Since 1964, nothing in the beliefs or conduct of NAC members has changed. Yet in 1990 the Supreme Court ruled, in Oregon Employment Division v. Smith, that individual states could outlaw peyote use, even the NAC's bona fide religious use, without violating the First Amendment of our Constitution. Scholars familiar with the legislative history of the NAC believe non-Indian abuse of psychedelic drugs clouded the Supreme Court's judgment in the Smith case. It is now up to Congress to champion religious

freedom for First Americans.

HISTORY OF MODERN PEYOTE MEETINGS

Native American veneration of peyote may be 10,000 years old (Stewart 1987). Peyote cactus buttons discovered in Shumla Cave in southern Texas have been radiocarbon dated to 5000 B.C. (Franklin 1991). The Huichol Indians of northwestern Mexico still practice an essentially non-Christian, but clearly sacramental, use of peyote. Their peyote pilgrimage may have been introduced by 200 A.D. (Fikes 1992). Scholars consider it the oldest aboriginal American expression of reverence for peyote in North America (LaBarre 1989: 256-259).

The exact route and time of diffusion of the Peyote religion is unclear (LaBarre 1989; Stewart 1987). The Carrizo culture which once occupied the area from Laredo, Texas east to the Gulf of Mexico is evidently the one whose pre-Columbian peyote rituals were first observed in 1649 (Stewart 1987: 45). After learning the peyote ceremony from the Carrizo, the Lipan Apache probably taught it to the Kiowa, Kiowa-Apache, and Comanche. By 1874, the Kiowa

and Comanche, once proud warriors of the southern Plains, had been confined to reservations in Oklahoma. The loss of liberty entailed by reservation life brought great pain and suffering to all Native Americans. By 1890, two new religious movements were spreading rapidly among Native Americans. One, the Ghost Dance, has all but disappeared. The other, the Peyote religion, has become the most popular meeting in Native America except for the pow-wow.

In the early 1880's, after the railroads reached Laredo, Texas (a town in the area where peyote is gathered), the stage was set for rapid communication between various tribes of North America. The railroads also made it easier for Native American tribes who had recently been confined in Indian territory (Oklahoma) to obtain their sacrament. Quanah Parker (Comanche), the most famous of all Oklahoma peyotists, helped bring peyote meetings to members of the Delaware, Caddo, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Ponca, Oto, Pawnee, Osage, and other tribes (Stewart 1987: 79). John Wilson, a Caddo, is credited with disseminating a slightly more Christian form of peyote meeting (LaBarre 1989: 151-161; Stewart 1987: 86-93). From these and other Oklahoma peyotists, two slightly different types of peyote meeting evolved. Peyotists are sometimes active members in other Christian churches.

The Peyote meeting spread rapidly to tribes north of Oklahoma. By 1908, Albert Hensley, a Winnebago educated at Carlisle, was defending eloquently his Christian religion. For Hensley and the Winnebago, Peyote was a Holy Medicine.

even as

...

...to us it is a portion of the body of Christ,
the communion bread is believed to be a portion of
Christ's body by other Christian denominations.
Christ spoke of a Comforter who was to come. ... it never
came to Indians until it was sent by God in the form of
this Holy Medicine" (Stewart 1987: 157).

The steady proliferation of NAC membership among diverse North American tribes has made the NAC Native America's largest church. Singing accounts for approximately sixty per cent of ritual devotions in NAC meetings. Each of about twenty-five worshipers seated inside the tepee has ample opportunity to sing, accompanied by a small drum and gourd-rattle. Singing often occurs in Native American languages, but English phrases like "Jesus only" and "He's the Savior" are common. Worshipers sing, drum, pray, meditate, and consume peyote during all-night meetings. Most meetings are held for healing, baptism, funerals, and birthdays. The NAC has no fulltime paid clergy. However, there are recognized leaders called "Roadmen" who have been given the authority to conduct peyote prayer services by predecessor Roadmen. Members are free to interpret Scripture according to their own understanding. Their morality is Christian and emphasizes the need for abstinence from alcohol, fidelity to one's spouse, truthfulness, meeting family obligations, economic self-sufficiency, praying for the sick and for peace. Peyote is regarded as a gift from God. It eliminates the craving for alcohol, the most widely abused drug in Indian country. It is not eaten to induce visions. It heals and teaches righteousness. Peyote is eaten, or consumed as a tea, according to a very formal ritual. It is reverently passed clockwise around the

circle of church members on several occasions during the course of all-night prayer services.

SACRAMENTAL PEYOTE USE IS NOT HARMFUL

Scientific studies of sacramental peyote use have produced no evidence that it is harmful. In fact, there is some scientific evidence suggesting that peyote may have antibiotic properties (Anderson 1980: 96). Eminent psychiatrists, including the late Karl A. Menninger, M.D., Abe Hoffer, Ph. D. and M.D., Humphry Osmond, M.D., Robert L. Bergman, M.D., and Bernard C. Gorton, M.D., have all reported that Native American sacramental peyote use is beneficial, or certainly not at all harmful (Anderson 1980: 165-66; Franklin 1991; Stewart 1987: 306). A similar opinion has been expressed by Everett Rhoades, M.D., Director of the Indian Health Service.

Dr. Maurice H. Seevers' (1958) scientific studies clearly demonstrate that peyote is not addicting. Of all substances tested by Seevers, alcohol was the most addicting. Dr. Seevers stated that "no cases of (human) addiction to peyote have ever been found" at the Federal Narcotic Farm in Lexington, Kentucky. His laboratory experiments proved it was impossible to addict dogs or monkeys to peyote (Franklin 1991). A chromosome damage study conducted by a group of California physicians on the Huichol Indians (whose unfaltering tradition of sacramental peyote use was mentioned above) showed that "no serious chromosome damage had occurred" (Dorrance, Janiger, and Teplitz 1975: 301).

ANTHROPOLOGISTS SUPPORT THE NAC

Anthropologists

have steadfastly defended the religious freedom of Native American peyotists since 1890, when their rituals were first observed by James Mooney of the Smithsonian. In 1918,

after testifying in favor of Native American peyotists at Congressional hearings, Mooney helped peyotists of various Oklahoma tribes obtain a legal charter. With Mooney's help, the Native American Church was officially incorporated in 1918 (LaBarre 1989: 217, 260). Another anthropologist, James Slotkin (1956) became a NAC officer and legal advocate. Following Slotkin's death in 1958, Omer Stewart (1987: xv) became the leading expert witness for the NAC.

In 1991 ninety-six percent of those members of the American Anthropological Association who voted on a resolution supporting the Native American Church approved. The resolution states that:

...use of peyote as a sacrament is in no sense harmful... there is no compelling interest that justifies restricting the first amendment rights of members of the NAC to practice their religion; therefore be it resolved that the American Anthropological Association supports NAC efforts to protect their sacramental use of peyote, and calls upon the federal and state governments to assure that NAC members have full legal protection for their way of worship.

of

Anthropologists define NAC rituals as a synthesis aboriginal and Christian elements, and find considerable continuity between peyote paraphernalia used in Mexican Indian rituals and sacred artifacts in NAC meetings. The use of a staff, tobacco, feather fans, gourd rattle, incense, fireplace, and emphasis on the four directions are some of the shared elements (LaBarre 1989;