Peyote came to the Mescalero[71] about 1870, in the same “general
movement which resulted in its adoption by a large number of the tribes
of the United States.”[72] Like other Apache ceremonies its origin was
attributed to an individual’s encounter with a power, but the tribe
involved was the Tonkawa, Lipan or “Yaqui.” Like the Plains groups,
the Mescalero made a trip south to get peyote,[73] which was kept by
the shaman for ceremonial use only, lest private individual users who
did not “know” and have the right to use the power go mad. The primary
purpose of meetings was for doctoring,[74] though “occasionally a peyote
meeting was called for some other purpose—for peyote, like other sources
of supernatural power, was believed to be efficacious for locating the
enemy, finding lost objects, foretelling the results of a venture, etc.”
The news that a peyote shaman is conducting a meeting for a sick person
spreads rapidly, and all who are to attend bathe at noon of the appointed
day.[75] At nightfall they enter the tipi, where the peyote chief is
sitting west of the fire facing the door, with a gourd rattle in one hand
and an incised wooden staff in the other.[76] The staff is his protection
against witchcraft, and he “sings to it”; he exchanges the gourd for the
drum of his assistant, but retains the staff in his left hand. In front
of him on an eagle feather or piece of buckskin lies the large talismanic
“chief peyote” or “Old Man Peyote.”[77]
He is assisted by a door-keeper and a fire-tender, who builds a crescent
mound of earth around the fire-pit with the horns east, and keeps the
fire going all night.[78] Once having entered, one is not supposed to
leave the tipi until morning save briefly, taking one of the eagle
feathers lying on either side of the door, and replacing it as soon as
possible. The peyote,[79] in a sack or on a woven tray, is first eaten by
the peyote chief, who then administers their first buttons to novices,
using two eagle-tail feathers as a spoon, with three ritual feints, after
which these “fly” into their mouths. Then after smoking[80] the peyote
is passed around by the assistants as the leader prays. Beginning at the
southeast the drum is passed clockwise as each person sings four songs,
his own ceremonial songs or songs received in visions, while the leader
or his assistants shakes the rattle. The leader sings most of the songs.
There was a mild bias against women[81] among the Mescalero; they
received medicine power, but could not become a peyote chief, because
the responsibilities of the office were too great—for a leader must
prevent anything happening between even the greatest of rival shamans
in meetings.[82] In this he was aided by the chief peyote which “he
frequently consulted ... to ascertain whether anything were amiss; any
evil thoughts or efforts at witchcraft were said to ‘show’ on this ‘chief
peyote’.” A favorite device of witches to weaken the leader was to make
his assistants vomit the peyote.
Peyotism was readily accepted by the Mescalero, in whose older culture
were patterns of receiving supernatural power from animals, etc. Indeed,
Opler calls the Mescalero
a tribe of shamans, active or potentially active [and peyote
became another among many sources of power for them]. It will
be readily grasped, however, that since peyote leadership and
the conduct of peyote rites were open to any one who claimed
a supernatural experience with the plant, since, in other
words, an individualistic, shamanistic premise underlay the
utilization of peyote for religious purposes, centralized
leadership and definite organization could not be achieved. The
Mescalero use of peyote never developed into a cult or society
with a regular membership and place of meeting, with officers
and principals selected or agreeable to the entire body of
devotees ... [even with the] emphasis on curative rites....
This, in Mexico, made the rite tend to be tribal in character,
the shaman quasi-priest. Mescalero peyotism, therefore, is truly
transitional between the Mexican all-inclusive rite of _tribal_ cure
and the individualistic Plains _societal_ ceremony; no equilibrium
was permanently reached between the two, and Opler adduces abundant
evidence of the _rival_ nature of peyotism among competing shamans.[83]
The concept was that everyone was to get in rapport with his power(s)
via peyote, with the peyote shaman, however, remaining the figurehead
leader—a multiple “working together” of powers, peyote being the power
_par excellence_ that worked with other powers. The Mescalero, then,
attempted to force the physiologically somewhat refractory individual
peyote experience into the shamanistic mold. The leader remained the
arbiter and mediator, and held special symbols of authority, the staff
and the rattle, to compensate for his real loss of status as cynosure,
when participants in the curing rite were enlarged beyond the patient and
his relatives.
Notable is the lack of Christian elements in Mescalero peyotism, in
contrast with some Plains groups; indeed, “far from becoming a weakened
and Christianized version of native beliefs, the Mescalero Apache
acceptance of peyote resulted instead in an intensification of the
aboriginal religious values at many points.”[84] On the other hand,
when we recalled the history of their relations with Whites and such
psychologically similar cults as the Ghost Dance of the Plateau, Great
Basin and Plains, it is somewhat surprising that a warlike and predatory
group like the Mescalero did not associate peyote and anti-White feeling.
Opler has recorded a Tonkawa peyote ceremony with clear anti-White
features; but the Mescalero had an aboriginal ceremony before peyote
whose function was the consternation and defeat of enemies, and this,
directed toward the whites, usurped the function of ritual opposition
through peyote.[85]