Guest Essay: Reflections on the Peyote Road, by Jerry Patchen

Jerry Patchen is a distinguished attorney in Houston, TX who has represented, defended, and served the Native American Church for fifty years. This is his account of the journey, an address given to a gathering of ethnobotanists, pharmacologists, anthropologists, and other academicians in London in 2017.

Abstract

The courageous historical struggle of the Native American Church (NAC) to use their sacrament Peyote is unprecedented in American culture. Without the indomitable Native American spirit through arduous legal battles over four centuries, there would be no legal use of Peyote in the United States. As an attorney representing the NAC for four decades, I was integrally involved in protecting and advancing the religious freedom rights of Indians and the legal status of Peyote. In 2005, I received the distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award by the State Bar of Texas for this service. Here I chronicle my extensive experience with Peyote, its history, and some important individuals, legal proceedings, and contributions by ethnologists, ethnobotanists, and anthropologists, and academics from related fields, to the triumph of the NAC. Having served as an officer in the NAC and participated in many NAC Peyote prayer services, I share some personal visions and life-shaping experiences along my journey with Peyote.

1.1 Why would an attorney address an ethnopharmacological symposium?

The law has a dramatic impact on the ethnopharmacological search and use of psychoactive drugs. There has been an interplay between law and psychoactive drugs in the Americas since the 1600s. The courageous historical struggle of Native Americans, to use their sacrament Peyote (Lophophora Williamsii), has been the trailblazer securing the legal right to use psychoactive Schedule I Controlled Substances in the United States. The Native American Church (NAC), assisted by ethnologists, ethnobotanists, anthropologists, pharmacologists and psychiatrists, was the spearpoint that established the Court precedents and legislation that resulted in the use of Peyote and ayahuasca as sacraments for religious purposes in the U.S.

Serving as an attorney for the NAC over four decades, I provided pro bono representation to protect and secure the legal status of Peyote for use by Native Americans in NAC prayer services (Peyote meetings). I also represented the Texas 2 Peyote dealers, who are licensed by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Texas Department of Public Safety to harvest and sell Peyote to Indian members of the NAC. I fought many legal battles for Indians arrested for possession of Peyote in Courts throughout the U.S., along with advancing Native American religious freedom rights in the U.S. Congress. I will present a survey of historical and contemporary law regarding Peyote. There is extensive literature on Peyote which covers scientific and academic studies. There is a void in the literature describing Peyote visions, which are varied and unique to time, person, place and events. I discuss visions I experienced in NAC Peyote meetings and some Indian cosmology.

My wife, Linda and I participated in Peyote meetings with the fabled, fearless, horse riding, Indian warriors of the Southern Plains. With their buffalo food supply purposefully decimated, their numbers annihilated through massacre and disease, conquered, removed from their homelands, the Plains Indians were restricted to reservations by the U.S. Cavalry parading under the banner of God ordained Manifest Destiny.

We were privileged and fortunate to join in Peyote meetings with Indian elders of the NAC whose grandfathers and grandmothers had survived the Indian genocide [1] , and who were removed from the Southern Plains to Oklahoma. The Plains Indian wisdom and tradition was orally passed on from grandparents to grandchildren. We were in direct contact with the lineage, experiences and wisdom of the free-spirited Indians, the Apache, Comanche, Kiowa, Cheyenne and Arapaho, who were the Southern Plains Indians that pioneered and developed the Peyote ceremony in its present day form, and instrumental in establishing the NAC in Oklahoma in 1918.

2.1 The Establishment of the Native American Church in Oklahoma

The Carrizo, Lipan Apache, Mescalero Apache, and Tonkawa ranged south into what is now Texas and Mexico. They were in contact with Mexican Indian Tribes. Apaches brought Peyote to their Comanche allies. It was then spread to other Southern Plains tribes. Ultimately, Peyote spread to the Northern Plains Indians and later to the Navajo. A number of the elements found in the 19th century Peyote ritual of the Southern Plains Indians were present in their Mexican precursors including drums, rattles, tobacco, fire and ceremonial foods such as corn and meat, and of course Peyote. [2]

The NAC is a syncretic religion. Indians readily adopted Christian concepts and combined them with their Indian cosmology. Article II of the Charter of Incorporation of the NAC of 1918 states:

“The purpose for this corporation is formed is to foster and promote the religious beliefs of the several tribes of Indians in the state of Oklahoma, in the Christian religion with the practice of the Peyote Sacrament . . . and to teach the Christian religion with morality, sobriety, industry, kindly charity, and right living and to cultivate a spirit of self-respect and brotherly union among the members of the Native race of Indians. . . .” [3]

Indians had honored the “Great Spirit” and the “Great Mystery” long before the voyage of Columbus. Indian steadfastly honored a Spirit greater than themselves. The Indians were not attached to labels. If the dominant culture insisted that the Great Spirit was God, the Indians attitude was the Great Spirit by any name is just as powerful and mysterious. Likewise, accepting Christ as the Son of God was in rhythm with the Indian experience that we are all God’s children. Indian people are very spiritual and traditionally monotheistic. The Catholic Church has Archangels, similarly Indians have spirits. Like Christians, Native Americans have earnestly and humbly used prayer for thousands of years. It was easy for Indians to accept prayer since it had always been a part of their spiritual practice.

Indians honor and respect the Mother Earth and all Nature and are free of the Christian hubris of dominating all forms of life. Indians insist that we are not separate and apart from Nature, we are part of Nature. Pre-Darwin Indians realized that all birds, animals, plants, trees, insects, wind, water and elements are our “relations”, and they, along with all life forms, are an inseparable part of Nature. A fundamental distinction between Christianity and Indian cosmology was the Christian belief that humans uniquely possess a spirit or soul, while Indians believe that all life forms have a spirit that ultimately transcends the earth.

Traditional Native Americans take the cosmology a step further. All birds, animals, and life have a spirit, and our spirit can communicate with the spirit of all life. They grew up immersed in Nature communicating with the spirits of birds, animals and all life. When this life view is embraced, one learns to perceive a language beyond words that is just as real as the spoken word. The sounds, sites, movements, patterns, intuitions and feelings that are communicated by birds, animals, plants, trees, and all life provide inspiration, direction and omens that become important guide posts in our lives.

3.1 The Summer of Love and the Big Bang!

Linda and I met at the University of Houston in 1967, the Summer of Love. I was in law school and serving as the Student Association’s Attorney General. Linda served as the Secretary. The counter-culture came into public awareness as a mass movement. A huge shift and transformation of the social paradigm was occurring, which involved creative expression, art, music, dress, grooming, sexual freedom, civil rights, anti-war politics, Eastern spirituality, yoga, meditation, marijuana, psilocybin, LSD, mescaline and Peyote. We were young, healthy and curious college students. So what did we do? We tuned into the zeitgeist – the spirit of the times.

I happenstance secured some mescaline, which I ingested during yoga and breathing exercises. I was totally unprepared for what occurred. It was the classic kundalini experience.

Suddenly and unexpectedly a bolt of lightning coursed up my spine and ignited a thermonuclear explosion.

The simultaneous ignition of every atomic bomb on the planet would have been a hummingbird’s whisper compared to the magnitude of that explosion. I experienced the Big Bang. I was instantaneously transported to the moment of creation – the center point of all consciousness – peace, radiance and ecstatic wonder beyond comprehension. My ego was completely annihilated. I experienced eternal boundlessness, unity beyond time and space. I merged with the divine. I had a profound knowing that my essence, always was, always is, and always will be. I am not suggesting that my personality will survive bodily death, but that my essence will reunite with the Divine Life Force.

Forty-five years later, this remains one of the most influential experiences of my lifetime. My understanding of reality was totally and permanently transformed. We are limited human beings on the planet Earth, and yet paradoxically we are the Universe.

As a young attorney, I was determined to stay within the bounds of the law. I was aware that mescaline was the psychoactive compound in Peyote. Linda and I learned there was a tradition of Indians annually coming to Texas to the home and property of Amada Cardenas, a legendary Peyote dealer (Peyotera) near Laredo, erecting a tipi and conducting a Peyote prayer service. In the U.S., Peyote is only abundant and indigenous near Laredo. It occurs in a narrow band east of Laredo that extends down into Mexico. Indians consider it a very special privilege to experience a Peyote meeting where it grows, and where their ancestors pilgrimaged to harvest Peyote and to pray.

4.1 Meeting Amada Cardenas and the Indians

Having learned of the annual Peyote meeting by the Indians with Amada Cardenas, Linda and I traveled to south Texas in 1972 and found Amada’s home, which was located a little south of Mirando City. We shyly, tapped on the door of Amada’s small, humble casa. Amada opened the door and gave us the most wonderful openhearted welcome that we have ever experienced. She saw us and emphatically said, “Come in! I am so glad you are here! Can I get you some coffee or something to eat?”

Our experience was not unique. Amada was legendary for her open heart, and open hearth. It did not matter who arrived at her door. She was delighted with every visitor that came to her home. It did not matter to her what color you were. It did not matter whether you were poor. Your position in life was not important to her. She was glad to welcome you. She would busy herself scurrying around providing coffee, food and taking care of her visitors.

Upon meeting Amada Cardenas, she invited us to come visit the Indians when they come to her home for the annual NAC Peyote meeting in February. We were hesitant to do so because as we told her, “We do not know any Indians.” She responded emphatically, “That is okay, you can be my guest.” The following February in 1973, we returned to Amada’s home. Arriving midafternoon, we parked outside the fence of her property, and saw numerous Indians around her property. There was a tipi erected near the back center of the property. Almost hesitantly, we got out of our car and slowly began walking up her driveway. A striking Indian with a big smile walked toward us and greeted us in a most friendly way. It was Rutherford Loneman. He invited us to briefly go inside the tipi. We then hung around Amada’s home and property and observing the activities.

As the sun went down, the Indians entered the tipi and had a NAC prayer service. It was a cold and rather windy February night. Linda and I sat outside all night on a railroad tie on the north side of the tipi. We listened to the singing, drumming and humble, even pleading, prayers of the Indians. The next morning after the meeting, Rutherford Loneman approached us. Rutherford said to us, “I could feel you outside all night. You are looking for something good. Come back next year. I want you to go in the tipi with us.”

5.1 Rutherford “White Star” Loneman, NAC Peyote Road Chief

After the invitation from Rutherford Loneman to return, Linda and I made our own pilgrimage to the annual meeting place on the property of Amada Cardenas outside of Mirando City, Texas. We attended our first Peyote prayer service accompanied by Rutherford Loneman, an amazing Southern Arapaho Indian Road Chief [4].

Rutherford was the grandson of Old Man Loneman, who escaped the genocide, was removed to Oklahoma and passed on his Plains Indian wisdom to Rutherford. During Rutherford’s birth, Rutherford’s mother consumed Peyote in an old frame house near Concho, Oklahoma, in a practice sometimes used by Indian women during labor. Old Man Loneman, Rutherford’s grandfather, erected a tipi near the house. Old Arapaho Chiefs gathered with Old Man Loneman in a Peyote meeting. Immediately after Rutherford was born he was taken inside the tipi and was passed around to the old Chiefs. Rutherford told me, “Each of them put something in me.”

Linda and I began an annual pilgrimage returning every February for decades to the annual meeting at Amada’s. Pilgrimage, in and of itself, is a powerful process. We had many glorious experiences and developed many close and loving relationships with Indians from many tribes; and most especially Rutherford Loneman, who adopted me Indian way, as his son.

In addition to an annual meeting in Texas, we began traveling and rendezvousing with Rutherford, other Road Chiefs and Indian friends, going to Peyote meetings on many different reservations and in many different states, including Oklahoma, Arkansas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Wyoming, California and South Dakota. Rutherford could create an atmosphere of love in the tipi that was palpable. Love is an important principle in the NAC. Peyote produces a profound connection with and appreciation for those around you, Nature, all life and the environment. Peyote produces an astonishing mental clarity and elevated conscious awareness. Peyote can produce powerful and clear visions through all our senses. Peyote fosters deep and meaningful selfexamination and a sincere motivation for self-correction and improvement. Peyote is a mirror to your soul. Ecstatic experiences reliably occur in Peyote meetings fostered by the drumming, the gourd, the singing, the colors, the fire, aromatic cedar and the sacred process.

Linda and I attended a beautiful Peyote Meeting outside of Santa Fe that Rutherford led. He doctored a sick elderly Asian lady with his red-tailed hawk fan during the meeting. She was brought in and laid in the tipi. Rutherford told me that he removed things from people with his feathers. The next morning at early light, Rutherford held the staff and gourd and sat silent. He looked at the fire and held his hand out toward the fire and said, “From where I sit this morning, it is all right there. It is very simple. It is all right there. Those who have gone on and those that are coming. It is all very simple, and it is all right there.” It was a profound moment for me. Rutherford transmitted something ineffable about life. Rutherford always told me, “In the tipi we talk about life, this process of life.” Peyote meetings must be approached in a serious and reverent way.

Sometimes during Peyote meetings, the old people would solemnly reach out with tears rolling down their face, as if they were embracing and touching someone wonderful standing before them, but no one was there. I asked Rutherford why that occasionally occurred. He told me, “Sometimes a Friend of mine comes in here at a special time. I sure want you to meet my Friend. I sure want you to meet my Friend.” It was fifteen years later, that I experienced the phenomenon he was describing, the appearance of a Spirit image.

6.1 Ancient use of Peyote in the Americas

The use of Peyote is the oldest religious practice on the North American continent. Its ancient roots are lost in time. The Witte Museum in San Antonio, Texas possesses three archaeological specimens of Peyote radiocarbon dated between 3660 and 3780 BCE, the Middle Archaic Period. These Peyote specimens were discovered in a huntergatherer context in the Shumla Cave in the lower Pecos Region of Texas near the confluence of the Rio Grande and Pecos Rivers. Rock art petroglyphs with Peyote motifs in the area have been dated to the same period. [6]

Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry identified mescaline in the Shumla Cave Peyote specimens, which identification establishes that Native Americans recognized the psychopharmacological properties of Peyote 6,000 years ago. The evidence suggests that Native American people have continuously used Peyote for over 10,000 years, from the era of late Pleistocene Palo-Indian hunters of mastodon to the present day. The Spanish Franciscan missionary and ethnographer, Bernardino de Sahagún, who traveled to Mexico in 1529, chronicled the earliest historical reference to Peyote in his Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva España published in Mexico City in 1591. [7] In 1577, Fernando Hernandez studied plants used by the Aztecs which included Peyotl, the Aztec word for Peyote. [8] When the Spanish Conquistadors arrived in Mexico in the 15th and 16th centuries, the Aztec, Huichol, Tarahumara, Zacateco, and other Indian tribes had ceremonies that centered around the use of Peyote. [9]

7.1 The Prosecution for Peyote of Native Americans in New Spain

Spanish Imperialism included supplanting native religions with Catholicism. Mexico and Peyote did not escape the Inquisition. Christianization was forced at the point of the sword under the authority of the Inquisitor General. Plants used in native rituals were condemned. In 1620, the Inquisitors issued an edict declaring Peyote a “heretical perversity . . . . opposed to the purity and integrity of our Holy Catholic Faith . . . .” Further, Peyote was characterized as the “[I]ntervention of the Devil, the real author of this vice . . . .” The inquisitors proclaimed, “[O]ur duty imposes on us the obligation to stop this vice and to repair the harm and great offense to our God and Lord resulting from this practice . . . .” [10] Consequently, Peyote was the first ethnobotanical psychoactive substance prohibited by law and punished by imprisonment in the Americas. The Catholic Church enforced this edict for over two centuries. In historical Church archives, there are records of 90 prosecutions in 45 locations in North America. [11]

9 8.1 The Prosecution of Native Americans for Peyote in the United States

Indians in the United States were also prosecuted. The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) from its formation in 1824 through the 1930’s was very strongly influenced by missionary societies. For five decades, federal officials on reservations and in Washington D.C. were appointed by Christian missionary groups. Although the Peyote religion has Christian theology combined with Indian spiritual practices, Christian missionaries began to seek legislation to prohibit the use of Peyote. The first such law criminalizing Peyote was enacted in Oklahoma 1899. Many other states followed suit, including Nevada in 1913, Utah and Colorado in 1917 [12] .

The Oklahoma anti-Peyote law was repealed in 1908 after a delegation of Indian Chiefs including the famous and eloquent Comanche Chief, Quanah Parker [13] (Fig. 9) testified before the Medical Committee of the Oklahoma Constitutional Convention in 1907 (Fig. 8). Quanah was the most influential and instrumental Indian in the creation, development and spread of the Peyote ritual and ceremony in Oklahoma.

The era of prohibition was raging through American culture. The suppression of Peyote became closely involved with the prohibition against the Indian use of alcohol. In 1906, Congress passed a law against the sale of intoxicating liquor to Indians and with a special appropriation to prosecute violators. President Theodore Roosevelt commissioned a well-known prohibitionist zealot, William “Pussyfoot” Johnson as a special officer to enforce prohibition in Indian country, and armed Johnson with 100 deputies. The suppression of Peyote became closely involved with the prohibition against the Indian use of alcohol. Johnson considered Peyote “dry whiskey” and fanatically raided Peyote meetings, arrested and caused the prosecution of Indians for Peyote. [14]

Some of the prosecutions were unsuccessful because the law was only intended to apply to alcohol intoxicants. Other cases were defeated as a result of the confusion of Peyote with mescal beans. [15] Nevertheless, many Peyotists were prosecuted and punished for their religious devotion.

9.1 Role of Ethnologists, Ethnobotanists and Anthropologists in Protecting the Rights of Native Americans to Use Peyote

A BIA commission began in 1912 to lobby for a federal law against Peyote. In 1918 the U.S. House of Representatives held extensive committee hearings. James Mooney, an ethnologist with the Bureau of American Ethnology of the Smithsonian Institution, led the defense of Peyote. Mooney studied the Kiowa pictorial calendar in the late 1800’s. Between 1891 and 1918 Mooney spent many months with Southern Plains Indians on reservations in Oklahoma. He observed and participated in several Peyote meetings. Mooney, Francis La Flesch also an ethnologist, and William Safford a botanist, along with many other supporters of Peyote, including eloquent Indians, testified that Peyote had done much good and was a sincere and genuine religion. Naturally, there was fierce opposing testimony from prohibitionists. The bill to outlaw Peyote was passed by the House of Representatives, but rejected in the Senate when a Senator from Oklahoma, under pressure from his Indian, constituency persuaded his colleagues to vote against it. [16]

A bitter conflict occurred between the BIA and Bureau of American Ethnology, as a result of Mooney supporting Indians during the 1918 hearings. The BIA accused the ethnologists of “encouraging Indians to maintain old, heathenish, unhealthy, uncivilized customs so that scientists could write books, take pictures and thus exploit the Indians with cheap publicity while doing nothing to help them become civilized.” [17] Mooney defended himself and ethnologists, and denounced the accusation as an “absolute falsehood.” He returned to the Kiowa reservation in Oklahoma. The commissioner of Indian Affairs requested that the director of the Smithsonian recall Mooney, on the grounds that he was interfering with the administration of the BIA, had participated in Peyote ceremonies and had assisted the Indians in incorporating their religion as the Native American Church. To the shame of the Bureau of American Ethnology and the Smithsonian, Mooney was recalled and never again allowed to return to Oklahoma to continue his study of Peyote. He died a few years later of a heart attack. [18]

The first attempt to pass a federal anti-Peyote law was in 1937 during Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration. Frank Takes Gun, a Crow Indian from Montana and President of the Native American Church, rallied the support of seven anthropologists. [19] The group included Richard Evan Schultes, then a Harvard Graduate student with the Harvard Botanical Museum. Schultes presented a bibliography of 383 references regarding research on Peyote, and related his field research in Oklahoma. Schultes and the other anthropologists concluded that Peyote is not a “habit-forming drug” and is used as a “religious sacrament” [20]. The United States Senate Committee accepted their conclusion. By this time, the Christian missionaries had been supplanted in the Office of Indian Affairs by administrators more protective of the religious rights of Indians. The efforts to prohibit Peyote on a federal level ended for three decades, until the1960’s.

In 1965, the Drug Abuse Control Amendments were proposed. Again, NAC President Frank Takes Gun marshalled evidence from five anthropologists [21] who signed and submitted a joint “Statement on Peyote” to Congress through the Department of Health Education and Welfare. The Statement included in part:

“In connection with the current national campaign against narcotics, there has been some propaganda to declare illegal the peyote used by many Indian tribes. We are professional anthropologists who have made extensive studies of Peyotism in various tribes. We have participated in the rites and partaken of the sacramental peyote. We therefore feel it our duty to protest against a campaign which only reveals the ignorance of the propagandists concerned. . . . [T]he Native American Church is a legitimate religious organization deserving of the same right to religious freedom as other churches . . . .”[22]

W.B. Rankin, Deputy Commissioner of the Department, wrote Frank Takes Gun in January, 1966, that Peyote was to be added to the Drug Abuse Controlled Amendment of 1965, however:

“I am writing to state that on the basis of the evidence you have submitted, we recognize that Peyote has a non-drug use in bona fide religious ceremonies of the Native American Church. It is not our purpose to bring regulatory action based on the shipment, possession, or use of Peyote in connection with such ceremonies.”[23]

The 1965 Amendment was not enforced against the NAC. Ultimately, in 1971 the Federal Code of Regulations Section 1307.31 incorporated a specific exemption for the NAC, declaring in part, “The listing of peyote as a controlled substance in Schedule I does not apply to the nondrug use of peyote in bona fide religious ceremonies of the Native American Church.”

10.1 The Jurisprudence of Peyote in the United States from 1970

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution provides, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” In 1963 in the case of Sherbert vs. Verner, 374 US 398, the United States Supreme Court, in an elegantly written opinion by Justice Brennan, declared, “The door of the Free Exercise Clause stands tightly closed against any governmental regulation of religious beliefs. . . . In this highly sensitive constitutional area, only the gravest abuses, endangering paramount interests, give occasion for permissible limitation.” The Court established the “compelling interest” test which required the States and the federal government to balance the right of the free exercise of religion against government restriction, while giving great weight to religious freedom. The Court concluded the regulated conduct must pose “some substantial threat to public safety, peace or order”, even when the religious practice is “abhorrent to the authorities.” [24]

In a shocking decision in 1990, Justice Scalia speaking for the U.S. Supreme Court overruling the 30-year compelling interest test Sherbert in the case of Oregon vs. Smith, 494 U.S. 872. The U.S. Supreme Court held that the Oregon state criminal law prohibiting the possession of Peyote, was paramount to the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. The Supreme Court held that police power is superior to freedom of religion. With the stroke of his pen, Justice Scalia transformed the nation’s “first liberty” into a constitutional step-child.

A dark cloud hung over the continued religious use of Peyote by the Native American Church. The NAC had no remedy in the Courts and was forced to turn to the United States Congress as the last resort. The use of Peyote is central to the religious practice of the NAC. The existence of the NAC was threatened. To ensure the continued religious use of Peyote by the NAC, I helped create and draft the strategy of petitioning of the U.S. Congress to enact the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), and to amend the American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978 (AIRFA) to specifically include Peyote.

Outstanding and respected Native American leaders such as Reuben Snake, Jr., Winnebago, descended on Congress. Native American rights’ attorneys such as James Botsford and attorneys with the Native American Rights Fund went to the halls of Congress and ardently advocated for the passage of RFRA and AIRFA. Botsford was one of the primary authors of AIRFA and his advocacy was vital. The NAC joined by a 13 large coalition of religious institutions from many faiths including Baptist, Methodist, Jewish, Mormon, Unitarian and other associations, lobbied Congress for the passage of RFRA. The strategy was successful, RFRA [25] was passed in late 1993 and the Amendment to AIRFA [26] was passed in 1994 as a result of the Native American Church initiative.

This legislation fostered by the arduous efforts of the NAC was foundational in the favorable decision involving ayahuasca by the US Supreme Court, Gonzales v. UDV [27] , which relied on RFRA & AIRFA. The same is true for the Santo Daime decision in U.S. District Court in Holy Light of the Queen v. Mukasey [28]. Without the tenacious commitment of the NAC there would be no legal use of Peyote or ayahuasca in the US today.

Richard Glen Boire, attorney and editor of the 1990s Entheogen Law Review and I determined that 17 states, provide various levels of protection for religious use of Peyote, in addition to protection by the federal government. If the state does not appear below, there were no explicit legislative exemptions found concerning Peyote.

1.1 The Ritual Form of the Peyote Meeting

Many authors have detailed the ritual form of the Peyote meeting. Omer Stewart provides very detailed descriptors of the Peyote ritual. [47] There is the abundant literature easily available on the form of the Peyote meeting, I will only briefly describe the Peyote meeting ritual in general detail.

The exquisite beauty and ambience of the NAC Peyote ceremony is beyond words. This ineffable experience cannot be captured with words. A tipi is erected immediately before the meeting. The door of the tipi always faces east. The participants enter the meeting at sundown, single file, clockwise and sit in a circle on blankets and small cushions on the ground. There is something very special about sitting together with a group in a circle. Even more so, there is something extraordinary about sitting on the ground and connecting with the earth. A small meeting might have only 10 to 15; an average meeting has 20 to 30 participants; a large meeting perhaps as many as 40.

An altar is constructed from sand and clay in the shape of a crescent moon immediately before the meeting. The Road Chief sits on the west side of the tipi facing east, the Drummer sits to the right, and the Cedar Chief to the left of the Road Chief. The Fire Chief sits next to the door and feeds the fire with hand-split links of wood throughout the night. A Chief Peyote, which is a large dried Peyote, often passed down through family lineage, is placed at the center of the crescent moon. There are many purposes for meetings, such as a birthday, appreciation, wedding, healing, education, departing soldier, honoring someone, memorial for a deceased. The focus of all minds and prayers is on the purpose of the meeting. This is a powerful process.

The Road Chief Frank Takes Gun is holding the instruments used in the meeting staff, feather fan, and gourd rattler. He is standing in front of the crescent moon altar on which sits the small Chief Peyote. The Drummer is sitting behind the drum (Fig. 12), the Cedar Chief sits to the left. As the Road Chief sings, Peyote is passed around the circle clockwise. After the Road Chief sings four songs, the instruments including the drum, are passed around the circle and each individual sings Peyote songs, if they wish to do so, or they may simply pass the instruments on. The instruments circulate around the tipi for various rounds. A midnight water occurs when water is brought in by the Fire Chief. After several more rounds, in the morning, a woman brings a water bucket in the meeting, prays over the water. The water is then circulated to all the participants. Ultimately, there is a conclusion song sung by the Road Chief.

The conclusion of a small ceremonial breakfast consisting of corn, dried meat, fruit and water is passed around the tipi circle, clockwise, after someone prays blessings on the food. This is a glorious time. There is conversation, laughter and expressions of love and gratitude. Stories are exchanged. With their oral tradition, Indians are gifted and spell binding story tellers. Traditionally, everyone stays at the meeting place and visits until the noon meal. This is a time of visiting, meeting new friends, exchanging information, experiencing satisfaction and conviviality prior to leaving for home. Many participants have driven long distances. I have found the Peyote meeting form that was established by the Comanches and Kiowas, to be inspirational and brilliant.

12.1 The Origin of the Peyote Trade in Texas at Los Ojuelos

The tradition of Indians making long pilgrimages to Texas to harvest and trade for Peyote with Hispanos occurred as early as 1870 in the small Rancheria Settlement of Los Ojuelos,[48] the birthplace of Amada Cardenas and her husband Claudio Cardenas. The Peyote traders were known as Peyoteros. Indians would come to Los Ojuelos by horseback or wagon, and later in Model T’s to secure dried Peyote. Dry Peyote is ideal for transport. It is light weight, small in volume and can be preserved indefinitely. Green Peyote is bulky and subject to spoiling on the long trip back to Indian country.

Hispanics living in Los Ojuelos began to harvest and dry Peyote for Indians that traveled to Los Ojuelos. Esiquio Sanchez, was a Peyotero. His daughter, Amada weas born in 1904. She related that her brothers would go out with her father and harvest Peyote. They would return to their home in Los Ojuelos. At age four, Amada and her sisters would turn each Peyote button over on caliche beds daily as part of the drying process.

In 1932, Amada married Claudio Cardenas, Sr., who was also from Los Ojuelos. They worked together and carried on the Amada’s family tradition of harvesting, drying and trading Peyote with the Indians at Los Ojuelos. In 1942, they moved five miles north of Los Ojuelos to the outskirts of Mirando City, a small town with a population of around 300 and continued their Peyote trade. It was said of Claudio, Sr. that he would give up his bed and sleep in his truck for Indians that had traveled a long, exhausting distance. Claudio, Sr. passed away in 1967. Amada continued in the Peyote trade.

The annual NAC Peyote meeting at Amada’s home in Mirando City, has continued through this year, 2017. Amada was the Mother Teresa of the Native American Church. She was love in action. Her home became the national home for all Native American Churches. Amada was loved and still revered throughout Indian country as a Saint. Tens of thousands of Indians and individuals of all races have visited Amada. Amada passed away in 2005, one month prior to her 101st birthday. I was honored to deliver the eulogy at Amada’s funeral.

13.1 Frank Takes Gun – The Johnny Appleseed of the NAC

No single individual achieved as much for the NAC as Frank Takes Gun (1908-1988), a Crow Indian from the Montana Reservation. His skill in creating organizational structure, chartering NAC chapters in many states, bringing court cases and leading the passage of legislation in Indian states and the U.S. Congress, was amazing and unmatched.

The long odyssey of Frank Takes Gun fighting for the rights of Indians to use Peyote began when he was sixteen-years old. In 1924, he was with his family on the Crow Reservation at a Peyote meeting. After the meeting, U.S. Marshals arrived and arrested the Road Chief, Big Sheep. The women were crying, “Holy Creator, we prayed all night to you for something good in our lives. Then these men came and took Big Sheep away. We do not understand. What can we do?” The old men gathered. Frank Takes Gun was the only person there who could speak English. They instructed him to get in a horse drawn buckboard with Big Sheep’s wife, go where they had taken Big Sheep and bring him back home. As if by miracle, when the teenager Takes Gun talked to the Marshals, they released Big Sheep. Takes Gun and Big Sheep’s wife brought him home. [49] Big Sheep was ultimately charged with possessing Peyote. [50]

I was privileged to know Frank Takes Gun in his later years. In the 1980s, I arranged for him to fly from Montana to Laredo so he and Amada could have a reunion after many years of being apart. I picked him up at the airport. As we drove 45 miles east to Amada’s, Takes Gun related to me that the two-lane asphalt highway we traveled on was an old single lane dirt wagon and vehicle trail, when he was first on the roadway. He explained some fifty years earlier, Big Sheep had taken him down to the Peyote area around Los Ojuelos as a reward for Takes Gun having secured Big Sheep’s release from jail.

I asked Takes Gun if they had put up a tipi, and had a Peyote meeting on the trip with Big Sheep. He told me they had brought some tarps, cleared an area of the chaparral and simply strung some tarps in a circle as a wind break. They gathered mesquite wood and had a Peyote meeting with a fire in the center of the open-air tarps. As he related this story, I was suddenly at that Peyote meeting he was describing, that had occurred fifty years earlier. I was observing and experiencing the Peyote meeting. My visual, aural, somatic, tactile and olfactory senses were all keenly experiencing the meeting, the same as if I was present. I seemingly was not driving the vehicle on the highway. After being present at the meeting for several minutes, I came back from this impactful vision in perplexed amazement. I told Takes Gun what had occurred, I was there observing the meeting and totally unaware of driving the vehicle. Takes Gun simply looked at me and pointed to his temple with his right index finger and said, “This mind is a powerful thing.”

Takes Gun was a truly great man. In 1944, at age 36 (Fig. 15 – back row, left to right third) he was elected Vice President of the Native American Church of the United States (NAC U.S.). Mack Haag (Fig. 15 - front left). Haag was the first signatory on the NAC Oklahoma 1918 Charter and served Vice President, and later President.

Though not an attorney and having no legal training, Takes Gun was a brilliant legal strategist. Very few attorneys in any area of law, achieved in their careers the success with state and federal legislation, and the court victories of Frank Takes Gun. During the decades that he served the NAC, he defeated attempted federal anti-Peyote legislation in 1937 and convinced the Federal Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) to recognize the NAC in 1945. His successful advocacy resulted in the following state legislatures to legalize Peyote in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, North Dakota, Montana, Nevada, and Wyoming. [51] Various other Indian country states, such as Texas, had no anti-Peyote law in this time period.

Takes Gun organized, chartered and served as an Officer in Native American Churches throughout Indian country, including Colorado, Texas, California, Nevada, Wyoming, and New Mexico. The NAC U.S. [52] remains only in Texas. I was honored to serve as an officer in the NAC U.S. with Frank Takes Gun and Amada Cardenas in the 1980’s and 1990’s. In 1965, his advocacy caused the exemption of Peyote from the Drug Abuse Control Amendment. In 1967, he was instrumental in the Navajo Tribal Council repealing their anti-Peyote ordinance. [53]

13.2 Arizona

A master of litigation, Frank Takes Gun directed significant precedent-setting Peyote cases in several courts. His first major success was in Arizona v. Mary Attakai. [54] In July 1960, Judge Yale McFate ruled that the state of Arizona has police power to prohibit the use of substances, even in religious rites, if necessary to protect public health and safety. Holding that liberty of conscience secured by the Constitution may not be construed to justify practices within the peace and safety of the public. Judge McFate ruled:

“The use of Peyote is essential to the existence of the Peyote religion. Without it, the practice of the religion would be effectively prevented. From the foregoing, it follows: First, the only significant use made of Peyote is in connection with Indian rites of a bona fide religious nature, or for medicinal purposes. Second, there are no harmful after-effects from the use of peyote. Third, it is not a narcotic, nor is it habit-forming. Fourth, the practical effect of the statute outlawing its use is to prevent worship by members of the Native American Church, who believe the Peyote plant to be of divine origin and to bear a similar relation to the Indians –most of who cannot read – as does the Holy Bible to the white man.” [55]

13.3 California

In April 1962, three Navajo men, Jack Woody, Leon Anderson and Dan D. Nez were arrested and charged in San Bernardino County with illegal possession of Peyote. Frank Takes Gun masterminded the defense. Working with attorneys, he marshalled evidence from anthropologists and psychiatrists, and insured that the attorneys raised Constitutional objections. Nonetheless, Judge Hillard of the Superior Court, convicted all three defendants. Takes Gun mobilized an appeal to the California Supreme Court, maintaining that California could not Constitutionally apply a statute prescribing the use of Peyote so as to prevent Indians from using Peyote as a sacrament similar to bread and wine used in Christian churches. Justice Tobriner’s opinion held that an examination of the evidence compelled the conclusion that the statutory prohibition most seriously interferes upon the observation of the religion:

Although Peyote serves as a sacramental symbol similar to bread and wine in certain Christian churches, it is more than a sacrament. Peyote constitutes in itself an object of worship; prayers are directed to it much as prayers are devoted to the Holy Ghost. On the other hand, to use Peyote for nonreligious purposes is sacrilegious. Members of the church regard Peyote also as a ‘teacher’ because it induces a feeling of brotherhood with other members; indeed, it enables the participant to experience the Deity. Finally, devotees treat Peyote as a ‘protector’. Much as a Catholic carries his medallion, an Indian G.I. often wears around his neck a beautifully beaded pouch containing one large Peyote button. [56]

The California Supreme Court accepted the opinion of scientists, including Omer Stewart, anthropologist, and Gordon Alles, pharmacologist, [57] that Peyote has no deleterious effect on the Native Americans and that the moral standards of members of the NAC was higher than those outside of the church. The Court rejected the Attorney General’s argument that “Peyote . . . obstructs enlightenment and shackles the Indian to primitive conditions.” In persuasive language reversing the convictions of the three defendants, the Court concluded:

“[T]he right to free religious expression embodies a precious heritage of our history. In a mass society, which presses at every point toward conformity, the protection of a self-expression, however unique, of the individual and the group becomes important. The varying currents of the subcultures that flow into the mainstream of our national life give it depth and beauty. We preserve a greater value than an ancient Figure 18 – The San Bernardino Daily Sun Article – Author’s personal Archives from Frank Takes Gun 20 tradition when we protect the rights of the Indians who honestly practiced an old religion in using Peyote one night at a meeting in a desert Hogan near Needles, California.”[58]

13.4 Texas

In August of 1967, Texas passed a total ban on Peyote. The new Texas law placed severe criminal penalties on the growing or distribution of Peyote, mescaline and other hallucinogens. There was no exemption for the use of Peyote for Indians or religious purposes. Texas was the only source of Peyote for the Native American Church. The NAC was in a state of deeply distress over the loss of their sole source of Peyote.

Takes Gun swung into action. He arranged for a test case. Sam Houston Clinton, Jr., an attorney in Austin, TX who worked with the ACLU agreed to assist. Takes Gun enlisted the aid of David Clark, a brave Navajo. [59] There were five male Peyote dealers in south Texas. One by one Takes Gun requested each of them to provide Peyote. They all refused, fearing arrest. He then went to Amada Cardenas. Amada was courageous and readily agreed to provide Peyote. She and her husband, Claudio, Sr., had previously been arrested in 1953 for Peyote and prevailed in the case.

David Clark drove out of Amada Cardenas’ driveway in Takes Gun’s Ford with Peyote. The Texas Highway Patrol had been alerted by Takes Gun of his intention. The vehicle was stopped and David Clark was arrested, placed in jail and charged with possession of Peyote. In April of 1968, David Clark’s case went to trial before Judge E. James Kazen in the Webb County, 49th District Court in Laredo. Judge Kazen citing the Mary Attakai case and the Jack Woody case, found the Texas law unconstitutional.

After the decision, the Native American Church conducted a Peyote meeting in honor of Judge Kazen at Amada Cardenas’ home in October, 1969. Judge Kazen attended the Peyote Meeting. He was presented with an eagle feather and given the name “Eagle Feather, symbolizing wisdom and justice. He ate some Peyote and “found it bitter and unpalatable”. [60]

Upon learning of Takes Gun’s victory in the David Clark case, the area director of the BIA, Graham Holmes, wrote a congratulatory letter to Takes Gun stating:

“Your management of the Native American Church has been amazingly successful. The winning of the recent case in Texas is the last step in the long battle for the right of the members of the Church. Many years ago when you first started this crusade, no one could have predicted that you would win every battle, and that the Native American Church would finally reach its rightful place and receive its rightful recognition in this country.” [61]

Humphrey Osmond of New Jersey’s Bureau of Research of Neurology and Psychology likewise wrote a congratulatory letter stating:

“Congratulation on once again steering your church through the rapids. You have undoubtedly been a fine pilot for them. I still think of that remarkable time, or perhaps one should call it out of time, that we enjoyed together almost twelve years ago in the tepee on the bluffs of North Battleford. It remains one of the most vivid and remarkable experiences of my life.”[62]

Until he drew his last breath, Frank Takes Gun remained an ardent advocate for the religious freedom of Native Americans. On September 18, 1988, I delivered the eulogy at his funeral of Frank Takes Gun in Lodge Grass, Montana overlooking the Little Bighorn River, near the site where U.S. Cavalry Commander George Custer met his fate.

14.1 Rutherford Loneman’s Funeral Meeting

On August 8, 1988, while coincidentally visiting Amada, I received a phone call that Rutherford Loneman had passed away early that morning. I was heartbroken. I remember crying. Rutherford had led a Peyote meeting for our oldest child, Maya, when she was fourteen and gave her the name “Morning Star”. I had always envisioned that Rutherford would lead a meeting for all three of our children. Ultimately, Anthony “White Thunder” Davis, a Pawnee, led a meeting for our daughter, Michelle who he named “White Star”, and for our son, Justin who he named “White Wolf”. After receiving the call, I was sitting beside Amada and mourning Rutherford’s passing. I began to see and feel an energy field radiating soft purple light from Amada’s left side into my right side. I felt a tremendous amount of strength and energy being directly transmitted to me by Amada, who just sat silently beside me. I said gently, “Amada, I am sure getting a lot of strength from you.” She continued to look straight ahead and nodded her head acknowledging the process that was occurring.

Funeral arrangements were immediately undertaken for a service and burial of Rutherford on the Arapaho reservation at Concho, Oklahoma. Rutherford’s wife, Wanada Loneman, Sac and Fox, planned a NAC funeral Peyote meeting. I knew what that meant and somewhat felt a sense of dread, although I knew I must be there. I knew the Sac and Fox bring the body of the deceased in the tipi and lay the body on the ground inside the tipi throughout the Peyote funeral meeting.

Linda and I traveled to Oklahoma for the funeral. The Peyote funeral meeting was led by a Sac and Fox Road Chief. Rutherford was laid out on the ground horizontal along the north side with blankets around his body up to his shoulders. Wanada sat next to Rutherford. Linda sat next to Wanada with me sitting on Linda’s right. I was sad and having a difficult time throughout the beginning hours of the meeting. My Indian father, closest friend and teacher was laying deceased a few feet from me. I had a container of small, strong, specially dried, Peyote buttons. I ate a lot of Peyote. I would eat two or three Peyote buttons often. Rutherford always told me, “If you are in a meeting, eat Peyote. If you cannot sit comfortable eat Peyote. If your mind is spinning and agitated, eat Peyote. If something is bothering you, eat Peyote. You are in the tipi to eat Peyote.”

Suddenly, Rutherford appeared bigger than life. His physical body was laid out a few feet to my left, yet he simultaneously appeared in the center of the tipi above the fire before me. He had a big smile on his face. Rutherford said to me, “Son, don’t be upset. Don’t be sad. This is just another lesson that I am teaching you about life, this process of life.” As he completed this communication, a ray of tremendously powerful energy about 8 inches in diameter streamed down from his chest into my chest. It was the most joyful and exhilarating moment of my life. I completely understood the process of life. This life wisdom was radiated into every dimension of my being. I experienced a sure knowing that we are all an interconnected, inseparable, and eternal unity of all that is, was, or ever will be. We are all part of an inseparable whole. I was elated. I was at the funeral of my dearest and closest friend, and I was experiencing ecstatic joy and appreciation for life. It was an unimaginable, divine paradox.

The next morning, we came out of the tipi and proceeded to the grave site at the Arapaho cemetery for a traditional burial. I was filled with an afterglow and still in contact with the incredible Divine Intelligent Universal Life Force was transmitted to me from Rutherford’s image. The next day the essence of the experience was still with me, but beginning to fade. As the days and weeks passed, it gradually became fainter and fainter. Ultimately, it vanished. The memory of the experience was still intellectually there, but not the direct connection with it.

15.1 Anthony “White Thunder” Davis, Pawnee

A close friend, Denny Sandoval, Navajo, sensed that with Rutherford Loneman’s passing, I had lost my mooring, my anchor with the NAC. Denny committed to sponsor a meeting for Linda and I at Dzit Na Ooditii, on the Navajo reservation. Denny selected his close friend, Marcellus “Bear Heart” Williams, a Creek Indian Road Chief from Oklahoma, to lead the meeting for us. Marcellus requested Anthony “White Thunder” Davis (1911- 2003), a Pawnee Road Chief, to be the Cedar Chief at our Peyote meeting. A wise elder is generally designated to be the Cedar Chief. The Peyote meeting went well. I keenly paid attention to everything that was occurring during the meeting. At midnight Anthony Davis gave the traditional Cedar Chief prayer with cedar. The meeting continued for several hours, then Marcellus called for his wife Edna to bring in morning water an hour before dawn. Again, it was Anthony’s duty as Cedar Chief to give a prayer with cedar. He said words and then gave a short prayer in the Pawnee language. Linda and I were sitting on the northwest side very close to where Marcellus and Anthony were sitting. As Anthony began the cedar prayer, I took special notice. Somehow there was a time warp. There was no time between Anthony’s midnight prayer and his morning prayer. It was as if he had reversed time from his midnight prayer, and somehow linked it with his morning prayer. That caught my attention. I had experienced Rutherford seemingly reversing time in a meeting on a prior occasion.

Anthony completed his prayer. He then stood erect with the cedar and an eagle feather in his hand, stepped close to the altar, and cast the cedar on the coals. Bending forward and reaching down, he touched the Chief Peyote on the crescent moon altar with the tip of the eagle feather. Anthony then raised the eagle feather up in an arc, ending with his arm fully extended with the eagle feather pointing straight up. He opened another dimension with the eagle feather. Christ was standing in the arc. I was astonished. Simultaneously with the appearance of this Christ image, I heard Marcellus softly cry, “weihai” acknowledging that he saw the Spirit. The image of Christ vanished after a few timeless seconds. I looked toward Marcellus who had formerly been a Presbyterian ordained Minister. Marcellus looking directly at me softly quoted a Biblical scripture, “At first we see through a glass darkly, then face to face.” (1 Corinthians 13:12). I knew that Marcellus had seen what I had seen. Linda saw a bright transcendent light that filled the entire tipi. She recognized the light as the divine. I am convinced that the three of us, Marcellus, Linda and I, were the only individuals that had seen the vision.

I am not asserting that Jesus Christ was actually standing in the arc; although, I viewed a clear vision of Christ standing before me. I have a Christian heritage. I was reared in the Southern Baptist Church as a child. I received an eight-year pin for not missing a Sunday. My three sisters and I were marched to the Baptist Church every time the doors opened. As a young teenager, I developed serious questions about Christianity, concerning with the proposition that a wonderfully good and helpful person, reared in foreign culture, who had never heard the name of Jesus Christ was damned to eternal hell fire. I resisted worshiping such a cruel and punishing God. Yet, because of my long cultural history with Christianity and years of Bible Study, the image of the divine necessarily appeared to me in Christian form.

I had no other model for divinity. As Richard Schultes suggested, had I been Jewish, the image of divinity would appear as Abraham, Buddhist as the Buddha, Hindu as Lord Krishna, a physicist as patterns of energy, an Amazonian Indian an image of a Jaguar. In fact, our daughter Michelle while visiting in South America had a profound vision of divinity as a female Jaguar embracing around her and melding into her with protection and deep love. Interestingly, an image of divinity appeared to Dennis McKenna as the process of photosynthesis. Anthony Davis had an experience where he saw a bright light, that he referred to as Christ. He also had a two different visions where a white wolf appeared to him as divinity, and on another occasion a scissor-tailed fly catcher. I once asked Anthony, why the experience happened to me where I saw Jesus Christ. He told me, “I don’t know. Sometimes things like that just happen around me.” It was clear to me that it was not something that he consciously caused or willed. One must understand the role of the imagination - the imaginal. My simple way of expressing the imaginal is, “Spirit communicates with image, but spirit is not the image”. The 5th century Neoplatonist, Proclus writing on Plato penned:

“Self-realization of the Gods necessarily happens in such a way that the formless take form, and the shapeless take shape, with each soul receiving a firm and simple vision of the Gods according to that soul’s particular nature, with imagination providing shape and form to these visions.”[63]

In this respect, I depart from the fundamentalist view that understands psychedelic visions literally. Our beliefs are limitations. The Tao that can be spoken is not the Tao.

Naturally, after the vision I had in the tipi with Anthony, I pursued a relationship with him. A few months later in a Peyote meeting, Anthony accepted me as his son. Not long after making that relationship with me, Anthony became very ill and was admitted to the Indian hospital in Santa Fe with sepsis. He almost died. He was very weak, thin and frail. It was very cold in Santa Fe. My son Justin, age five, who adored Anthony, and I went to Santa Fe. We bundled Anthony up and brought him to our home in the temperate Houston climate. Linda lovingly, nursed Anthony back to health. It was a long and slow process and gradually regained his health. He was determined. He struggled to move around, saying “I want to walk good on this Mother Earth”.

By late Spring, Anthony had regained his health and strength. He wanted to take me to Oklahoma for a special annual Mother’s Day meeting. Anthony and I traveled from Houston to Kiowa country at Hog Creek, Oklahoma. We were well greeted and the meeting started in a nice way. It was a stormy night in May. It was raining, thundering and lightening some during the meeting, but that was of no concern. Everyone had a good feeling. After midnight water, the staff and gourd reached Anthony around 2:00am. We were sitting together on the south side of the tipi, with me on his right. Anthony handed me the gourd that was being passed with the staff and opened his Peyote box that was sitting between us. He took out a gourd that his wife Julia, Arapaho, had beaded for him. She had passed away, two years before, after 49 years of marriage. He said to me, “Son, I do not get this gourd out often anymore, but I am going to use it tonight.”

Anthony began singing old Comanche songs he favored. As he was singing, a phenomenon occurred that was awe-inspiring. Simultaneously with his songs, continuous lightning began to occur all around. There was constant thunder. It was not rolling thunder, it was continuous thunder and lightning. It was a very dark night, but suddenly the sky was as bright as the noonday sun. It was “White Thunder”. Anthony who sang two songs then stopped and spoke a few words. When he stopped singing and spoke the lightning and thunder ceased. When he began singing again, the same constant thunder and lightning occurred again. I sat there astounded. Witnessing this phenomenon, I understood the origin of his name “White Thunder”. Anthony completed his turn singing and the thunder and lightning again stopped. He passed the instruments to his left. I opened his Peyote box that was sitting between us, so that he could place his gourd back into his box. I looked at Anthony and our eyes locked. I said, “Damn! That’s powerful.” With an austere gaze at me, he momentarily shook the gourd in his hand. Simultaneously, there was a quick burst of thunder and lightning. Anthony then placed his gourd back in his Peyote box. I treasure the experience of Anthony introducing me to “White Thunder”.

Anthony lived with Linda and I for several months a year for the next twelve years. We had marvelous experiences together until he passed on. The three of us went down to the Amada’s every year for the annual meeting. He was in high demand to lead Peyote meetings throughout Indian country. I traveled with him to many Peyote meetings. We sure enjoyed ourselves together.

Like all Indians, he was a great storyteller, but Anthony’s presence communicated something beyond words. Anthony always taught me, “Whatever happens, take it in a good way. It’s all good.” Anthony “White Thunder” Davis was a blessing in our lives.

We can experience the Mystery, yet we are confronted with a Great Mystery that our small minds can never grasp.

Table of Photos, Charts and Illustrations

Figure 1 – Gathering War Party ……………………................................................................ 2 

Figure 2 - The Old Cheyenne – Edward Curtis …………….................................................... 2 

Figure 3 – Peyote Cactus in bloom ……................................................................................... 3 

Figure 4 – Summer of Love …………...................................................................................... 4 

Figure 5– Amada Cardenas, age 68 ………….......................................................................... 5 

Figure 6 – Rutherford Loneman Southern Arapaho ………..................................................... 6 

Figure 7 – Jerry & Linda Patchen at Peyote Meeting ..............……………………………… 7 

Figure 8 – Indian Delegation testifying to Oklahoma Constitutional Convention, 1907…….. 9 

Figure 9 – Quanah Parker ……………..................................................................................... 9 

Figure 10 – James Mooney, U.S. Bureau of Ethnology........................................................... 10 

Figure 11 – Peyote Meeting at Mirando City, Texas ……………………………………...... 14 

Figure 12 – Frank Takes Gun, 1956 ………........................................................................... 14 

Figure 13 – Claudio, Sr. and Amada Cardenas …………....................................................... 15 

Figure 14 – Rare Snake Peyote in bucket on Amada Cardenas’ porch.............…………….. 16 

Figure 15 – First Officers of the NAC of the U.S. ………………………………................. 17 

Figure 16 – Frank Takes Gun, Sam Captain, Dela Oliver, James Oliver ......………………..18 

Figure 17 – Officers of NAC U.S. …………………………………….................................. 18 

Figure 18 – The San Bernardino Daily Sun Article ………………….................................... 19 

Figure 19 – Reunion Peyote Meeting at Amada’s in late 1990’s, with Judge Kazen Family.. 20 

Figure 20 – William Russell, Frank Takes Gun and Humphry Osmond ……….................... 21 

Figure 21- Anthony “White Thunder” Davis holding anhinga fan ……................................. 23 

Figure 22 – Michelle Mackey oil painting of jaguar vision …………................................... 24 

Figure 23 – Anthony “White Thunder” Davis, Justin Patchen and Jerry Patchen......……… 25 

Figure 24 – White Star – Mother of Anthony “White Thunder” Davis ………….................. 25 

Figure 25 – Anthony “White Thunder” Davis holding Mexican eagle “Totachi” .................. 26 

[1] Author’s comment: The Cherokee Trail of Tears is well known, as is the Wounded Knee Massacre. Every tribe experienced its own genocide, land seizure, displacement and removal to reservations. By way of example the Pawnee tribe had a population over 10,000 before the Indian Wars. By the time of their removal, they numbered approximately 1,500. The proud Cheyenne, fierce warriors, victims of the Sand Creek massacre, came near total extinction. The Wichita tribe that numbered in the thousands was reduced to 572 when they were removed to an Oklahoma reservation. Dee Brown’s best seller book, Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee is an excellent treatise on the American Indian Genocide.

[2] Swan, Daniel C., Peyote Religious Art – Symbols of Faith and Belief. Univ. Press of Mississippi (1999): 3

[3] Stewart, Omer C. Peyote Religion: A History. Norman, Okla.: U of Oklahoma Pr., 1987. 224; Authors’ note Omer Stewart, long time anthropologist at the University of Colorado, dedicated his lifework to the study of Peyote. Stewart’s book Peyote Religion, is the seminal treatise on Peyote. Stacy Schaefer definitive study, Peyotism; Amada’s Blessings from the Peyote Gardens of South Texas. Univ. of New Mexico Press. (2015) is a remarkable contemporary book lovingly focused on Amada Cardenas; See also: La Barre, Weston, The Peyote Cult, Yale Univ. Publications in Anthropology – Number 19. Yale Univ. Press (1938). Aberle, David, The Peyote Religion Among the Navaho. The Univ. of Chicago Press. (1966, revised 1982). Omer Stewart’s student, George Morgan produced an outstanding thesis on Peyote. Morgan, George R., Man, Plant and Religion – Peyote Trade on the Mustang Plains of Texas. Ph.D. Thesis. Univ. of Colorado, 1976

[4] A Road Chief is the NAC functional equivalent of a Catholic Priest, Jewish Rabbi or Zen Roshi. The term Road Man is used interchangeably with Road Chief.

[5] Terry, Martin, et al. "Lower Pecos and Coahuila Peyote: New Radiocarbon Dates." Journal of Archaeological Science 33.7 (2006): p. 1017- 1021.

[6] Ibid See also: Boyd, Carolyn. Rock Art of the Lower Pecos. Texas A&M University Press (2003)

[7] Stewart, Omer. Peyote Religion ibid. p. 18

[8] Stewart, Omer. Peyote Religion ibid. p. 19

[9] Swan, Daniel C., Peyote Religious Art. ibid p. 3

[10] Ramo de inquisicion, tomo 289, Archivo General de la Nacion Mexico City, cited in Leonard, Irving A. “Peyote and the Mexican Inquisition, 1620.” American Anthropologist 44.2 (1942): p.324-26

[11] Stewart, Omer. Peyote Religion. Ibid. 21-22

[12] Stewart, Omer. “Peyote and Colorado Inquisition Law.” The Colorado Quarterly 5, no. 1 (Summer 1956): p.79-90

[13] Quanah Parker’s mother, Cynthia Ann Parker, was an Anglo that was kidnapped as a child by the Comanches and reared as a Comanche.

[14] Stewart, Omer. Peyote Religion ibid. Chapter 6, Early Efforts to Suppress Peyote. p.128-147.

[15] See: Trout, Keeper. “Mescal, Peyote and the Red Bean; A Peculiar Conceptual Collision in Early Modern Ethnobotany”, ESPD 50 Book

[16] Stewart, Omer. Peyote Religion. Ibid. Chapter 8, Efforts to Pass a Federal Law. p.213-238, at 216.

[17] Stewart, Omer. Peyote Religion. Ibid. p. 221

[18] Stewart, Omer. Peyote Religion. ibid. p. 219-222

[19] Franz Boas, Ph.D. Columbia, A.L. Kroever, Ph.D., University California Berkeley, Ales Hrdlicka, Ph.D. Smithsonian Institution (anthropologist and M.D.), John P. Harrington Smithsonian Institution, M.R. Harrington, Ph.D., Curator Southwest Museum, Los Angeles, California, Weston La Barre, Ph.D. Yale, Vince Petrullo, Ph.D., Works Progress Administration, Washington, D.C.; Personal Archives of author from Frank Takes Gun

[20] Personal Archives of author from Frank Takes Gun

[21] Weston La Barre, Ph.D., Duke Univ., David McAllester Ph.D., Wesleyan Univ., J.S. Slotkin, Ph.D., Univ. of Chicago, Omer Stewart, Ph.D.,Univ. of Colorado and Sol Tax, Ph.D., Univ. of Chicago - Personal Archives of author from Frank Takes Gun

[22] Personal Archives of author from Frank Takes Gun

[23] Personal Archives of author from Frank Takes Gun

[24] Sherbert vs. Verner, 374 US 398 (1963) , p. 402, 403

[25] Title 42 USC 2000bb-1 RELIGIOUS FREEDOM RESTORATION ACT of 1993 Sec. 3, Free exercise of religion protected
(a) In general - Government shall not substantially burden a person's exercise of religion even if the burden results from a rule of general applicability, except as provided in subsection (b).
(b) Exception - Government may substantially burden a person's exercise of religion only if it demonstrates that application of the burden to the person— (1) is in furtherance of a compelling governmental interest; and (2) is the least restrictive means of furthering that compelling governmental interest.

[26] American Indian Religious Freedom Act (AIRFA) Amendment, 42 USC § 1996a
Sec. 2 - Traditional Indian Religious Use of Peyote (b)(1) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the use, possession, or transportation or peyote by an Indian for bona fide traditional ceremonial purposes in connection with the practice of a traditional Indian religious is lawful, and shall not be prohibited by the United States or any State. No Indian shall be penalized or discriminated against on the basis of such use, possession or transportation, including, but not limited to, denial of otherwise applicable benefits under public assistance programs.
(2) This section does not prohibit such reasonable regulation and registration by Drug Enforcement Administration of those persons who cultivate, harvest, or distribute peyote as may be consistent with the purposes of this section and section 1996 of this title.

[27] Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Benficiente Uniao do Vegetal (UDV) 546 U.S. 418 (2006) Author’s comment: Working with Jeffrey Brofman, as an attorney representing the UDV, I found Jeffrey to be courageous, caring and unyieldingly dedicated to his stewardship of the UDV. Brofman is the Quanah Parker of the UDV.

[28] Oregon Church of the Holy Light of the Queen v. Mukasey 615 F.Supp.2d 1210 (D. Or., 2009)

[29] 21 C.F.R. § 1307.31 (1985) (“The listing of peyote as a controlled substance in Schedule I does not apply to the nondrug use of peyote in bona fide religious ceremonies of the Native American Church, and members of the Native American Church so using peyote are exempt from registration. Any person who manufactures peyote for or distributes peyote to the Native American Church, however, is required to obtain registration annually and to comply with all other requirements of law.”)

[30] Alaska Stat. § 11.71.195 (2017)

[31] A.R.S. § 13-3402 (2017).

[32] People v. Woody (1964) 61 Cal 2d 716, 40 Cal Rptr 69, 394 P2d 813, 1964. (California has no statutory exemption statute; instead, the right to use Peyote is based on case law.)

[33] C.R.S. 27-80-209 (2016).

[34] Idaho Code § 37-2732A (2017).

[35] Iowa Code § 124.204 (2016).

[36] K.S.A. § 65-4116 (2017).

[37] Minn. Stat. § 152.02 (2017).

[38] Nev. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 453.541 (2017).

[39] N.M. Stat. Ann. § 30-31-6 (2017)

[40] Whitehorn v. State, 1977 OK CR 65, 561 P.2d 539, 1977 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 435 (Okla. Crim. App. 1977). (Oklahoma has no specific statutory exemption; instead, the right to use Peyote is based on case law.)

[41] ORS § 475.752 (4) (2017).

[42] S.D. Codified Laws § 34-20B-14 (2016) 34-20B-14. Hallucinogenic substances specifically included in Schedule I. . . . (17) Peyote, except that when used as a sacramental in services of the Native American church in a natural state which is unaltered except for drying or curing and cutting or slicing, it is hereby excepted;

[43] Tex. Health & Safety Code § 481.111 (2017) Sec. 481.111. Exemptions. (a) The provisions of this chapter relating to the possession and distribution of peyote do not apply to the use of peyote by a member of the Native American Church in bona fide 30 religious ceremonies of the church. However, a person who supplies the substance to the church must register and maintain appropriate records of receipts and disbursements in accordance with rules adopted by the director. An exemption granted to a member of the Native American Church under this section does not apply to a member with less than 25 percent Indian blood.

[44] Utah Code Ann. § 58-37-8 (12)(b) (2016).

[45] Wis. Stat. § 961.115 (2017).

[46] Wyo. Stat. § 35-7-1044 (2017)

[47] Stewart, Omer. Peyote Religion, Ibid. p.339-375

[48] Morgan, George R. Man Plan and Religion. Ibid. p. iv

[49] Oral history told by Frank Takes Gun to author

[50] Montana v. Big Sheep, 243.P.1.1067, 75 Mont. p. 219 (1926)

[51] Personal Archives of author from Frank Takes Gun.

[52] The Native American Church is not a monolith. Since the formation of the Native American Church in Oklahoma in 1918, the NAC divided into various official organizations. The original NAC in Oklahoma was the mother church. It advised and aided the incorporation of NAC churches in other states, and in 1934 amended its charter accepting NAC churches from many states as legal affiliates. In 1944 the NAC of Oklahoma nationalized its name and amended its charter to the name of the Native American Church of the United States. A few years later, because some Oklahoma leaders preferred the old traditional state organization without national focus the NAC of Oklahoma reinstated its original name, the Native American Church. In 1950, a new charter was obtained for the NAC US without replacing the Oklahoma State Church. In 1955, the NAC US changed its name to the NAC of North America as a result of expansion into Canada. In 1946, because Texas was vital to the Peyote supply, a NAC US was also established in Texas of which Frank Takes Gun and four prominent NAC leaders from Oklahoma were the Trustees. Claudio Cardenas and Amada Cardenas were added as Trustees to the Texas NAC US in 1957. The only remaining NAC US is in Texas. Today, three primary National Native American Churches are the NAC of Oklahoma, the NAC of North America and the NAC of Navajoland. There are many small independent NAC churches without any national organizational affiliation. 

[53] Stewart, Omer. Peyote Religion, Ibid. p. 310-311. 

[54] Decision of the Honorable Yale McFate 

[55] State of Arizona vs. Mary Attakai, Superior Court, Coconino County, Flagstaff, Arizona, No. 4098 July 26, 1960. 

[56] The People v. Jack Woody, et al. 394 P. 2d. 831 (1964) 

[57] Stewart, Omer. Peyote Religion, Ibid. p. 308 

[58] The People v. Jack Woody, et al. Ibid. 

[59] David Clark became the first president of the Native American Church of Navajoland 

[60] The Laredo Times. Judge Kazen Honored by Indian Tribes In All Night Ceremony. October 13, 1969. No. 103 

[61] Personal Archives of author from Frank Takes Gun. 

[62] Personal Archives of author from Frank Takes Gun. 

[63] Proclus, On the Republic of Plato, Vol I.39.5-11. Author’s note: The 3rd century Neoplatonist philosopher, Iamblichus, advances the same idea.