Congratulations to Molly Weiner, winner of the Percival W. Clement Prize. The Clement Prize is an American Studies prize awarded for the best senior thesis in support of the principles of the U.S. Constitution and the first ten amendments.
Molly’s thesis, “Law of the Land: Wilderness and Religious Freedom in Lyng v. Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Association,” analyzes the 1988 Supreme Court ruling that permitted the U.S. Forest Service to build a logging road through the sacred land of the Yurok, Karuk, and Tolowa peoples. Drawing on interviews, District Court archival material, and scholarship, Molly argues that both the environmental and religious freedom laws in Lyng reflect colonial religious logics. She contends that protecting indigenous sacred sites requires not just legal reform but a deep rethinking of the intertwined religious and environmental settler assumptions shaping U.S. law.