If the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples were accepted as law in the United States, the Cave Rock case would have been considered differently. The Forest Service, in agreement with the Court, thought that by restricting climbing access and protecting the bluff according to the rules of the National Register, they were giving the Washoe people enough of what they needed to adequately practice their religion. The Washoe would certainly disagree, and so does UNDRIP.
Article 12 grants Indigenous peoples the “right to maintain, protect, and have access in privacy to their religious and cultural sites.” In reality, they are treated as visitors to the site just as tourists are. That may be what enabled them to get as far in the courts as they did, because a request to shut the public out of Cave Rock could have complicated the issue of whether the Forest Service was “excessively entangled” in their religious affairs. However, to fully restore the Washoe tradition, those lands are necessary in their natural state, free of bolts, trail markers, and parking lots. Until then, the Washoe are still in a state of exile from their lands on the shores of Lake Tahoe.
