in the winter of 1906-07 by an Omaha returning from the Oto
in Oklahoma. He had been much addicted to alcoholics, and was
told by an Oto that the plant and the religious cult practiced
therewith would be a cure. On his return he sought the advice
and help of the leader of the Mescal Society of the Winnebago,
next door neighbors tribe of the Omaha. He and a few other
Omaha, who also suffered from alcoholism, formed a society
which has since increased in numbers and influence against much
opposition, till it includes about half the tribe.
The medicine-men were particularly opposed to the use of peyote; one
native Omaha, Thomas L. Sloan, prepared a bill against peyote and
presented it to the Nebraska State Legislature, but later suffered a
change of heart.
The Osage are a typical example of the multiple origins for peyotism in
one tribe. Chief Lookout testified[56] that the Osage had peyote about
1896, and in a petition to Congress signed by him and Eves Tailchief,
Edgar McCarthy and Arthur Bonnecastle, it was stated that Chief Black
Dog and Chief Clermont established lodges among them in 1898. The source
was Caddo, and nearly all the 800 full-bloods were ultimately peyote
users; the Quapaw ceremony may also have had an influence upon them.
The Caddo-Delaware messiah, John Wilson, came to the Osage in 1902,
after most of them around Hominy and elsewhere had known of it.[57] The
younger Osage who embraced the new religion could be distinguished from
the conservatives in their wearing of braids decorated with ribbons and
colored yarn, in place of the older reached style of headdress. In the
last year or so an Osage named Morell has invited the Caddos Alfred
Taylor and Ben Carter to bring the “Enoch” (Caddo) moon to his home; he
already had a Wilson moon on his place, but his sons wanted to have the
more basic Caddoan moon.[58]
The Tonkawa first brought peyote to the Oto very long ago; Koshiway
places this as far back as 1876 (which is not implausible in view of the
earliest Kiowa and Comanche contacts with the plant). This must not be
regarded, however, as the date of the vigorous functioning of the cult,
but it is well to recall here the Oto mescal bean cult which may have
facilitated the borrowing of the later narcotic.[59]
We have elaborated in an appendix the origin of the Christian elements in
Oto peyotism, which spread to other Siouan groups (Omaha and Winnebago).
The Church of the First-born embodied Russellite doctrines familiar
to the Oto teacher Koshiway.[60] It was incorporated in 1914, though
its roots may have gone back as far as 1896, apparently with some
consultation with the Shawnee,[61] and the consent of White Horn (Oto)
leader of the older and already established native peyote ceremony. Its
influence on the Native American Church and the Negro Church of the
First-born is elsewhere discussed, as are also the specific Christian
elements in peyotism as a whole. The famous meeting 14 miles east of Red
Rock at which the Kiowa leaders Belo Kozad and Jack Sankadote and an
Apache named Star visited the Oto, was responsible for the amalgamation
of the Church of the First-born and the Native American Church. Dugan
Black, leader of the first Oto meeting attended, is stated to have gotten
his “road” from Little Henry (Kiowa) and uses Kiowa songs; another Oto
leader uses Conklin Hummingbird’s fireplace.
The Ponca are said by Shonle[62] to have gotten peyote from the Southern
Cheyenne in 1902-04, but native information indicates that there were
Comanche sources too (Ponca songs, e.g., are frequently Comanche). The
Cheyenne, White Horse, brought them the cult in September, 1904, but
when they heard that it was recent among this group, they went to Quanah
Parker among the Comanche “to get to the bottom of it.” The late Robert
Buffalo-head was the earliest leader of the Cheyenne rite. A suggestion
of Caddo influence appears again in the rules surrounding the drum; the
typical Ponca peyote drum has a handle made of the twisted rope-end of
the lacing. “The old people are strict, and you’re not allowed to put
your hand on the drum [head],” we were told.
Eagle Flying Above, who later became oil-wealthy, was the first Pawnee
user of peyote, obtaining it from White Eyes, an Arapaho friend, about
1890 or a little later. Several months later Sun Chief, the writer’s
informant, took it up. At the death of Eagle Flying Above, Sun Chief
was the only Pawnee leader, and all the others learned the rite from
him; he has eaten peyote since 1892-94, but only later became a leader.
A still earlier source appears to be the Quapaw,[63] whom two Pawnee
youths visited in 1890, but the cult became vigorous only after further
instruction from the visiting Arapaho. There was some opposition to
peyote among the Pawnee in the early days: “they didn’t understand
it.” The leaders of the opposition were Sky Chief, head of the Kuγau
or “Doctor Dancers,” and Good Buffalo, leader of the Buffalo Dance
ceremonialists; later, however, both joined the peyote-users. The cult
is found chiefly among the Pítahauírata, where the form originated, but
found a later following among the Chauí, then the Kítkaháxki and a few
Skidi.
It is interesting to note that, as with the Shawnee and others, Pawnee
peyote was early involved in the Ghost Dance excitement. The leader
claimed from peyote the same sort of revelations acquired in the Ghost
Dance trance, and taught that while under the influence of peyote one
could learn the rituals belonging to bundles and societies; in this
manner he himself amassed considerable star lore. One unusual Pawnee
feature was the use of a special Ghost Dance form of painted tipi for
peyote meetings; minor changes were made in the type of drum and rattle
also.[64]
The Potawatomi first had peyote sometime between 1908 and 1914, but
little else is known about it there. Quapaw peyotism derives from the
Caddo-Delaware. The Ree[65] [Arikara] were strongly against the cult, and
it apparently died out among them by 1924. Ed Butler brought Sauk[66]
peyote directly from the Tonkawa:
In the early days women were not allowed to be members, and the
manitou who gave the man this medicine made it a rule that it
should be used [only] in war-time.... It is only a war-bundle
among other tribes.
But the Sauk have been tenacious of their older religion and its
fetishes,[67] though peyotism is now strong among them; indeed, about
1923, attempted affiliation with the Native American Church failed
because five rival chiefs ran different meetings.[68]
The Seminole have started the religion only recently, about the same time
as the Cherokee; they have learned it through the Yuchi, Caddo and Kiowa.
George Anderson (Delaware) brought the Wilson moon to the Seneca in 1907,
when eighteen men and women became members. One of the Seneca had a
Quapaw wife, who gave him the idea of obtaining the moon; they were too
poor to pay Anderson’s usual fee, and merely gave him carfare home.[69]
The Shawnee Jim Clark received peyote from the Comanche in the late
1890’s. Informants say the Shawnee have had peyote as a plant for a long
time, using it to keep from getting tired on the march, for moistening
the mouth when dry-camping and to relieve hunger. The first Absentee
Shawnee meeting was held by the Scotts in 1900, under the tutelage of
the Kickapoo. John Wilson was among the Shawnee about 1894, and George
Fourleaf (Delaware) brought peyote to White Oak from Mexico about 1898.
Ernest Spybuck got his moon from the Delaware near Dewey, while the
Panthers are said to use the Yuchi manner. The majority of the Shawnee,
however, use the standard Kiowa-Arapaho moon. Some Shawnee liken the
leader’s staff to the staff in the Green Corn Dance, and there is a
legend of getting power from peyote which some say was not peyote but
another plant which preceded it.[70]
A Sioux introduced peyote to the Uintah and Ouray Agency.[71] The Ute
around Fort Duchesne have used peyote “on the sly” since before 1916; the
cult was vigorous around Randlette, Utah, by the spring of 1916. Mrs.
Cooke attended a Ute meeting in 1937 about ten miles from Whiterocks; an
informant told her that
sometimes they have a half moon instead of a crescent—depending
on the size of the moon in the sky at that time.... They had
twice had a moon which had eyes and a mouth made in it—this is
“God peeping.”
This last suggests a Caddoan “Big Moon” influence, but the motif of
the changing moon must be Ute, as it is not encountered elsewhere. The
Gosiute near the Salt Lake Desert began about 1921, as did the Paiute
west of Salt Lake City. Little is known of these groups, but possibly
Cheyenne teaching is responsible; Southern Ute visited Oklahoma peyote
groups as early as 1910 according to information of Dr. Parsons.[72]
The Wichita, like the Shawnee, claim to have had peyote long before they
learned to eat it in meetings. In one of their rain ceremonies they used
a medicine bundle containing four objects: feathers, a little buckskin
doll, a piece of flint and peyote. The ceremony was called hä·ctiaš,
“fire-people-around,” and they sang all night for four nights to bring
rain. The coming of the peyote ritual, therefore, aroused no hostility:
No Wichita was ever against it [Sly Picard says]; they couldn’t
be, as all our medicine men and women had peyote in their
medicine—the whole tribe.
Yellow Bird (Wichita-Kichai) may have eaten peyote as early as 1889,
before the Washita bridge between Anadarko and Gracemont was built, and
Sly’s father used it in 1892, learning it from the Caddo. But they were
dissatisfied with the Caddo moon, and invited Frank Moitah (Comanche) and
Salo (Kiowa) to teach them. Old Man Horse (Kiowa) is usually credited,
however, with bringing peyote to the Wichita about 1902.
In 1893 and 1894 the Winnebago John Rave visited peyote eaters in
Oklahoma (though he had eaten it as early as 1889,) and again in 1901.
On the return from his second trip he tried to introduce the religion,
but without success save among a few of his own relatives. In 1903 or
1904 Rave went to South Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin to preach the
new religion; he had been visiting the Kiowa and Comanche, as well as
the Oto. Somewhat later Jesse Clay was taught the rite at Winnebago
by a visitor called Arapaho Bull, and Dick Griffin learned another
version from the Osage at Pawhuska, at a time when John Wilson was
there. Yellowbank said that the Winnebago of Nebraska got peyote from
the Arapaho, and thence it came to the Winnebago of Wisconsin. Thunder
Cloud was among those opposing it, but by 1914 nearly half the tribe were
adherents.[73]
The Yankton of South Dakota by 1916 had a peyote cult strong enough to
warrant the sending to Congress of a petition to pass an anti-peyote bill
signed with ninety-two names. The Yuchi affiliated with the Creek around
Sapulpa and Kellyville, received peyote from the Cheyenne. Shonle cites
three additional groups we have not yet included. These are the Shoshoni,
who received peyote in 1919, the Sioux (1909-10) and the Crow (1912).
Comparisons of the present list with Shonle’s gives on the whole earlier
dates, yet this need not be considered in any sense a discrepancy.
Shonle’s data were based on government sources, and should stand as
indicating the dates when the various cults became virile enough to
attract official notice. Our own data, based on native sources, give on
the other hand what are probably the earliest contacts and introductions
of the rite, without reference to the number or percentage of adherents
in any tribe. It is evident from them too that tentative starts and
multiple origins are the rule rather than the exception, and Shonle’s
information and our own should be regarded as supplementary rather than
contradictory.[74]
Although peyotism is gone or decadent among the Tarahumari and the
Mescalero, it is still vigorously spreading in the United States and
southern Canada. Conceivably it could spread until it embraced all
Plains, Basin and Woodlands groups whose earlier culture is sufficiently
consonant with its concepts, and it may have some slender chance
of spreading in the southern and eastern Pueblos and Plateau, but
scarcely elsewhere, for both geographical and cultural reasons. The
cult may be expected to spread for some time in the future, but when
its inevitable decadence and probable ultimate disappearance will have
been accomplished, we may have witnessed in it the last of the great
intertribal religious movements of the American Indian.
The present section sums up the external history of the diffusion of
peyotism so far as it can be known from our Mexican sources, and in the
Plains, where it appears that the pre-peyote mescal bean cult prepared
the way somewhat for the use of the narcotic cactus.
The Plains rites are basically derived from the Kiowa, Comanche and Caddo
peyote ceremonies, which in turn derive from the Mescalero Apache (whence
the diffusion traces back to the Lipan and Tonkawa through the Carrizo
perhaps to Tamaulipecan groups). The Kiowa and the Comanche led in the
diffusion of the standard aboriginal ceremony, but the Caddo variant was
powerfully influenced by the individual, John Wilson, and diffused to the
Osage, Quapaw, Delaware and others in a somewhat modified form. This is
the subject of a special appendix.
The Oto are probably the crucial group in the diffusion of the later
Christianized version of peyotism among such Siouan groups as the
Winnebago and Omaha. Here again an individual gave a new turn to the
ceremony by summing up in himself two streams of culture, the aboriginal
and the Christian. Jonathan Koshiway is discussed in an appendix on the
Native American Church, and a special appendix is devoted to the matter
of Christian elements in the cult. The diagram on the opposite page sums
up the external history of peyotism succinctly.
[Illustration: Fig. 5. Chronological outline of the diffusion of
peyotism.]