A short essay about the Native American Church written for my course on Native American religion, fall 2010. The sources I used were from class materials, including William A. Young’s Quest for Harmony, a chapter from Emily Benedek’s Beyond the Four Corners of the World, a documentary called Peyote Road, and a powerpoints, class handouts, and notes.
Since its inception, the Native American Church (NAC), with its intrinsic connection to peyote and the burgeoning pan-Indian religious movement, has been a controversial topic among Native Americans and has attracted unwanted attention from skeptical lawmakers. To understand the pressure points of this intense debate, this essay will first show how several important historical and social shifts created space for the NAC to develop and flourish. Next, I will briefly describe the peyote ceremony as practiced by the NAC. Finally, I will describe both the major concerns of some Native Americans about the spread of the NAC and the attempts of the United States government to counteract and control the harvesting, distribution, and sacramental consumption of peyote, as well as responses to these critiques and pressures from members and supporters of the NAC.
The sacramental use of peyote can be traced back to as early as 8,000 BCE, when a handful of tribes from Texas and Mexico began using it in various ceremonies (Young 303). The practice seems to have gone relatively undisturbed and unnoticed beyond its geographical center, and it made no significant impact upon the religious makeup of other tribes until white settlers began disturbing the delicate tribal balances by forcibly removing some tribes to Indian Country and eventually sending children into boarding schools (Young 304). The resultant alienation from their original context nevertheless would have given previously unaffiliated tribes new opportunities to interact, and awareness of peyote could have spread this way. In addition to this chance transmission, charismatic activists such as Quanah Parker, who were in search of a common identity for Native American people, made conscious efforts to spread peyote awareness into Oklahoma and the northern plains tribes as a pan-Indian practice (NAC PPT, slide 4; Peyote Road).
Because Native American spiritual traditions were effectively banned by the US government in the late 19th Century, the peyote ceremony spread by virtue of its intrinsic connection to Christianity and its intertribal utility (Young 305). In this sense, the development of the NAC was grounded in the need for a common expression of Native American spirituality and cultural heritage. According to Emily Benedek, “The NAC has been called…an attempt to reassert or perpetuate an indigenous culture in the face of outside pressures to assimilate” (250). In response to attempts of the US government to ban the sacramental use of peyote, the NAC was formally founded early in the 20th Century with the hope than an institutional apparatus would firmly establish peyote use as a legitimate religious practice (Young 308-309).
Typically, the peyote ceremony is conducted in a tipi or lodge, and it is always held to commemorate important life events or purify the spiritually and/or physically ill (Young 314-315). The roadman, if he accepts the sponsor’s request for a ceremony, brings various ritual implements, all of which have important symbolic associations with Native identity (for instance, the gourd rattle and water drum) and sometimes Christianity (for instance, the staff and the occasional crosses worn by the roadmen) (Young 315; NAC PPT, slides 16-19). The construction of the sacred space itself suggests a womb that will usher the participants’ symbolic rebirth and spiritual purification (Young 316; Ceremony handout). Important parts of worship include smoking tobacco, performing several prayers, consuming the sacrament, singing many songs, and a light afternoon meal the next day (Benedek 262).
Despite—or more likely because of—the NAC’s success in spreading to a surprising number of tribes, a variety of Native Americans have voiced concerns about potentially harmful aspects of the NAC. At the heart of their concerns is this fundamental question: is the NAC a new religion that would replace a member’s tribal identification, or can members of the NAC continue to practice their tribal traditions in tandem with the NAC (Young 329)? In other words, to what degree does the pan-Indian movement trivialize or overlook tribal differences, and is the blurring of tribal differences a desirable trend? The responses of members and supporters of the NAC have been diverse. One Native American, for instance, argued that the NAC’s simplicity would allow an increased accessibility to the younger generations, who seem to have decreasing interest in ancient customs (Benedek 256); so while the disregard for tribal boundaries might not be ideal, some would argue that it is a necessary resort. Others might see no difficulty in participating in a pan-Indian movement on the one hand and retaining a strong tribal affiliation on the other. In any case, this is a question that must be negotiated by the members of the NAC.
In addition to conflicts within the Native American community, the US government has also clashed with the NAC by periodically passing legislation that counteracted, controlled, or outright banned the cultivation, transportation, or consumption of peyote (Peyote Road). This pattern of behavior is based upon the assumption that peyote is a harmful hallucinogenic drug (Young 321). However, members of the NAC have uniformly claimed that peyote is not a drug that produces psychoactive hallucinations or an artificial “high,” but it is a medicinal substance that is an integral part of their religious beliefs (Peyote Road; NAC PPT, slide 11). A variety of personal testimonies and independent research similarly suggests that peyote is neither harmful nor addictive, and, if it is used properly in a ritual context, peyote can lead to a powerfully transformative experience with long-lasting positive effects (Peyote Road).
This subject presents other opportunities for research. First, further research needs to be into the NAC: for example, what kind of measures is the NAC taking to ensure for its followers a successful transition into a better, more productive lifestyle apart from the ceremonial context? Second, if peyote is defined as medicinal, this leads to another major concern: what social problems have made peyote necessary? Is the NAC taking preventative steps to purify the dysfunctional environment that creates the diseases peyote apparently treats? These issues must be engaged to ensure a coherent and complete understanding of the NAC and a vitally important aspect of American history.
Next up: Does the marketing of Native American spirituality in contemporary American society constitute cultural imperialism?
