U.S. Department of Justice Drug Enforcement Administration Washington, D.C. 20537 AUG 08 1991 Mr. Douglas J. Long President Native American Church of North America Osseo, Wisconsin 54758 Dear Mr. Long: This is in response to your letter of July 13, 1991, with which you enclosed a copy of your proposed amendment to the American Indian Religious Freedom Act. The proposed amendment would create a statutory exemption for the sacramental use of peyote in ceremonies of the Native American Church. As such, it would replace the Drug Enforcement Administration's (DEA) regulatory exemption found at 21 C.F.R. 1307.31. As you know, the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs DEA's predecessor agency, issued the regulation in response to Congress' documented direction that it do so. While we were pleased that in Pevote Way Church of God v. whomburgh, 922 F.2d 1210 (1991), the regulation was upheld by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, DEÀ has long preferred a statutory exemption over an administrative one. Accordingly, DEA personnel who participated in your recent meeting with representatives of several Department of Justice offices and Divisions supported your proposed statutory amendment. Within the past few weeks, the Department of Justice requested that DEA formally state its views with respect to the proposed amendment. As our representatives did during the aforementioned meeting, DEA strongly supported the legislation while suggesting some minor changes which would make clear that the exemption applied only to Native Americans and would recognize DEA's legitimate role in regulating those persons who import or harvest peyote and distribute the material to the designated representatives of the Native American Church. anticipate that Congress will also be interested in our views as your amendment moves through the legislative process. We Mr. Douglas J. Long Page Two I have been advised that since the enactment of the Controlled Substances Act, DEA and the Native American Church have maintained a close working relationship with respect to the handling of peyota. DEA's registration and regulation of peyota distributors and the Church's self-regulation of the handling of the substance have combined to insure the availability of peyote without diversion or abuse. I look forward to a continuation of this cooperative environment and wish you well in your term as president of the Native American Church of North America. Very truly yours, Loveth Bonner Robert C. Bonner Administrator of Drug Enforcement Mr. RICHARDSON. Thank you, President Long. STATEMENT OF ROBERT WHITEHORSE Mr. WHITEHORSE. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the subcommittee. I appreciate the time this morning. My name is Robert (Billy) Whitehorse. I reside in Cortez, Colorado. I am the president of the Native American Church of Navajoland, representing the Navajo people from Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado. I appreciate, Mr. Chairman-Mr. Richardson-that you took this upon yourself to introduce the bill on the House side, and I would like to say a word for the Navajo Tribe. We would like to thank you and this subcommittee for taking this giant step for the Navajo people, not only the Navajo Tribe but also the Navajo Indians across the Nation here. Mr. Chairman, my position as the president of the Native American Church of Navajoland is that we have full support from our members of the tribe, meaning that we have registered members of 30,000 currently of the Navajo people, and we are wholeheartedly supported by the Navajo Tribal Council and our president, Mr. Peterson Zah, his administration, and the Council and the present administration have supported wholeheartedly the production of the amendment of the bill to the State legislature. We currently have a bill with this position, and the New Mexico State legislature has wholeheartedly supported us, and so has the State of Arizona. By going this route, we are now united by all the Indian tribes across the United States and then beyond-Alaska, et cetera. I would like to say here that being members of the Native American Church, I think this is the last resort that the Indian tribes are holding on to as a holy sacrament. In history, we have found out that this medicine, the holy sacrament, will come back to us, as the Navajo Tribe says. I think we are in the stage where we need to hold on to our sacrament for us to have freedom and rights to practice religion. Also, on this route, we found out that there are hard obstacles that we are currently facing, meaning that our youngsters, when they enroll in education, our church members, members of the Native American Church, are not fully recognized. This is true with the American soldiers and veterans. Our tribes across the United States serve, and we come across hard obstacles indicating that recognizing the peyote is not really there. Also, in any type of religious ceremony that the Indian people are used to, I think we are still feeling that the United States Government is not fully protecting us to the extent where we will have freedom of religion. I think what we are saying here is that we are only repressing the freedom of religion that is recognized in the United States where we have a provision for the Native American to have the same rights. I think not only going this route and recognizing the medicine, the peyote, the holy sacrament, but I think this bill entails others-Titles 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5-which we wholeheartedly support, and in one way or another they are related. So, Mr. Chairman, just as I indicated, the Navajo Tribe does have stature with our own tribal government, and we are also established with Arizona and New Mexico, and we do have a charter of places in each State, and Texas recognizes our way of religion; the bill has been in place for us. So in the interests of your time, Mr. Chairman, I would like to have my written statement in the record. We have several attachments included for your information that show the long history we have, meaning that we have opposition when the Supreme Court came down with the Smith decision, and we want our position to be answered. Through our prayers, I think the answer was that this bill needs to be amended. So, Mr. Chairman, in conclusion, I would like to thank you and your subcommittee for this opportunity to speak. The Native American Church of Navajoland supports the Congressional legislation to amend the American Indian Religious Freedom Act that would solve these problems by creating a uniform national law that would remove these obstacles and legal cloud and allow our religion to continue, perhaps finally free of the long history of oppression and persecution and misunderstanding that has troubled us for so long. On behalf of the Native American Church of Navajoland, I urge you and your colleagues to do everything you can to cut through this wall of misunderstanding, to introduce and forward legislation that will protect the traditional use of peyote. I plea before this subcommittee that Congress should restore our rights to freely practice our Native traditions and religion. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. [Prepared statement of Mr. Whitehorse follows:] |