the Spirit descending when Jesus was baptized: the Holy Spirit,
like an eagle, with good eyes; you can’t fool it. [The ashes
themselves represent] a prayer for the white hair of old age,
and the fire is like the fire through which God spoke to Moses.
Peyote is like a “telescope” through which you can see God.
The Delaware twin piles of ashes symbolize Christ’s lungs; Mary Buffalo
says one pile is the grave of Christ, the other of John Wilson, among the
Osage; the Quapaw say the whole coffin-shaped fire-pit is Christ’s grave.
The Ponca, according to Brabant, believed the body of the Saviour would
emerge from the altar and become visible to those who had eaten enough of
the sacred plant. Among the Caddo,
the first stick in the fire represents the heart. There are
twelve other sticks which represent the ribs [of Christ, as the
ashes his lungs].[8]
The paraphernalia of the ceremony are also given Christian
interpretations. The Delaware followers of Wilson call the corn husk
cigarette the “pipe of Jesus.” And of an unspecified group Mooney writes
that
many of the mescal eaters wear crucifixes, which they regard as
sacred emblems of the rite, the cross representing the cross of
scented leaves upon which the consecrated mescal rests during
the ceremony, while the Christ is the mescal goddess.
Some Kiowa leaders make a cross under the water bucket, and cross the
feathers in the water before drinking[9] and the peyote staff, like that
of the Delaware, often has an inconspicuous cross near the top. The
twelve feathers of the Omaha leader’s fan represent the twelve apostles
of Christ. The Winnebago fans differ for the John Rave and the Jesse Clay
rites, but both sects use eagle feathers which represent the wings of
the birds mentioned in Revelations. John Rave’s staff is symbolic of the
“shepherd’s crook,” and the mound of earth in the altar is “Mt. Sinai.”
White Buffalo said that gourd rattles among the Nebraska Winnebago
commonly bore drawings of Christ, his cross and crown, etc., and Radin
says they often bear drawings of scenes from the Bible as well as peyote
visions. A Cheyenne gourd seen at Apache and made by Spotted Crow had the
following “Jesus talk” on it:
Help me O Lord My God O save me According to thy Mercy O God my
heart is fixed. I will sing And give praise Even with my Glory.
The Winnebago explain that the exchange of gourd and drum between the
leader and his assistant when singing the set songs means that “God gives
power to Christ, in Heaven and earth,” just as the leader delegates his
authority. The blowing of the leader’s “flute” at the four points of the
compass is to announce the birth of Christ to the world, and later it
symbolizes the trumpet of the Day of Judgment, when Christ will appear
wearing the crown of glory (symbolized by the leader’s otter skin hat,
worn at this time).[10]
The Bible as an additional piece of peyote paraphernalia probably stems
from the Christianism of the Oto, who used it in their meetings, being
mentioned also for the Iowa, Omaha and Winnebago. The New Testament, and
particularly Revelations, is a favorite among the Rave cultists (Jesse
Clay’s followers do not use the Bible)—Crashing Thunder finding in it
authority for a hair-cut, and others discovering reasons after the fact
for holding their meetings at night. Three Old Testament texts are widely
known also:
And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire,
and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.
(Exodus 12.8.)
And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall
keep it as a feast by an ordinance forever. (Exodus 12.14.)
For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if
the root be holy, so are the branches.... Boast not against the
branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the
root thee. (Romans 11.16 and 18.)
Various other Biblical references appear in the ceremony. Among the Iowa
the leader carries the water himself in the morning to show his humility,
and because of Christ’s washing of feet mentioned in the Gospels. The
Winnebago equate the physiological action of peyote with Christ’s casting
out devils. A Comanche said suffering is caused by one’s sins and lack
of faith in peyote, and that point in the night when nausea is commonly
severest is called the “Dark Hour, the hour of the Crucifixion.” A
Kickapoo leader often cast his prophecies in Biblical language. A Kiowa,
again, appeared to have a belief about the first peyote found which
parallels the miraculous proliferation of the loaves and the fishes in
the Bible. Koshiway compared the Indians to the fishermen on the Sea of
Galilee, when Christ said “Peace, be still!” to the angry waves, just as
peyote says it to the storm-tossed Indians in this latter-day world. And
for the man who lives a good life, the ashes of the fire will open up
like the waters of the Red Sea, and he can pass through the fire to the
father peyote along the “Peyote Road” on the moon.[11]
Some two dozen songs, previously reported in the text, show Christian
influence. The closing song of the Negro Church of the First-born was
the Christian hymn, “Till We Meet Again,” but the majority of peyote
songs have native words. The Rave rite, derived from the Oto and the
Quapaw (influenced by the Christianity of Jonathan Koshiway and John
Wilson, respectively), contained more Christian elements in symbolism
and song than the Jesse Clay cult. This was the more aboriginal, yet
he back-handedly quoted the Scriptures to justify the plain staff
(“like Moses’”) of his ceremony as against the decorated staff of Rave.
Occasional peyote visions show Christian influence: some of Crashing
Thunder’s were of this sort, and a Kiowa had visions of a mitred priest
who nodded smilingly and approvingly at the father peyote on the altar,
but in the visions collected Christian elements are uncommon.[12]
Mexican peyotism and the Wilson rite were influenced by Catholicism,
but the Church of the First-born and the Native American Church by
Protestantism (the Russellites, the Mormons, etc.). At the first Oto
meeting attended a vessel was passed around in the morning for a
“free-will offering,” as in Protestant churches, and the Pawnee, Kiowa
and others have “Ladies’ Auxiliaries” to the local Native American
Church. These women have quilting parties, can fruit, make up box
lunches to raise church money and visit the sick, much as their White
sisters do. Other White elements appear in the meetings themselves. The
Iowa leader and fireman, for instance, shake hands with everyone in the
tipi after the ritual feast, in token of friendship and good will. The
Osage and Quapaw “round-houses,” too, are in obvious imitation of White
peoples’ churches, but the Osage are criticized for ostentation along
White “leisure class” lines. More conservative groups make disparaging
remarks about the “beds” in their meetings, their electric lights in the
round house, and their cigars—some Osage churches are even provided with
spittoons!
Yet when all these features have been summed up, it is still clear that
the layer of Christianity on peyotism is very thin and superficial
indeed. Furthermore, the Christianized Wilson and Rave rites among
the Caddo and Winnebago are currently losing followers to the more
conservative Hoag and Jesse Clay moons—and there are frequent
expostulations against the mixing of the native religion with the
White.[13] Some groups feel no inconsistency in belonging to both
the peyote church and some White Protestant sect as well, but the
unfriendliness of the functionaries of the latter groups toward peyotism
and their lack of reciprocal tolerance has driven many borderline cases
openly into the peyote church. The Indians feel, perhaps rightly, that
peyotism is their last strong link with the aboriginal past, which others
are trying to destroy. Hence it has contributed greatly to the sense of
community and morale of the Indian groups in Oklahoma.
Of course apologists sometimes use Christian arguments to confound the
enemies of the cult, as when peyote and the water are equated to the
Catholic use of bread and wine in Communion,[14] or when Old Man Green
(Oto) told a minister that he was condemning God’s work in attacking
peyote. But these do not proceed from any profound faith in Christianity.
A Shawnee comment is most typical:
Christ was born only several hundred years ago, not when the
world was created, like peyote.
Prayers are still addressed to the older tribal deities in peyote
meetings: the Winnebago to Earthmaker, the Oto to Wakan, the Cheyenne to
Mayan, etc. A Kickapoo summed up the religious history of his tribe as
follows:
We had medicine bags before Jesus was born over in Bethlehem,
in the old country. The old generation worshipped idols. When
God’s son was going to be born, they were trying to make the
people believe God. And after Jesus was born, they commenced
this [peyote].
Nevertheless, it should be reiterated that on the whole, despite the
apparent and superficial syncretism with Christianity, peyotism is
an essentially aboriginal American religion, operating in terms of
fundamental Indian concepts about powers, visions and native modes of
doctoring. The Christianity of many native Christians is precarious at
best—as we have seen from various case histories—when it comes into any
very serious conflict with native culture. Perhaps most peyote-users
would echo the words of the famous Comanche chief, Quanah Parker, with
reference to the superiority of peyotism over Christianity:
The white man [he said] goes into his church house and talks
_about_ Jesus, but the Indian goes into his tipi and talks _to_
Jesus.[15]