APPENDIX 9: THE NATIVE AMERICAN CHURCH AND OTHER PEYOTE CHURCHES

The many attempted anti-peyote legal measures, and the frank hostility of some persons' 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 im-portant 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 reconsti-tuted the Church, the preliminary smoking of corn shuck cigarettes was abolished—a re-markable 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 peyotistsj 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 organiza-tion, 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 him-self 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 smokingj—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 back-sliding into the older native custom and retreating from the Russellite-influenced no-smok-ing 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.' 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 out-sider. 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 embrac-ing 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 19o9 there was an organization called the Union Church of mescal-eaters at Winnebago, Nebraska, which made use of the Bible.' 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 fore-runner 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 incorpora-tion was granted to "The Native American Church" at Oklahoma City under the Great Seal and the signature of the Secretary of State, dated October xo, 1918, and signed by Alfred Wilson (Cheyenne), Louis McDonald (Ponca), Delos Lonewolf (Kiowa) Herman McCarthy (Osage) and Tennequah (Comanche). The strongly intertribal nature° 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 head-quarters, 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, Wis-consin 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;1° in the latter state Jesse Clay was the first president" 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 organiza-tions 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 dub" 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 rep-resentative.

Of particular interest, however, is the Negro Church of the First-born, formerly exist-ing 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 mocca-sins. 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. Partici-pants 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" 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" as in the Indian ceremony, and cedar smoking is used only once toward the begin-ning. 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 ob-ject 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" 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 Firstborn
"Hebrews z2th 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    Mrs. J. L. Ramsey
Mother of the Household of the Faith    Assistant
Katie Hoggins    Mrs. Polly Marshall
Secretary of the Household of the Faith    Assistant.

The quotation from Hebrews 12.23 is 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, al-though there are suggestions" that Negro groups in South Dakota may have been influ-enced by peyotism.

1 The cult use of peyote has been persecuted not alone by legislatures and religious groups. The following broadside, obtained from Alfred Wilson(Cheyenne) through Enoch Smokey(Kiowa) was posted at Harry Ehoda's home in Mountain View, Oklahoma: "To all Indians addicted to the use of peyota and other forms of heathen or pagan forms of worsihip. You are herby warned to sPage form such degrading practices. Our Government has spent and is spending thousands of dollars each month to educate and life up the Indians and the Ku Kluck Klan of this state have determined that no Indian who has been educated by the Government shall come back home and debouch his people. Take Due Warning. The Clan in Your Community Will Look After You and Other Ku Kluck Klan of Okla."

2 Cf. Harry Rave (brother of John), quoting another Indian, in Seymour, Peyote Worship, 181: " 'My friend we must organize a church and have it run like the Mormon Church'." Could this have been Koshiway? Mot, mon interest in peyotism is indicated in letters to C. Warden (Arapaho) of Gary, Oklahoma, from the Latter Day Saints, which I have seen. See the Book of Mormon, I Nephig : 1-28.

3 Data on this charter from a note in Mooney, Peyote Notebook, 38.

4 This element introduced by Albert Hensley into Winnebago peyotism, was probably influenced by the Oto church, when Hensley made his visits in Oklahoma.

5 With this native "Oxford Movement" cf. the parallel cases of the Caddo defection from the Wilson rite to the Enoch Hoag "moon" and the Hensley separatists to the Rave and Jesse Clay groups, the latter in each case representing a more aboriginal phrasing of the ceremony.

6 Which is of course mere theory; actually there is considerable unconscious syncretism, and Belo himself frequently refers to Jesus in his prayers.

7 Report on the case, in Safford, Aztec Narcotic, 306. "Twelve years ago the Otoes brought the new reli, gion to the Winnebagoes and Omahas of Nebraska . . . . In talking with Albert Hensley, one of the prominent leaders, he said, 'The mescal was formerly used improperly, but since it has been used in connection with the Bible it is proving a great benefit to the Indians. Now we call our church the Union Church instead of Mescal, eaters' " (Letter, April r 5, 19o9 in Blair, The Indian Tribes, 282.)

8 From articles of incorporation kindly lent me by James Waldo (Kiowa). The origina I paper was lost by Mooney in Washington; Kiowa Charley's copy gives the date Oct. 29, s9i9—probably a duplicate reissue. Other data from Murdock and Wilson.

9 From 1918 to 1936 the officials have been (president, vice-president and treasurer, respectively): Frank Eagle (Ponca), Mack Haag (Cheyenne), Calumet, Louis MacDonald (Ponca), Ponca City; Mack Haag, Delos Lonewolf (Kiowa), Carnegie, James Waldo(Kiowa),Verden ;Delos Lonewolf, Alfred Wilson (Cheyenne), Thomas, James Waldo; Alfred Wilson, Ned Brace (Kiowa) Mountain View, Oscar Whyel (Kickapoo); Alfred Wilson, Ned Brace, Louis Toyebo (Kiowa); Ned Brace, Frank Cayou (Omaha), Edgar McCarthy (Osage); Frank Cayou, Alfred Wilson, Edgar McCarthy. George Pipestem (Oto) of Red Rock was the secretary of the Native American Church from its founding until his death in 1936.

10 Letter of C. C. Guinn of Guinn Es' Maddox, Attorneys, to Mack Haag, President of the Native American Church, dated Hardin, Montana, Feb. 16, 1926; Densmore, The Peyote Cult.

11 Elections of officials are held yearly in Nebraska instead of every two years as in Oklahoma.

12 Condensed from Mrs. M. G. Smith's article, A Negro Peyote Cult. Mrs. Smith does not mention any possible Oto influence, which, in view of the near-identity of the name appears probable.

13 This occurs in no Indian peyote ceremony known to the writer. This deliberate destructive act suggests a symbolic aggression. The psychic mechanisms underlying this behavior have been shown with fine perception in John Dollard's penetrating book Caste and Class in a Southern TOW'S.

14 This again suggests Oto influence.

15 Cf. the related emetic rites!

16 Reko, Ein Kultus die Gespenster, 431: "Die Christian Peyotl Church in South Dakota benutzt diese Dinger an Stelle der Hostie und verabreicht sie bei der Kommunion and die Glaiibigen. Daneber haben sie jen, seits der Grenze noch eine nicht unbedeutende Kunschaft in der nordamerikanischen Indianer und den Schwarzen die die Mescalbottons [sic] freilich keineswegs zum Kommunizieren benuttzen."