Far too little is known—or probably ever will be known—about peyotism in
Mexico to attempt to reconstruct its history; but our earliest Spanish
sources indicate its pre-Columbian presence among the Aztec, and probably
also the Cora-Huichol.[25] But the latter do not live in the region of
growth of the plant, whence Beals argues that they must certainly have
borrowed the cult. Rouhier claims immense antiquity for Huichol peyotism,
but unconvincingly. If, indeed, as Beals with great plausibility argues,
peyote is historically associated with shamanism, then it may have been
involved in a late reinvigoration of shamanistic elements, at the expense
of the priestly-sacerdotal elements of an older, impoverished culture
stratum. Evidence is even less conclusive for other Mexican groups, but
on the whole it appears that the ritualization of the use of peyote was
already vigorous in many parts of Mexico at the time of the first Spanish
contact.
The approximate age of the peyote cult among the Tarahumari is likewise
unknown to us. It is not so integrated into their culture as in the case
of the Huichol, and in nearly all respects the southern cult is more
complex than the northern. Furthermore, Tarahumari peyotism has for
some time been in decline, indicating perhaps a borrowing which was not
sufficiently rooted—the neighboring Tubar, for example, did not use
hikuli, though their customs otherwise much resembled the Tarahumari.
Both Lumholtz and Bennett and Zingg consider Tarahumari peyotism a
diffusion from the Cora-Huichol; certainly the Tarahumari themselves show
very little indication of being a center of diffusion in Mexico in their
lack of characteristic traits[26].
Despite our comparative ignorance of the region, a much better case could
be made for northeastern Mexico as a center of diffusion, for the region
immediately south of the Rio Grande is one of the abundant growth of
peyote. The oldest use in the United States is in this region, rather
than in the Southwest as represented by the Mescalero. Tonkawan peyotism,
for example, may be quite old: Velasco wrote in 1716 that many of the
Indians of Texas drank “pellote” in connection with their dances. The
Lipan got peyote from the Carrizo before white contact, according to
Opler’s informants. The Lipan used to go to a place called Biγaguɫgai,
which was “wide grass country beyond the Pecos in Texas,” where the
Mescalero came sometimes to meet them. Wagner says the Mescalero got
peyote from the Lipan about 1880, but later Plains history of the cult as
evidenced by the Kiowa leads us to accept the date 1870 set by Opler, as
more plausible. Opler has well accounted for the ready acceptance by the
Mescalero of this shamanistically-colored complex, and its integration
into their pattern of aggression by witchcraft; he believes that peyotism
was brought to their door by the same movement which brought it to the
Plains, though Mescalero peyotism is appreciably older.[27]
From Dr. Parsons’ careful account, it is clear that Taos practises the
classical Plains rite. Contact with the Arapaho-Cheyenne version dates
at least as far back as 1907, and tentative beginnings of this sort
continued in later years.[28] Interestingly, Cozio recorded in 1720 the
prosecution of a Taos Indian who had taken peyote and disturbed the
town.[29] In any case the history of peyote at Taos has been a stormy
one.[30] About 1918 the hierarchy became bitterly opposed to peyote,
and turned three men out of their kiva membership in an attempt to
rout it out. Dr. Parsons[31] believes that the weakness of the kachina
cult at Taos accounts perhaps for peyote getting any foothold there at
all. It is no coincidence that the Water Kiva, which has to do with
the main elements of the kachina cult, the pilgrimage, is the one most
outstandingly opposed to peyote. Considerable political activity has
erupted over the issue, and Dr. Parsons surmises that the protective
influence of a recently deceased political figure in the pueblo was also
of significance. It may well be that recent Federal legislation will so
strengthen the hand of the civil authorities at Taos that the suppression
of peyote can be accomplished; in 1923 the number of “peyote boys” was
only 52 in a population of 635.
In the Plains the most important tribes in the diffusion of the peyote
cult were the Kiowa, the Comanche, and to a lesser degree perhaps, the
Caddo. Most Kiowa agree that they got peyote and the accompanying ritual
from the Mescalero Apache. The usual story is that a raiding party came
to the Apache country, and that during an Apache peyote meeting being
held at the time, the leader by clairvoyant means was made aware of the
approach of the war-party leader. He told his fireman to invite the man
in, enemy though he was. In this manner the man learned the ceremony, and
at the end he was presented with peyote and ritual paraphernalia to take
back to his tribe.[32]
Pabo, or Big Horse, was the only user among the Kiowa about 1868 or
1870, and Mooney began to notice Kiowa peyote only around 1886, so the
vigorous activity of a cult proper may be said to date from about this
time (though friendly contacts with the Mescalero in his opinion dated
as far back as 1850 or before).[33] But the introduction of peyote was
not exclusively the doing of one tribe, any more in the case of the
Kiowa than of other groups. Tribal contacts have been multiple since
the cessation of intertribal warfare, and one is not at all inclined
to discount the vague information from Kiowas that they knew of peyote
from the Cáγeso, the Zé·bakiɛni or “Long Arrows,” the Yæk’i (a loose
designation for various north Mexican tribes) and the Kωɔnhęɢo. These
last so-called “bare-footed” people are probably the Carrizo, who
ranged within the region of growth of peyote. The Tonkawa[34] also made
visits to the Kiowa around 1890 and performed shamanistic tricks in
peyote meetings. We therefore set the date of Kiowa peyotism somewhat
earlier than Shonle’s[35] “before 1891” (her data were based on official
Government sources which might not have become cognizant of the cult
until late in its history), for Kiowa were holding meetings by 1880 or
before. The Kiowa probably contributed little or nothing definitive to
the general shape of the ceremony, most of whose features were already
standardized among the Lipan and the Mescalero.[36]
At one time, however, there was intense opposition to peyote on the
part of some Kiowa. In the winter of 1887-88 Bąįgʸä had a revelation
on the strength of which he claimed to be the successor to Pate’te
or “Buffalo-Bull-Coming-Out” (the “Buffalo Prophet” of 1881-82 who
had promised to bring back the buffalo if his followers joined him in
resisting the Whites and returning to the old customs). He organized a
group of about thirty into an order called Baiyui or “Sons of the Sun,”
with a special costume, singing of guedωgʸä, or old “going-to-war”
songs, smoking ceremony and dance. These he commanded to resume the old
costume, weapons and customs, and distributed to them a sacred new fire
made with a drill to take the place of fires kindled with flint-and-steel
or matches. The Sons of the Sun were bitterly opposed to peyote on the
ground that it was in conflict with the Ten Medicine Bundles, though
since its introduction some years before there had been no special
opposition to peyote. One of their rules was to drink always from an
individual cup or bucket, in pointed contrast to the peyote custom.
Bąįgʸä predicted that a great whirlwind would come in the spring,
followed by a four-day prairie-fire in which the Whites and all their
works would be destroyed and the buffalo and the old Indian life
restored. He ordered all the Kiowa to gather at Elk Creek, where they
would be safe when the catastrophe came. He claimed that his followers
would be invulnerable to the white soldiers’ bullets, and that he himself
could kill the latter with the glance of his eye as far as he could see
them. As the time grew near there was intense excitement and the whole
tribe, save for a few skeptical chiefs and medicine men, assembled at
the appointed spot. When the holocaust failed to materialize the people
lost faith in him. He held his original group together until the coming
of the Ghost Dance in the fall of 1890. Shortly before this his son had
died, and when the Ghost Dance came he claimed to have seen the fresh
tracks of this son on his grave, resurrected, and through this revelation
attempted to identify his group with the Ghost Dance, without, however,
any success. His disciples continued to ride around together in a group,
and maintained their bitter hostility to peyote, but were not taken
seriously. Finally, indeed, Lone Bear and other Sons of the Sun, became
staunch peyote-users themselves and opposition vanished.
The first Comanche user of peyote was Buigʷat, who married an Apache
woman and is said to have learned it from the Mescalero. Other early
users were Dešode (“Smart Man”) and Tašipa, but by far the most important
peyote leader among the Comanche was Quanah Parker. Previously opposed
to it, he later changed his mind when peyote cured an illness of his.
One of the earliest Comanche meetings was held east of Fort Sill in
1873 or 1874, about the time Kicking Bird was imprisoned there. Quanah
subsequently visited the Cheyenne, Arapaho, Ponca, Oto, Pawnee and Osage
among others[37] and conducted meetings among them in the early 1890’s.
The Comanche origin legend is similar to that of the Kiowa, except that
the White Mountain Apache were involved.
Regardless of priority, the prestige of both these tribes as teachers of
peyote is considerable.[38] Due to their influence, peyote spread rapidly
in Oklahoma until it assumed the proportions of an “international”
religion such as the Ghost Dance had been. Distinctly a reservation
phenomenon in the days following the cessation of intertribal warfare,
peyotism was able to exploit the friendly contacts growing out of the
Ghost Dance. As Opler writes, “The spread and increased prominence of
peyote ceremonies coincided suggestively with the final triumph of white
civilization over the tribes of our western plains, those very groups
upon whom peyote obtained so strong a hold.”
The express intention of Indian policy of the period was the
deculturation of the natives, to be obtained by sending the children
to white schools, away from the influence of tribal life.[39] But this
policy prepared the way for peyotism in several ways: it weakened the
tradition of the older tribal religions without basically altering
typical Plains religious attitudes, and multiplied friendly contacts
between members of different tribes. Friendships made as school-boys
account for considerable visiting and revisiting from tribe to tribe, and
nearly ideal conditions for the diffusion of the cult were established.
When Eagle Flying Above (Pawnee) got peyote from White Eyes (Arapaho)
the sign language was the vehicle used, but in modern times the use of
English as a lingua Franca is an enabling factor of great importance
in the diffusion of the cult. Thus, ironically, the intended modes
of deculturizing the Indian have contributed preëminently to the
reinvigoration of a basically aboriginal religion.
Among the groups of considerable secondary importance in this
diffusion, the Caddo are perhaps outstanding. The variations which the
Caddo-Delaware messiah John Wilson began, and taught to the Quapaw,
Osage and other “Big Moon” worshippers, is a somewhat special historical
development and is treated in an appendix. The significance of the Oto in
the development of the Christianized version among the Omaha, Winnebago
and other Siouan groups is shown in another appendix on the history of
the Church of the First-born and other peyote churches.
In the diffusion of the standard rite the Arapaho and the Cheyenne
perhaps come next after the Kiowa and the Comanche. Jock Bullbear was
one of the earliest Arapaho users, learning it from the Comanche when he
returned from Carlisle[40] in 1884, and by 1891 Arapaho peyotism came to
the attention of Mooney. A Cheyenne and Arapaho custom in connection with
peyote meetings is the giving of presents to friends and visitors the
next morning after a meeting.[41] The sweat lodge doctoring modification
of Arapaho peyotism has been described previously.
The Bannock of Idaho have used peyote since 1906-1911, apparently
against considerable opposition. They formerly met in log-houses in the
backwoods, and did not use the plant openly until the Oklahoma Native
American Church was organized. The Cheyenne are believed by the writer to
be the source of their cult.
The Blackfoot in 1913 were said to lack[42] the peyote religion, but
Wissler states that he heard them singing peyote songs within a hundred
yards of the very agent who denied the existence of the cult among them.
Alfred Wilson (Cheyenne), who as president of the Native American Church
has occasion to know, says that the Blackfoot have peyote, though they
were officially[43] listed as non-users in 1922.
The Five Civilized Tribes received peyote at a very late date. Wagner[44]
in 1932 said that the Creek, Choctaw and Chickasaw do not eat peyote;
this agrees with the statements of Jim Aton (Kiowa) who said the Cherokee
did not have it when he himself took peyote to the Creek in 1931. The
Seminole have also taken it up recently, but some acquaintance with the
plant must be postulated as early as 1922, since Newberne and Burke[45]
list 40 users among the 101,506 population of the combined Five Tribes.
The influence involved here is probably the Yuchi, who in turn got it
from the Cheyenne.[46]
The Cheyenne are currently a source for peyote among the Blood in Canada,
who were being organized in the summer of 1936. The Canadian Cree and
Chippewa are very recent partial converts too; the latter received it
from the Chippewa of Minnesota.[47]
The Cheyenne in Oklahoma used peyote before 1885, the date of the first
Government census. The Government scout Flacco was violently against it
and said that it was used “to witch people and make them crazy.” Cloud
Chief, of the Snake Clan, also opposed the coming of peyote, as he had
previously opposed the Ghost Dance. But Leonard Tylor and John Turtle
went to the Kiowa country in 1884-85 and learned the ceremony. A little
later, in 1889-90, Henry White Antelope and Standing Bird visited the
Comanche and learned Quanah Parker’s “way.” Tylor later got a “heart
moon” of his own (Caddo influence?) some time after the allotment of
lands.
Northern Cheyenne peyotism is largely parallel in its history to that of
the Southern Cheyenne. It began among them around 1900 or before, some of
them having learned it at Haskell; recently they have become affiliated
with the Native American Church. Hoebel writes:[48]
There has been a limited amount of friction between the
religious conservatives and the Peyote worshippers, and a
distinction is drawn between a Peyote leader and a medicine
man. For example, a ranking Peyote leader volunteered to give
me much esoteric information on old cultural ways, explaining
that he could talk to me about sacred things because he is not
a medicine man. The Peyote people have taken over the entire
leadership of tribal life. All members of the tribal council
are Peyote worshippers and probably 80 per cent of the adults
in the tribe are affiliated with the Peyote cult. Only the very
old men abstained from Peyote and held to the old medicine
beliefs. Among the Northern Cheyenne, Issiwin or the Sacred Hat
is still revered and is under the care of an old medicine man.
The Peyote leaders took a sacred button to the hat keeper and
asked him to put it in the ancient bundle with the old hat but
they claim not to know whether the keeper had done so or not.
My guess is that they did know but did not care to tell.
There is a tendency to separatism between the sections on the
reservation, but nothing suggesting a schism in Northern Cheyenne
peyotism; there is interparticipation in meetings of the various groups,
though there is a mild rivalry between the Muddy Creek and the other
territorially-defined groups.
The Delaware got peyote from the Kiowa and Comanche about 1886, the
earliest users including Chief Charles Elkhair, Joe Washington, James
C. Webber, George T. and John Anderson, Benjamin Hill, Reed and Frank
Wilson, Mrs. Allie Anderson, Mrs. Ora Spybuck and Mrs. Little Tethlies.
Washington’s family still has the original articles given them by the
Comanche.[49]
Iowa peyote[50] was in full swing in 1914, but is said to have died out
since 1922. In this tribe the introduction of peyote
has driven out of existence almost all the other societies
and ancient customs of the tribe; almost all of the Iowa in
Oklahoma are ardent peyote disciples, and only ... a few ...
still follow the older customs.
Peyotism has relaxed the rules of secrecy about the older medicine
ceremonies also, and may perhaps be ultimately responsible for the final
deculturation of the Iowa.
Kansa[51] peyotism came from the Ponca about 1907. It was very strong
among them by 1915, “having apparently superseded all of the old Kansa
beliefs.”
Henry Murdock (Kickapoo) brought the new religion from Quanah Parker
and the Comanche in 1906; but he had personally known of peyote before,
having gone to Mexico in 1864. Quanah had known Murdock before the peyote
religion began spreading and invited his friend by letter to visit him.
He put on a meeting in his honor, taught him the ceremony and presented
him with peyote paraphernalia. The set songs in the Kickapoo rite are
Comanche, and the custom of making the ashes into a bird likewise
indicates a Comanche provenience for the ceremony. The Kickapoo were
originally much against peyote.[52]
Peyote began to have a limited adherence among the Menomini a little
before 1914, owing largely to marital ties with Winnebago and Potawatomi
users.[53] The ritual has the Christian character of the Winnebagos’ and
membership in the peyote society not only precludes any in all the other
societies, but also demands the abandonment of all ancient practices and
destruction of their paraphernalia. Skinner believed that
its success will mean the death-blow to all the ancient customs
of the tribe, already decadent, without the compensation of any
advantageous or progressive substitute.
The spread of the cult has been met with determined opposition among the
Menomini, and some peyote users later sought and received reinstatement
in the older tribal rites.
One Modoc in Oklahoma, Sam Ball, married a Quapaw woman and took up
peyote as a result. At present he is the only one,[54] but such marital
ties have often before been the source of the spread of peyote.