Klamath River – United States
To the native tribes living along the Klamath River in Oregon and California, the river and its fish — especially salmon — are sacred, and stewardship of these natural resources is a core spiritual practice.
Nine Mile Canyon – United States
Often called “the world’s longest art gallery,” Nine Mile Canyon in Utah contains over 10,000 petroglyphs, pictographs and archaeological sites left by the Archaic, Fremont and Ute people thousands of years ago.
Ocmulgee Old Fields – United States
The mound temples and historic villages of the Muscogee people, descended from the Mississippian culture, in the Ocmulgee Old Fields of Georgia have been subject to development intrusions since the 1700s.
Arctic Wildlife Refuge – United States
Perhaps the most high-profile endangered sacred place in North America is Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge — however, it is not widely identified as sacred.
Phiphidi Waterfall – South Africa
The vhaVenda clans of northern South Africa, in present-day Limpopo Province, are among the nation’s most traditional, hewing to rituals and practices passed down from their ancestors.
Sepik River Basin – Papua New Guinea
Winding down from the timeless cloud forests of New Guinea’s Central Range, the Sepik River’s majestic folds form the core of one of the largest and most intact freshwater basins in the Asia Pacific region.
Nine Sacred Mountains – China
In Chinese, the term for pilgrimage, ch’ ao-shan chin-hsiang, is literally translated as “journeying to a mountain and offering incense.” Throughout China’s history, Buddhist and Daoist pilgrims have gone to mountains seeking spiritual sustenance and solace
Mount Tenabo – United States
Mount Tenabo and its environs are part of Newe Sogobia, the ancestral land of the Western Shoshone, which has never been legally ceded to the federal government. Nevertheless, U.S. politicians and multinational corporations have ignored an 1863 federal treaty acknowledging Western Shoshone ownership of the land
Sutter Buttes – United States
The Sutter Buttes of Northern California’s Sacramento Valley are where life began and where life ends. Playing a role in the traditional creation and afterlife stories of the Maidu and Wintun peoples, this small mountain range was a place of ritual for their ancestors, who once lived within view of the Buttes.
Yucca Mountain – United States
For more than two decades, the Shoshone and Paiute peoples, scientists, environmentalists, the federal government, Nevada citizens and politicians have wrestled over the fate of Yucca Mountain.