Category: Native American Church

Native American Church History

3/5/2024

Of the many pan-Indian religious developments that took place in response to Native people being forced onto reservations, the most successful development was that of the Native American Church, also known as peyote religion, which at times has perhaps a quarter of a million adherents to varying degrees and involves, by some estimates, one out of every four Native persons in the United States. The Native American Church is based on the ingestion of peyote, in itself understood to be holy, as a sacrament. Peyote is an entheogenic or psychoactive small, low-lying cactus (Lophophora williamsii).

The use of peyote in North America is deferent from the use of other powerful psychoactive substances as it is ingested by all the congregants, not just religious specialists, such as the use of Datura. A second major feature of peyote is that it is not simply nonaddictive; it is anti-addictive. Peyote is so incredibly vile tasting that one has to have a strong spiritual need to ingest it, and after the rst experience, the body so dislikes it that again one has to have a spiritual need rather than a physical one.

From the archeological standpoint, based on findings in caves and rock shelters in Texas, peyote has been used in a ritual setting for over three thousand years. Reservation life in conjunction with the near extermination of the bison was particularly onerous to Plains traditions. Hunting the bison, along with raiding, was central to male occupations and essential to the major ceremonies. Native people, if they wish to be employed on ranches and elsewhere, were required to adopt the Western week and calendar, and this considerably impinged on the nature of traditional ceremonies. Native leaders were searching for new ways to maintain their cultural identity and spiritual needs.

Peyote is indigenous to the Rio Grande Valley, and the Comanche and the Kiowa may have been aware of its ritual use in northern Mexico before being restricted to reservations. Of the two persons most responsible for the early development of peyote religion among Native peoples in North America north of the Rio Grande River, one had already taken peyote in Mexico in the 1880s for medicinal purpose. Quanah Parker, a Comanche leader, whose mother was Euro-American, was responsible for developing and spreading peyote rituals among tribes in Oklahoma. Second in importance was the Caddo, John Wilson, also of mixed heritage, who developed his own version of peyote ritual as early as the late 1880s and also attracted many adherents. The religion rapidly spread to reservations throughout the United States and Canada.

Factors involved in the spread include the greater communication among Native leaders due to the mixing of peoples from deferent traditions at the boarding schools. Particularly important in the early years was the Carlisle Indian School at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and the Haskell Institute in Lawrence, Kansas. Modern forms of communication and travel, particularly the postal service, the telegraph, and the railroads also enhanced the spread of peyote religion.

The deferent versions of peyote religion reflect a mixture of traditional and Christian elements that varies from one version to another. Quanah Parker's version is called the Half Moon ceremony, based on the shape of the altar, or Tipi way, because it is held in tipis. It is the least Christian and the Bible is not used. The theological focus is on the traditional Native deities with an emphasis on Mother Earth. The version by John Wilson, who was a Catholic, is called the Big Moon or Cross Fire ceremony and, varying from one ritual leader to another, has invocations to Jesus, has baptism, and uses the Bible as a sacred artifact in its rituals. Members of either tradition, if they wish, will also take part in more traditional Native ceremonies or more normative forms of Christianity. The most Christian version, which spread among the Winnebago, rst in Minnesota and then Wisconsin, was that of John Rave. Those who followed this version were required to give up their sacred bundles and all participation in traditional Winnebago rituals. While the Christian elements continued, the injunction against other forms of spirituality did not.

Regardless of the tradition, the outlines of the ceremonies are actually similar. They take place over a single night and are usually held on weekends. The use of a psychoactive substance allows an intensity of experience that collapses the usual four-day rituals into a single night. Thus, this modied form of traditional religion accords with the modern work week. Because the ritual paraphernalia, including a special fan and gourd rattle, a carved sta, a whistle, and a small water drum, are carried by the ritual leaders, called "roadman." Since these items are highly portable, the rituals can be put on virtually anywhere. Some forms prefer a tipi, others use a more permanent round house, but the ritual can be put on in rooms in modern buildings.

Both men and women sit on the ground or oor in a circle, with the roadman facing east, as happens with most Native American rituals. The roadman will lay out the paraphernalia described above and prepare the drum. A large peyote button is placed on a bed of sage in the middle of the altar. This is called Grandfather or Father Peyote, and it will remain in place throughout the ritual. A person called "cedarman" will prepare the re and throw cedar leaets on it, thus creating purifying smoke. Tobacco and xings for making cigarettes are passed around in a sunwise direction. The congregants will make themselves cigarettes to smoke during the opening prayer by the roadman. A bag of dried peyote buttons, usually from Texas, is incensed by cedarman and passed around the circle; alternatively, a tea made from peyote might be used.

The congregants take four buttons at a time. The congregants sing songs as the drum is passed around the circle well into the night, with peyote passed around every so often. People usually take about twelve buttons in total, although some take considerably more. At midnight, water is passed around the circle, and there is a break in the ceremony, with people stepping outside. People return and prayers become more spontaneous, as the individuals are moved to speak or sing. There may be special rituals for healing at this time. At the end of the night, the roadman sings the Dawn Song, and the "water woman" comes in and passes water around. She then brings in a simple meal of traditional foods. Some last songs are sung and the ceremony comes to an end. After the ritual paraphernalia is put away, everyone leaves the ritual space and takes part in a feast.

Some groups hold monthly ceremonies; others do it more spontaneously. A peyote ceremony can be put on for several reasons: to give thanks for a safe journey, for recovery from sickness, to celebrate a birth or to name a baby, for healing, and, for some groups, to memorialize the dead. Some traditions hold peyote ceremonies during Christian festivals, or at Thanksgiving and New Year.

Peyote ritual fulfills all of the expectations and meets virtually all of the needs of traditional Native ceremonies but in a more compact mode. Given the ingestion of a psychoactive substance in a powerful ritual context, it is not unusual for the participants to have visions. It is the intense spiritual experience, the immediacy, and the reality of it, along with the enhanced sense of community, which gives the ritual its great power.

After the peyote religion began to spread, it faced new legal challenges. By 1918, several states had passed laws against it and Congress was considering similar legislation. With the advice of the anthropologist James Mooney of the Smithsonian Institution, the leaders of the religion incorporated themselves in 1918 on the model of Protestant churches as the Native American Church of North America so as to include Canada. Governments though have still at times, tried to outlaw the religion.

One recent case was the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Employment Division v. Smith in 1990. Two members of the Native American Church were red as drug counselors because they took part in Native American Church rituals, in that they were using peyote, which the United Nations Convention lists as a drug. The majority opinion, written by Justice Antonin Scalia, held that their right to the free exercise of religion was superseded because they had violated valid laws.

Congress reacted by passing the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) in 1993. The House passed the bill unanimously and the Senate passed it 97–3. The Supreme Court rebuked Congress in 1997 in City of Boerne v. Flores in which the Court struck down the law, stating that Congress had stepped beyond their power of enforcement.

But the Supreme Court seems to have reversed itself in 2006, in Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Benecente União do Vegetal. This case concerned the use by a Brazilian religion of hoasca tea. U.S. Customs had seized 30 gallons of the tea. The church claimed the right to use it under RFRA. A unanimous decision written by Chief Justice John Roberts found that the government was unable to
detail the State's compelling interest in barring religious usage of hoasca under the strict scrutiny that
the RFRA demands of such regulations.

Jordan Paper
Further Reading
Gill, Sam D.

Native American Religions: An Introduction. Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth Publishing
Company, 1982.; Hirschfelder, Arlene, and Paulette Molin, eds.
Encyclopedia of Native American
Religions, updated ed. New York: Facts on File, 2000; Paper, Jordan D.
Native North American Religious
Traditions: Dancing for Life. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2007.
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MLA Citation
Paper, Jordan. "Native American Church."
The American Mosaic: The American Indian Experience,
ABC-CLIO, 2021, americanindian2.abc-clio.com/Search/Display/1482221. Accessed 7 Nov. 2021.
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Entry ID: 1482221

From ABC-CLIO's The American Indian Experience website
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