One Nation Under God: The Triumph of the Native American Church
This month we are looking at the Indians side of the history of the Wild West, and since it’s the last Sunday of the month meaning it’s time to look at another religion, this week’s book is One Nation Under God: The Triumph of the Native American Church compiled and edited by Reuben Snake and Huston Smith. So let’s do this.
The origins of what would become a battle for religious freedom in late 20th century America...and I’m pointing out the date to see if you guys can catch the irony, are VERY OLD. Like, they can trace Peyote use among Native American tribal culture to 5000 BCE, and it’s deification is believed to be older than that, clocking in around 10,000 BCE. Like, provably 5,000 BCE, carbon dating proves it, kind of evidence.
And it’s use as a sacrament in religious worship was challenged by Spanish missionaries as early as 1630, which certainly called to mind the book I read in May of this Year, The Witches’ Ointment...not that Peyote make you fly, it doesn’t. In fact all of the testimony provided by practitioners in the Native American Church all say that it does not have psychedelic affects, you’re not going on a trip with Peyote, and you are not flying. It was more the church’s suppression of anything not deemed acceptable that I was reminded of when I read that section.
Now, Peyote is indigenous to Northern Mexico and South Texas, particularly the Chihuahuan Desert. So it should not be a surprise that it’s known use, as far as the Europeans were concerned, started with the Aztecs and the Huichols. The Huichols shared it with the Apache, who in turn would share with the Kiowa and the Comanche.
The Comanche are why it became a sacrament in what would become the Native American Church. It’s actually quite fitting that I started this month with Quanah Parker in The Empire of the Summer Moon, and this month we end with Quanah Parker, who helped spread Peyote as a sacrament to members of the Delaware, Caddo, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Ponca, Oto, Pawnee, and Osage tribes for sure, and to other tribes which were not specified in the book.
And in solid, overbearing, fashion, as other missionaries to the reservations became aware of the use of Peyote, they tried to smother it. But the tribes fought back and consistently won, no doubt helped by a turning of the tide in public relations post Wounded Knee, the granting of citizenship in 1924, and a solid helping of white guilt….which, to be fair, congress had plenty of reason to be feeling, given how heavy handed their policies towards the tribes had always been.
Then came Public Law 91-513, better known as the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970. The one that allowed the president to create the Drug Enforcement Agency, that cadre of unelected bureaucrats who are going to tell us all what is and is not illegal for us to be ingesting.
I will say this: the DEA did something quite surprising. Even though they listed Peyote as a Schedule 1 narcotic, meaning no known medical uses and heavy chance of addiction, they left it open as a sacrament for members of the Native American Church, so that members of the NAC were allowed to partake of their sacraments.
The book specifically points out from the law 21CFR1307.31 which specifies “The listing of peyote as a controlled substance in schedule I does not apply to the non-drug use of peyote in bona fide religious ceremonies of the Native American Church, and members of the Native American Church so using peyote are exempt from registration.” The law then clarifies “Any person who manufactures peyote for or distributes peyote to the Native American Church, however, is required to obtain registration annually and to comply with all other requirements of laws.”
Which means if I wanted to grow Peyote to sell to the NAC, I would have to register as a manufacturer of Peyote with the DEA. And whatever hoops they required to do so. But why would anyone bother, when the members of the NAC could literally just grow it themselves?
And that’s where things stood for a few brief years, as individual states quickly moved to pass their own legislation outlawing various substances, including peyote. And here is where the 10th amendment comes in, making the states complicit in government overreach. If the states had just let the Drug Control Act and DEA start up, but not done anything to adjust their own laws, then our jails would not now be flooded with people who are guilty of smoking a little pot. The DEA could have focused on the Freeway Ricky Ross’s and the El Chapos and the Pablo Escobars. The heavy hitters, the ones doing the heavy dealing. The local cops could have focused on real crime...like murder for example. But, the states saw the way to concentrate even more power to themselves, and took it.
And while overreach continued to impact members of the Native American community and Church, they STILL kept winning in court. Until 1984. In 1984, Alfred Leo Smith, who was a member of the Klamath Nation in Oregon and a member of the Native American Church was fired from his job running a program for alcohol and drug treatment in Roseburg, OR for having taken his sacrament, aka Peyote, during church services. Also fired was one of his co-workers, also a member of the Native American Church, but NOT a member of the tribe. The co-worker was fired immediately. Smith was told if he left his church, he could continue working. He refused and was fired.
Interestingly enough, neither Smith nor his co-worker were seeking reinstatement. They just wanted unemployment benefits while they looked for work. But the employer claimed they’d been fired for cause, OR unemployment office agreed, and benefits were denied. Six years later, having lost, then won on appeal, their case ended up in the Supreme Court when the DA in OR couldn’t take the loss, and the Supreme Court sided with the DA.
And then something interesting happened. The American Religious community banded together and petitioned congress for redress of grievances. Like...ALL of the American Religious community. This was not just the NAC standing on it’s own. Members of different denominations across the country sided with the NAC, demanding Congress fix this. And at this point, it HAD to be a congressional fix. Yes, the DEA COULD pull Peyote from the schedule lists. But that would have NO impact on the states that had now made peyote illegal on their own.
And in record time. I mean...April 17, 1990, the Supreme Court handed down it’s decision. President Clinton signed Public Law 103-344 amending the American Indian Religious Freedom Act, on October 6, 1994. And it’s beautiful. It’s not perfect. There’s language in there that basically means if a member of a tribe wants a federal position, they can still be denied if they partake of peyote. So it’s not perfect. But it’s far better than the rounds of arrests, trial, and appeals.
Which they should not have needed. Remember that irony of the date I mentioned earlier? Well, the US Constitution was signed into law on September 17, 1787. The Bill of Rights...the first of which grants Freedom of Religion, was ratified on December 15, 1791. So two hundred years after all American citizens were granted freedom of religion, the US Supreme court decided that the law did not, in fact, apply to ALL Americans.
And the Public-Law 103-344 and the Drug Control Act of 1970 are why there is no actual peyote in the cocktail. Mostly the Drug Control Act. I am neither Native American, nor a member of the Native American Church, so it would be illegal for me to partake of actual Peyote.
But more importantly than that, this book specifies that alcohol and Peyote don’t really mesh. Not that there would necessarily be a negative effect. But that Peyote opens your mind so that you no longer want to drink.
This book was quite interesting. I love a happy ending where the little guy wins, and this was undoubtedly a David vs. Goliath tale. Chapter 1...like they led with the strongest part of the story. Which was not, interestingly enough, the State of OR trying to blackmail someone into giving up their faith. It was the voices of the church. How Peyote is seen and revered by members of the Church. And make no mistake, this is every bit as much a church as the Catholic houses of glass and granite and the soaring mega-churches of the Joel Osteen’s, and the elegant architecture of the Hagia Sofia. The people who worship here are more connected to the earth and to each other because of their faith. And as you read their testimonies, you understand their community and how this one, humble sacrament ties them together under the Great Creator.
