Peyotism in California

Joumal of California and Great Basin Anthropology Vol 8, No. 2, pp. 217-225 (1986). Peyotism in California OMER C. STEWART, Dept. of Anthropology, Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309. X EYOTISM, the religion of the Native cover. Both federal and California author American Church (NAC), whose members ities kept watch on Lancaster, and his are nearly all American Indians, was dis automobile was searched several times as it covered in Mexico soon after the Spaniards passed CaUfomia agricultural inspection arrived, but it did not reach California until stations. Samples of suspicious-looking 1936. The origin of the Peyote religion and powders were taken, but they proved to be its prehistoric distribution was determined by ground peyote and sage, for use in the ritual the range of the natural growth of the small of the NAC. Bowler maintained her suspi spineless cactus, called Peyoti by the Aztecs, cion and harassed Ben Lancaster until she known as Lophophora williamsii (Lemaire) left her job in the area in December 1939. Coulter, in modern botany. Although first In July 1938, in company with S. F. Cook, described by Sahagun in 1560, its exact I had an opportunity to participate in a range was not precisely known until set regular peyote meeting sponsored by North forth by E. F. Anderson (1961). In the ern Paiute Indians near Mono Lake, Califor United States the natural range of peyote is nia, but directed by a Washo medicine man limited to a few favored spots just north of who had become converted to Peyotism and the Rio Grande in Texas from Presidio near had himself become a peyote "roadman" or ly 500 miles downstream to McAllen. The priest. During the time between my return only area of abundance is east of Laredo, to Berkeley in January 1938 and July of that from Oilton and Mirando City south to Rio year I had written an article in which I Grande City. Supplies of peyote, an essen compared the Ute peyote ritual with the tial ingredient in the religious ceremony, rituals described for other tribes, beginning were obtained near Oilton in 1936. They with the account of James Mooney, who at were in the dried state and were called but tended a Kiowa ceremony in 1891. Thus, tons. They were taken to the Washo and based on my own observations in Utah and Northern Paiute Indians of eastern California Colorado and descriptions from Oklahoma by a Washo Indian named Ben Lancaster, and Nebraska, I had the background to judge who had become a convert to Peyotism in whether the Washo ceremony in California Oklahoma during an absence from home of was similar or different. Having determined about twenty years. that the Ute ceremony was virtually iden In January 1937, Alida Bowler, Superin tical with that of tribes in Oklahoma, I was tendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in not surprised to learn that the Washo and Nevada and in charge of the Washo and Northern Paiute performed the peyote cere Northern Paiute of California, reported to mony in the same way. the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Washington, As I reviewed the historical literature on D.C., that Lancaster was proselytizing those Peyotism, it became evident that during its two tribes. She also expressed a suspicion entire existence in the United States there that Ben was a narcotics peddler who was had been strong condemnation of this native using the Native American Church as a American religion, and its all-night ceremo- [217] 218 JOURNAL OF CALIFORNIA AND GREAT BASIN ANTHROPOLOGY ny, by people who had not observed the the altar. Peyote was then passed and each ritual. Peyote was pronounced dangerous person took four buttons, or took sips of and habit-forming, and the ceremony was the peyote tea. An especially large peyote called an orgy. To the contrary, the Washo button was placed on the crescent altar, and peyote meeting I observed at Mono Lake, the roadman took his fan and staff in his like those of the Ute, was a very formal, left hand, then kneeling and shaking his strictly supervised, faith-promoting prayer rattle with the right hand and, accompanied service during which supplications were by the chief drummer, sang the traditional addressed to Jesus, God, Mary, and Peyote. opening hymn. Three more songs followed, Except for being in a canvas-walled enclo after which staff, fan, and rattle were sure open to the sky in which the worship passed clockwise and the cedarman sang four pers sat on blankets placed on the ground, songs to the drum accompaniment of the the atmosphere was as devout as a mass in a roadman. Except for a midnight water call cathedral or as a Mormon testimonial meet and recess, and a special morning ceremony, ing. The order of service in California, as the night was spent in passing the ritual elsewhere, specified that a sand crescent objects from person to person and having altar with the points to the east and a place each of the active and experienced partici for a fire on the concave side be prepared pants sing four songs, then drum for four before the congregation entered. The cere songs. Everyone might sing in unison with monial direction was clockwise. Four officials the leader of each song cycle. were in charge: the roadman seated west of Although Peyotism became established in the altar, the chief drummer to his right, California a half-century after it was widely the cedarman to his left, and the fireman practiced in Oklahoma, from a legal point of who served as doorman. After a prayer at view California became the most important the entrance, the congregation entered and state in the union with respect to peyote sat on the blankets around the canvas walls religion. When the Washo and Northern and the fire set in V-shape was lighted. A Paiute Indians living on the eastern slopes special fire-stick was east of the fire. of the Sierra Nevada Mountains became con As soon as the worshippers were seated, verted to Peyotism in 1936, there was no the roadman placed in front of him on a silk law against peyote in California. That did handkerchief his symbols of office-gourd not mean that the Peyotists were safe from rattle, feather fan, staff, sacks of BuU harassment by law enforcement officers Durham tobacco, a sack of dried peyote but because they lived along the border of the tons, and often a bucket or bottle of peyote state and frequently lived part of the year tea. The cedarman sprinkled juniper leaves in Nevada and regularly entered Nevada to on the fire and the ritual paraphernalia was visit friends and relatives. The Nevada incensed. This was followed by the chief legislature had passed a law prohibiting pos drummer passing his already-tied water drum session of peyote in that state in 1917, one through the smoke. The sacks of BuU of the first of two dozen such state laws. Durham were passed and each active partici The national campaign by traditional mis pant, not children, rolled a cigarette which sionary societies, which brought about the was ignited from the special fire-stick. The Nevada prohibition a couple of decades roadman prayed aloud. The communicants before the peyote religion reached Nevada, prayed silently while blowing smoke toward produced an anti-peyote sentiment in Nevada. PEYOTISM IN CALIFORNIA 219 This was revived in 1941, and led to the session of peyote in California. The law arrest and trial of Ben Lancaster in Reno, may have been stimulated by the popularity Nevada, notwithstanding the fact that he of the book The Doors of Perception by maintained his residence and had built an Aldous Huxley (1954), written in California octagonal wooden church building in Cole- after he had "swallowed four-tenths of a ville, California. Lancaster was freed gram of mescaline dissolved in half a glass because of a legal technicality. The medical of water," prepared by the young English doctor and the missionary who had sworn psychiatrist Humphrey Osmond. Huxley's out the complaint in 1941 mounted a national account of his experience made many people effort to outlaw peyote that continued until believe r.sescaline could give them new, 1944. It included a drive to discredit John exciting, and valuable insights. Collier, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, so In March 1959, the Los Angeles Times that he would be forced to resign because headline, "Witchery Experiments Held he allowed the peyote religion to continue. Student Death Key," introduced an article Except for a few news items from Reno, which ended with the sentence: "Mescaline, that effort to stop Peyotism in California by from the peyote cactus, has been used [to incarcerating in Nevada the local leader of produce visions] ... for centuries by the the Native American Church passed without Indians. ..." A review of the so-called consequence. "Hippie" interest in peyote is presented It was not until 1955 that concern for below. Although apparently aimed at broad peyote in California came to public atten ening the control of narcotics among the tion. An International News Service item general California population, the 1959 anti- from Los Angeles was headlmed "California peyote amendment had its greatest effect on Acts to Halt Import of Texas Peyote." The members of the NAC. surprising and unverified assertion was At 3:00 a.m., April 28, 1962, detectives of "WTiile possession of [peyote] ... is illegal the San Bernardino County Sheriffs office in California there is no law against it in broke into a hogan 27 miles west of Needles Texas." The same year officials of the during a meeting of the Native American Native American Church were notified that Church and arrested Jack Woody, Dan Dee Ben Lancaster had died in 1953, but that Nez, and Leon B.

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