The many attempted anti-peyote legal measures, and the frank hostility
of some persons[1] to peyotism early stimulated the cultists to seek
some sort of legally-guaranteed security for their worship. The first of
several incorporated peyote churches, the Oto Church of the First-born,
has heretofore been little known. Peyote came to the Oto under the late
White Horn’s leadership from the Tonkawa some time before 1896. The
original rite is said to have been “just like the Apache,” which is to
say, the standard pre-John Wilson Plains type. But the Oto, like other
tribes, began to have “government trouble” about their worship shortly
before the World War. A group of younger men, Frank Eagle, George
Pipestem, Charles MacDonald and Charles W. Dailey, who had been away to
school and were considerably influenced by White Protestantism, sought,
at this juncture, to use the White man’s weapons in their own defence.
But by far the most important figure in this movement was Jonathan
Koshiway.
Although enrolled as a Sauk-and-Fox, Koshiway’s mother was an Oto. He had
formerly lived in northeastern Kansas, and had been an Indian evangelist
for the Church of Latter-Day Saints.[2] As an individual Koshiway was
considerably influenced by Middle Western Protestantism, and solved for
himself the adjustmental problem of double culture-bearers by discovering
that the old native religion of his childhood was the _same_ as the
White Christianity of his maturity, with merely different phrasing and
vocabulary. Did not God speak to Moses through a burning bush, like the
Indians’ peyote fire? When God viewed his creation, does not the Bible
say that “God saw that it was good,” and was not the little peyote plant
one of the herbs of the field thus created? Did not Christians also make
use of wafers and sacramental wine just as the Indians used the flat
buttons of the sacred herb and peyote “tea”? Did not Christianity even
embody the Plains ritual number in the “Four Foundations” of Love, Faith,
Hope, and Charity?
Jack was a “Bible student” in Kansas City at one time, and is notably
fluent in these syncretic interpretations, being called upon frequently
to speak in peyote meetings, especially when visitors are present to whom
explanations are in order. Another important influence upon Koshiway—as
well as upon George Deroin (Iowa) of Perkins, who may once have been his
associate—was that of the Russellites, a somewhat desiccated Protestant
cult of the Middle West, who did not believe in any “earthly” government.
This dogma naturally suited a group in difficulties with temporal
government. Koshiway explained to me that the name finally chosen for
the organization is a “heavenly name” and that the church proper is “up
there”; yet practical peace must be made with Caesar on earth, and this
Koshiway set about with care to do.
First of all he consulted White Horn, leader of the native peyote rite,
and gained his support. Koshiway generously states that White Horn was
the co-founder of the Church of the First-born, but the fact appears
to be that the latter’s role consisted in giving the official approval
of the older established peyote cult. Koshiway also visited many white
ministers to get their advice on organization. There appears to have been
some friction about this, and even Koshiway ended up by insisting that
the peyote church should not be “under” any white Protestant church,
but independent. Then, despite the fact that the Russellites preach
non-cooperation with the Government and the ultimate break-up of all
temporal governments, Koshiway went to a lawyer in Perry, Oklahoma, H. F.
Johnson, and sought legal advice. On December 8, 1914, the “First-born
Church of Christ” was incorporated under the laws of Oklahoma and
received a charter for an organization located at Red Rock, Oklahoma,
signed by Benjamin F. Harrison, the Secretary of State.[3] The articles
of incorporation were signed by Jonathan Koshiway and four hundred and
ten other names.
Koshiway wanted an “authorized” preacher to come and baptize the newly
constituted church’s adherents, but this never became a regular practice,
if, indeed, it ever actually occurred at all. A reluctance to come
half-way was manifested by the Protestant groups concerned, and in time
Jack himself took up all the usual functions of a minister, marrying,
conducting funerals and in addition doctoring in meetings and “hollering”
the way his source of medicine power does. Secondary Shawnee influences
occurred in this later period, but the chief ritual difference between
the usual peyote rite of the Plains and that of the Oto Church of the
First-born is directly traceable to the influence of the Russellites.
This difference was over the question of smoking in meetings. As
Koshiway reconstituted the Church, the preliminary smoking of corn shuck
cigarettes was abolished—a remarkable innovation when one recalls the
deeply entrenched ceremonial use of tobacco in the Plains, but when a
narcotic was sacrificed in the ritual, tobacco went, not peyote. Koshiway
took peyote to a group of Oto in Kansas under Charley Rubido, and by this
time the work of syncretism which had been accomplished became evident,
for,
when we examined the literature [says Koshiway] we found
that [the native Russellites under Rubido and the Koshiway
peyotists] were just alike.
In both groups smoking was omitted, and cedar leaves were burned in place
of this at intervals of prayer. When the leader called upon an individual
to pray, he was given cedar to burn to produce smoke and bear away the
prayer. The Bible was a conspicuous part of the meeting also.[4]
The later history of the Church of the First-born was influenced by the
interaction of Koshiway and the later-founded Native American Church. At
Cheyenne, a little town northwest of Calumet, Oklahoma, a group of Oto,
Kiowa and Arapaho had an intertribal conference to decide upon measures
of defence for peyotism. Jack took the Oto charter to this conference
and explained his solution of the problem. James Mooney at this, or a
later conference, was influential in persuading the assembly to adopt
this method of organization, but many of the group apparently objected
to the element of White religion implied in the title “First-born Church
of Christ” and rejected the name. The title ultimately chosen was the
“Native American Church,” which emphasized the intertribal solidarity of
the cult, as well as its aboriginality.
Koshiway’s behavior at this point is interesting. He had not succeeded
in making himself the head of the church of his naming as extended in a
state-wide organization. As he himself puts it he “began to deny” the
First-born Church of Christ, and “joined” the Native American Church,
where, though he was less important as an individual, he nevertheless was
a member of a larger and more official in-group. He is much amused in his
attitude toward the remnants of the Oto church; says he,
They were so religious [about smoking]—I converted them, and
then they turned around and said I wasn’t right; that’s how
peculiar us Indians are!
As a matter of fact, however, Koshiway seems to have believed that the
true belief about peyote was _a fortiori_ what he, the founder of the
church, successively believed. When later he re-introduced the smoking
of tobacco into the ceremony, he actually was himself backsliding into
the older native custom and retreating from the Russellite-influenced
no-smoking rule. The real Puritans, obviously, were the Kansas group who
retained the rule. A curious and amusing compensation is evident in the
most modern reconstitution of the Oto smoking ceremony: the “shucks” in
meetings attended were fully twice as long as those normally used in the
Plains rite!
The present Oto church in Oklahoma, under the presidency of James Pettit,
considers itself a local branch of the Native American Church, but the
Kansas group still carries on the Russellite no-smoking rule. The return
to the older standard pattern came about in this way.[5] The well-known
Kiowa leader, Belo Kozad, came to the Oto with Jack Sankadote (one of
the two original Kiowa users) and an Apache named Star. The meeting was
held fourteen miles east of Red Rock, and Koshiway’s attendance at this
was a turning-point. Belo prayed to peyote—a practice itself rejected by
Koshiway—that Jack take up his “road.” Jack maintained his disapproval
of smoking, but for some time had apparently come to prefer being an
accepted member of the larger group to being an important outsider.
Somewhat later, he revisited the Kiowa and his friend Albert Cat,
attending several meetings there. At one of these Belo offered Koshiway a
prayer-smoke, and finally after some hesitation he took it—a very small
act objectively, to be sure, but symbolizing the healing of a schism in
the native peyote religion. On this trip south Koshiway had been given
money gifts, and a sick woman the Oto had brought with them had been
doctored by Old Man Horse (Kiowa); these factors perhaps weighed somewhat
in favor of his embracing the state-wide cult. In the ideology of Belo
(and most Kiowa as well) there was no theoretical objection to Christian
churches, but the usual attitude was that peyotism and Christianity
were mutually exclusive _alternatives_.[6] Still later Belo Kozad again
visited the Oto and led a meeting, and this time Koshiway was his
assistant or drummer, and Koshiway now had his place in the classic rite.
His adaptability and good humor have given him a position of considerable
importance in Oto peyotism, though he is by no means the oldest user—more
important perhaps even than that of Sam Bassett, the “tribal priest.”
Several other fore-runners of the Native American Church should be
mentioned. In 1897 the Oto brought the new religion to the Omaha and
Winnebago of Nebraska and by 1909 there was an organization called the
Union Church of mescal-eaters at Winnebago, Nebraska, which made use of
the Bible.[7] The Omaha formed a similar organization called the American
Indian Church Brother Association, whose elaborate symbolic crest is
figured in Wagner. The Kiowa United American Church mentioned by Mrs.
Voegelin may also have been a forerunner of the Native American Church.
This organization was formed by an intertribal group which met at El
Reno and included Mack Haag (Cheyenne) of Calumet, Sidney White Crane of
Kingfisher, Charles W. Dailey (Oto), George Pipestem (Oto), and Charles
E. Moore (Oto), all of Red Rock, Frank Eagle (Ponca) of Ponca City,
Wilbur Peawa (Comanche) of Fletcher, Mam Sookwat (Comanche) of Baird,
and Apache Ben of Apache, Oklahoma.[8] A certificate of incorporation
was granted to “The Native American Church” at Oklahoma City under the
Great Seal and the signature of the Secretary of State, dated October 10,
1918, and signed by Alfred Wilson (Cheyenne), Louis McDonald (Ponca),
Delos Lonewolf (Kiowa), Herman McCarthy (Osage) and Tennequah (Comanche).
The strongly intertribal nature[9] of the organization is indicated by
the various tribal affiliations of the men elected to the offices of the
Native American Church. The constitution under which the charter was
obtained was changed at Washington in the administration of Ned Brace,
and several amendments were made in 1935. Frank Cayou (Omaha) of Hominy
has for some time been seeking a national charter from Congress, through
Secretary Ickes and Commissioner Collier, so far with no success.
Formerly there was an annual tax of two dollars for each individual
member of the state organization, one half kept by the local group
and the other half sent to the state headquarters, but later this was
changed to a ten dollar tax per tribe. In Oklahoma there are now (1936)
twenty-four tribes organized in the church, and these send two delegates
from each local church (if there are several locals there may be as many
as six delegates from one tribe). The yearly convention is held the
last Friday in November, formerly always in El Reno, though in 1936 it
was held in Hominy. El Reno is the site of “The Wigwam,” a young Indian
men’s fraternal organization which once maintained a museum-meeting
room convenient for these conventions, hence the Native American
Church was incorporated as of this place. Because of the many native
languages represented, English is the lingua Franca of negotiations at
conventions. The chief function of the state organization so far has
been the mobilizing of political power and application of pressure on
legislative groups, in the preservation of what the Indians regard as
their constitutionally guaranteed right of religious freedom.
The Winnebago and Omaha of Nebraska, and also the Indians of South
Dakota, Wisconsin and Kansas have patterned their constitutions after
that of the original Oklahoma Native American Church. The Native American
Church is now also incorporated in Montana and Nebraska;[10] in the
latter state Jesse Clay was the first president[11] of an actively
evangelistic group which sends “missionaries” into new regions, ambitious
of making peyote the universal Indian religion. In Oklahoma there are
local tribal organizations within the Native American Church. For
example, among the Kickapoo there is a “men’s club” which meets after
every peyote meeting and a “women’s club” which meets on the second
Thursday of every month. The Ponca also have a “Ladies’ Auxiliary,” as do
also the Pawnee. These data are of course incomplete, but it is believed
that they are representative.
Of particular interest, however, is the Negro Church of the First-born,
formerly existing near Tulsa, Oklahoma.[12] The founder was John Jamison
who was born in Lincoln Co., Oklahoma. His parents for some reason were
given allotments, and he grew up among the Iowa, speaking Iowa, Pawnee
and Comanche. When he sought to take up the peyote cult, the younger men
were less friendly than the older ones; they resented a Negro’s taking
the “old Indian religion.” The rite which he conducted was the typical
Indian one, but involved more use of the Bible than was general; the
elements of the drum, gourd dishes for sacred food, medicine feathers,
cane, sage, cedar, canvas tipi and chief peyote button were all present.
Jamison sometimes dressed in a chief’s bonnet, blanket and moccasins. He
conducted meetings as far back as 1920 which Indians sometimes attended,
and occasionally he was sent for to conduct Indian meetings. In 1926
Jamison died of a brain concussion after he had been attacked by a
half-crazed Negro. The cult did not survive his death; it had never been
popular outside a small group, though some persons were attracted by the
healing he attempted to do. But even the devoted became suspicious when
they learned of Government hostility to their practices. As Mrs. Smith
writes,
This attitude on the part of the negroes is doubly interesting
in view of the rebellious attitude which the Indians displayed
under the same circumstances.
Jamison’s rite differed in a number of respects from the standard Plains
ceremony: the peyote on the moon was eaten by the leader at midnight;
the leader sat at the west with four “sisters” to his right and four
“brothers” to his left (including his drum and cedar man); the fireman
north of the door was usually the same man in every meeting. Participants
sat “goat fashion,” i.e., kneeled and sat on their heels, when singing
or eating peyote. The leader sang Indian songs or hymns indifferently.
After an opening prayer the leader, or a male assistant, read a passage
from Scripture, and toward morning a member talked on the passage. During
the midnight song, the ashes of the ritual fire were made “heart-shaped,”
then this was deliberately destroyed by the leader[13] and the ashes
swept to the side. This “burning the heart of the fire” signified the
“end of the day.” There was a recess at midnight and the drummer beat to
signify the close of this period, after which the communicants reentered
and ate peyote and sang until daylight.
As the sun rose, they threw open the door and, all standing, sang the
closing song, “Till We Meet Again.” The sun is supposed to hit the center
of the fire “heart.” Then the “sisters” leave and serve a sweetened
meal which must contain no salt. There is no ceremonial smoking[14] as
in the Indian ceremony, and cedar smoking is used only once toward the
beginning. The food served is parched corn soaked and sweetened, beef
prepared the “Indian way” (roasted, ground and sweetened; or dried,
soaked, stewed, ground and sweetened), fruit, cereal or mush and finally
water. The presence of parched corn is an interesting object lesson in
the stability of a culture trait; centuries later and hundreds of miles
away from the Mexican corn-harvesting ritual we find members of another
race still practising the now meaningless pattern. The mere accident of
historical association of parched corn and peyote has imposed a cultural
compulsion!
Jamison always took Epsom salts[15] Friday night before the meeting,
usually held on Saturday nights, and a hot bath before going to the
meeting. If he ate salt or otherwise failed to follow these rules, he
would see “spooks” and “crazy things.” Further syncretism with Christian
elements is evidenced in the following confession of faith, a copy of
which was possessed by all the faithful and framed:
David Walker
Director
Our Motto: “The World for Christ”
Christ, the Good Shepherd
[picture of group sitting goat fashion, paraphernalia]
Church Covenant
of the Church of the First-born
“Hebrews 12th Chapter, 23rd verse”
We, the undersigned believers in Jesus Christ, do by virtue of
Scriptural Faith submit ourselves to the cause of Christ and
the Gospel; to live therein; to walk therein; to teach therein;
to sing therein; to pray therein; to preach therein; to baptize
therein; to observe all the ordinances of Him who has called us
to peace, that God may have all the glory thereof. In testimony
whereof we the undersigned hereunto set our hands, by virtue of
our own free will.
John C. Jamison
Conductor in Charge
Mrs. Lucinda Walker
Mother of the Household of the Faith
Katie Hoggins
Secretary of the Household of the Faith
Mrs. J. L. Ramsey
Assistant
Mrs. Polly Marshall
Assistant.
The quotation from Hebrews 12.23 the source of the name of the church:
[But ye are come] to the general assembly and church of the
firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of
all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect.
Unlike the Oto group, Jamison never succeeded in getting his “moon”
incorporated, although there are suggestions[16] that Negro groups in
South Dakota may have been influenced by peyotism.