, the Special Rapporteur was informed that court decisions in Native Americans' favour on the ownership of sacred sites had not led to their restitution, but to financial compensation, which, for example, the Sioux nation was refusing in the case of the Black Hills of South Dakota, which it was deprived of illegally according to a Supreme Court decision in 1980. 61. Apart from these problems of a legal nature, the representatives of the Native Americans and non-governmental organizations reported very many cases of what they called intolerance and discrimination in the field of religion, which, in fact, resulted from these legal problems. 62. A first series of complaints relates to sacred sites and sacred natural objects used in rituals (plants, rice, etc.). They involve first of all damage to sites due to the execution or attempted execution of economic projects (for example, mining projects affecting the sacred sites in the Little Rocky Mountains of the Gros Ventre and Assiniboine tribes on the Native American reserve of Fort Belknap in the Northern Montanales (Montana) and the sites near Lake Rice in the Sokaogon Chippewa reserve in northern Wisconsin; a plan to build a road in a national park affecting a sacred site of the Pueblo Indians near Albuquerque (New Mexico); a uranium mining project affecting the sacred site of the Havasupai tribe in the Grand Canyon (Arizona); economic development projects at the Mount Shasta sacred site of the Shasta, Pit River, Wintu, Karuk, Okwanuchu and Modoc tribes and at the Medicine Lake Caldera sacred site of the Pit River, Shasta and Klamath/Modoc tribes in California; a nuclear project on the Ward Valley sacred site of the Fort Mojave tribe in California). Then there is the problem of access to religious places and sacred features situated on private property (for example, a request for compulsory authorization for Native Americans to practise their religion on the Mount Graham sacred site situated near the University of Arizona's telescopes), on Native Americans' own property (case mentioned above of the Sioux nation having been unable to recover their property in the Black Hills and being denied the exclusive use of their sacred site for religious ceremonies), or situated on the frontier with Mexico (for example, case of the Yaki nation and the Tohono O'odham). In general, these complaints reflect both a real lack of understanding and consideration and an indifference and even hostility on the part of the various officials and other parties involved (in the economy, research, etc.) with regard to the values and beliefs of the original inhabitants of the United States. 63. The Special Rapporteur wishes to draw attention here to two situations which have already been the subject of a communication addressed to the United States authorities, in June 1997. First of all, there is the case of Mount Graham, where telescopes are being constructed by the University of Arizona on the sacred site of the Apache nation with the authorization of the