The field work which is a partial basis of this study was begun in
the summer of 1935, when the writer was a member of the Laboratory
of Anthropology at Santa Fé ethnological group which worked with the
Kiowa under Dr. Alexander Lesser of Columbia University. The field work
was continued alone in the summer of 1936 with funds granted by Yale
University and the American Museum of Natural History. Field data were
gathered with varying completeness from fifteen tribes: Kiowa, Comanche,
Shawnee, Kickapoo, Osage, Quapaw, Seminole, Delaware, Pawnee, Cheyenne,
Caddo, Oto, Ponca, Kiowa Apache and Wichita; in the case of the Kiowa,
Oto, and Wichita two peyote meetings each were attended.
The debt to my almost constant field companion, Charles Apekaum (Kiowa),
game warden, ex-Navy man, graduate of Chilocco, Haskell, and Carlisle,
and my chief interpreter, is such that I may say my work could not have
been carried out with such comparative facility and speed without his
aid. His knowledge of people and places was invaluable to me. Special
appreciation is expressed to Mr. Alfred Wilson (Cheyenne) of Thomas,
Oklahoma, several times state president of the Native American Church,
for lending me numerous letters and other documents from the official
files of the organization, and to Jim Waldo (Kiowa) and Kiowa Charley
for similar documents, including the articles of incorporation and state
charter. To Jim Pettit (Oto) of Red Rock, local president of the Native
American Church, and Charles Tyner (Quapaw) of Miami, the added debt
of personal hospitality was incurred. The following informants were of
particular help in gathering data: Cecil and Henry Murdock (Kickapoo);
Sly Picard, George May and Henry Hunt (Wichita); Jim Aton, Belo Kozad and
Homer Buffalo (Kiowa); Howard White Wolf (Comanche); Carl Pettit, Murray
Little-crow, and Mrs. George Pipestem (Oto); Albert Stamp (Seminole);
Tom and Collins Panther (Shawnee); Tennyson Berry (Kiowa Apache); Robert
Little-dance and Louis MacDonald (Ponca); Mack Haag (Cheyenne); Elijah
Reynolds (Delaware); and Sun Chief and James Sun-eagle (Pawnee). To
Jonathan Koshiway (Oto), founder of the Church of the First-born, I wish
to express appreciation for his painstaking efforts at completeness of
information made on my behalf.
In a study of this scope one necessarily incurs considerable debts to
colleagues for aid generously given and gratefully received. The notes
of James Mooney on Kiowa, Comanche, and Tarahumari peyote, deposited
in the Bureau of American Ethnology, as well as manuscripts by Frances
Densmore on Winnebago, and Dr. Truman Michelson on Sauk and Fox peyote,
were made available through the generosity of Dr. Matthew Stirling,
to whom I express particular thanks. Mrs. Elna Smith very kindly lent
further Bureau of American Ethnology material which had been in her
care. Mr. D. F. Murphy of the Indian Office amplified my Osage notes,
and Mr. John Collier, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, has been generous
with information of legal and administrative nature. To Donald Collier,
student at the University of Chicago, and Ing. Luis Híjar y Haro of
Mexico City, I express appreciation for bibliographic items, as well
as to Dr. Ralph Beals of the University of California at Los Angeles.
Richard Schultes, student at Harvard University, who was with me for
an ethnobotanical study during several weeks of my second summer of
work, has also been generous in giving help on bibliographic as well
as botanical and pharmaceutical matters. Dr. E. A. Hoebel of New York
University made available his notes on Northern Cheyenne and Comanche
peyote. Dr. Ruth Benedict of Columbia University and Dr. M. E. Opler
of the University of Chicago have aided with Mescalero Apache notes,
and the latter has very generously lent valuable manuscript notes on
Tonkawa, Carrizo and Lipan peyotism. Dr. Frank Speck of the University
of Pennsylvania was fertile with suggestions during the second period of
field work, and since its completion has contributed important Delaware
material. Mrs. Erminie Voegelin, student at Yale University, kindly lent
her voluminous notes on Shawnee peyote, as did Mrs. Anne Cooke for the
Ute, and John Noon, student at the University of Pennsylvania, for the
Kickapoo. Dr. A. H. Gayton kindly lent an interesting paper on datura.
While the present paper was still in proof form, Dr. Leslie A. White
of the University of Michigan and Dr. Fred Eggan of the University of
Chicago generously lent material on Taos and Northern Cheyenne peyotism
respectively.
To Dr. Edward Sapir of Yale University, to the Laboratory of Anthropology
at Santa Fé, and to Dr. Clark Wissler of the American Museum of Natural
History, I wish to express my thanks for making available the funds on
which field work was undertaken. To Dr. Sapir and to Dr. John Dollard
of the Institute of Human Relations at Yale University I owe the warm
personal debt of founding a knowledge and an interest in matters of
psychological import herein treated. And to Dr. Leslie Spier, my
dissertation adviser, I express gratitude for his constant stimulating
interest, valuable bibliographic help, and leads of considerable
ethnographic significance.