Part 11

It must not be thought, however, that the bold innovations begun by John Wilson and others have resulted in a complete chaos of individualism. It requires considerable prestige and force of personality to vision a moon impressively enough to gain an adequate following. In recent years leaders in the Native American Church have expressed themselves unfavorably on the growing variety and profusion of rival moons, and have urged a return to the standardized simplicity of the older more deeply entrenched forms. Perhaps for this reason, and personality factors as well, several new “moons” have been considerably less than complete successes. A case in point is that of Albert Stamp (Seminole). His design is not strikingly original or different from the moons of the Caddo among whom he lives: he has six concentric lozenges to Hoag’s four and has added three concentric triangles. That is all. But his moon has not found acceptance, and he has dismantled his cement altar, removing the entire central symbolic portion, leaving only the crescent and simple polygonal apron.[89]

This is only a single instance of a general movement back to more “pure” original forms, stimulated perhaps by the standardizing influence of the Native American Church. This sentiment has had its effect even upon followers of the Wilson Big Moon rite, which is apparently dying out among the Caddo-Delaware (though still strong among the Osage and Quapaw), in favor of the “more Caddo” Hoag moon. If a generalization might be made about the influence of the three tribes most important in the diffusion of Plains peyotism—the Kiowa, the Comanche and the Caddo (who because of their southerly position first received the new religion)[90]—we might call the Kiowa the original standardizers and teachers, who have departed only in the most minute ways from earlier forms; the Comanche the proselytizers and missionaries of the new religion; and the Caddo[91] the innovators.

_Fire._ Nowhere is the kind of wood for the fire ritually prescribed. Mulberry, slippery elm, cottonwood and black jack are said not to be good because they pop and give off sparks, tending to scatter the carefully piled-up ashes. Red bud, which gives off much light and little heat, is a favorite for summer use, while box alder is considered good for winter. But “Grandfather Fire” (as the Delaware, Winnebago, Kickapoo and Shawnee address it) is built in a ritually prescribed way, like the angle of a worm-fence with the apex to the west. The Shawnee say the first four sticks represent tipi poles. The ritual number of peyotism, seven, appears in the number of sticks prescribed for the Northern Cheyenne and Taos.[92]

The fire stick at a Kickapoo-Shawnee meeting attended near McCloud, Oklahoma, was elaborately carved with a crescent, a bird, a father peyote on a rosette, the word “Christ” and crossed sticks.[93] The Caddo say this fire stick is the “heart,” while the twelve interlacing sticks of the fire are the “ribs” and the two ash mounds the “lungs” of Jesus; in some Caddo moons two fireman put sticks on alternately.[94] The Wilson moon of the Quapaw and Delaware has three firemen who sit by the door to fan entrants. The Arapaho[95] leader chooses his hictänäⁿtcä or “fire chief” by silently pointing an eagle wing-feather at him, which the latter uses as a fan during the ceremony; the feather of the Ponca fireman is a symbol of authority. The ceremonial fire as a trait is Mexican, Southwestern, Southeastern and southern Plains (e.g., Caddo and Hasinai), but as involved in peyotism it is a Mexican-Southwestern borrowing rather than Southeastern.[96]

_Ashes._ An interesting feature, remotely suggesting the Southwest, is the building up of the ashes of the peyote fire into a figure. The commonest form is a crescent, smaller than and parallel to the crescent of the earthen moon, which is nearly universal in the Plains. At an early date the Comanche began making the ashes into the shape of a “sun eagle” and the Kiowa into a “humming-bird.” The Shawnee and Kickapoo call it a “water bird”; one Shawnee leader occasionally makes buffalo heads. A Pawnee leader, Good Sun, makes an “eagle” in the ashes. Jonathan Koshiway (Oto) says the bird is “the holy spirit when Jesus was baptized; it’s got good eyes like an eagle—you can’t fool it.”[97]

The separation of the ashes into two piles in the Big Moon rite comes in for similarly varying interpretations. A Delaware informant said that on one’s journey in life toward the peyote “if you’re the right kind of fellow you can pass the fire and everything opens up” like the Red Sea. Some say the two ash piles are the lungs of Jesus; others that one is the grave of John Wilson and the other the grave of Jesus Christ. Some Osage say the whole interior of the altar represents a grave.

_Smoking._ Most of the variations in this ceremony are rather minor. In some groups like the Kiowa only the leader or an older man prays; in others like the Oto all pray aloud at the same time with individual prayers. The Kickapoo ask permission of the leader to make a smoke prayer. The Caddo stop the singing while a prayer is going on, but this is not universal elsewhere. The rule not to pass a smoker or a person chewing peyote appears everywhere, save in the Wilson rite; in this only the leader smoked, and “show-offs” who made requests for tobacco were frowned upon. This descriptive fact is minuscule in importance, save in pointing out the authority of the leader and personality traits of Wilson himself. The original ceremony, as indicated by the Lipan, was a communal smoke at the beginning. The Osage are said to smoke cigars in their peyote meetings, but the usual insistence is on native materials, the corn shuck or, occasionally, the oak leaf cigarette.[98]

In view of the nearly universal ritual use of tobacco in the Americas, the negative cases which occur are interesting. This is traceable to the influence of White Protestantism of the “Russellite” sect in Kansas upon the founder of the Church of the First-born, Jonathan Koshiway. Persuaded by the Kiowa, however, Koshiway and the Oto later abandoned this prohibition, but meanwhile it had spread to other groups. The Iowa[99] “threw away” smoking along with liquor, and did not smoke in peyote meetings. The conjectured Oto origin of Winnebago peyotism is seemingly confirmed by their rejection of smoking in the Jesse Clay meetings:[100]

My elder brother [says Crashing Thunder upon conversion to peyote] hereafter I shall only regard Earthmaker as holy. I will make no more offerings of tobacco. I will not use any more tobacco. I will not smoke, nor will I chew tobacco. I have no further interest in these things.

The non-use of tobacco in peyote meetings appears to be Pawnee[101] as well. Nowadays, as though in compensation for his earlier defection from the pure native rite, Koshiway uses extraordinarily long six-inch corn shucks.

_Sage._ Sagebrush is used in several ways in peyote meetings: around the periphery of the tipi as a seat, in a cross or rosette under the father peyote on the altar, and in the perfuming ceremony before eating peyote, when it is rubbed between the palms, smelled and rubbed over the head and arms, body and legs.[102] Sometimes a bunch of sage tied together is passed around with the singing-staff also.[103] Dr. Parsons says that at Taos[104] the perfuming is done “to keep the smell of it [on us] so we won’t feel weak or dizzy”; and as a similar protective function of sage is reported by Opler for the Lipan and the “Sun Dance weed” by Mrs. Cooke for the Ute, it is evidently widespread. The Ute sometimes place a willow rope around the tipi, about four feet in from its circumference.

_Passing of Objects._ The standard clockwise circuit of tobacco, sage, peyote, paraphernalia, water, food and persons has already been described. This trivial ritual has nevertheless been made the vehicle of expression of the leader’s authority to change it. Sometimes the circuit begins at the door (Lipan), sometimes at the leader or cedar chief (Iowa), and elsewhere smokes may begin at the leader but food and water at the southeast.[105] In the morning after the untying of the drum the ritual paraphernalia and the father peyote are commonly passed around for participants to handle (Kickapoo, Kiowa, Ponca, etc.) The Ponca make a point of passing the water between the fire and the paraphernalia at the altar-cloth in the midnight ceremony.

The obsessive, involutional quality of ritualism is nowhere better illustrated than in the minutiae of these rules for passing. We have particularized for the Kiowa the standard modes of passing paraphernalia,[106] but even experienced “peyote boys” are in need of instruction concerning the “way” of an unfamiliar leader when they visit other tribes. The Northern Cheyenne, for example, may not pass the drum in his clockwise circuit to leave the tipi, save in grave emergencies when permission is asked of the leader through the fireman. One may not pass a person praying or smoking or eating peyote, and must again consult the leader to see if the way out is clear; there is still another obstacle in the fireman, for no one may exit between him and his seat while he is fixing the fire (the smoker may temporarily put his smoke on the ground before him, or the fireman temporarily take his seat in these cases).

The Clay rite of the Winnebago has a unique method of passing objects: clockwise along the north from the leader to the fireman at the east, then counter-clockwise back to the leader and around along the south to the door, and again clockwise to the leader. The Caddo meticulously observe another rule in entering and leaving the tipi, as though the interior were divided into north and south sides: those on the south enter clockwise and exit counter-clockwise, while those on the north enter counter-clockwise and exit clockwise.

These sometimes complicated “rules” are not the least part of “learning about peyote,” and the ordering of them by the leader reflects similarly complex psychological transactions among individuals. For instance, the simple matter of leaving the tipi at recesses is involved in schism among the Caddo. Translating the terms, they cite the full-blood Caddo, Enoch Hoag’s, as the “systematic way,” or “pure tribal way,” to which they are currently returning (because the leader must be consulted before leaving); the half-Caddo, John Wilson’s, is “any kind of way” (because he is said to have abrogated some of these rules). The Seminole, Stamp, attempted a compromise, allowing persons to exit without permission if they observed the rules about not passing in front of a smoker or eater of peyote; “I’m right in the middle,” he said. But Elijah Reynolds says, “The older men were skeptical. He just made it up to gain influence among others. It’s a kind of racial feeling there.”

_Praying._ Minor variations occur in this procedure too. The Cheyenne are said to pray at great length—“an hour or more sometimes,” a Comanche told me. The Oto use cedar incense instead of tobacco when they pray. The Ponca pray in unison and audibly before the meeting, seated. The Winnebago stand up together to pray, and the leader stands up to pray with a confessant west of the altar. The Shawnee pray on getting the dirt for the “moon,” getting the sage, making the moon, putting a cross on it, cutting the corn shucks, when the food is brought in, etc. The door-man in Pawnee meetings makes a special prayer of dismissal. Often, as with the Kiowa and Oto, the “tribal priest” or curator of the tribal palladium is asked to make an official prayer at some time in the meeting. At Taos the chief prays before the line of worshippers enters inside, and all pray inside. Murie says all the Pawnee pray after the closing song, when the sun’s first rays strike the altar through the opened door.[107]

Mrs. Voegelin gives a typical Shawnee prayer:

My prayer is that of a pitiful man. And also these people here, visitors, I wish my creator to answer my prayer to take pity on those visitors. They came to my daughter’s meeting for some good reason to learn something about my daughter’s meeting. So each of us give blessing, and bless the water that was brought in this morning. So let our friendship purify it, that we might drink this water, to give us long life, and a better life; and I ask our father to bless all my children, and my wife, and all of us who are in this meeting tonight. I am glad my friends came here to help me with my prayer tonight, my daughter’s birthday meeting, and we thank thee for this food she brought in, that our friends who are going to eat this food, that they might feel better from now on in everyday life. We ask in the name of Jesus, Amen. (He then cried ceremonially at the finish of the prayer; a few tears ran down his cheeks.)

Praying in peyote meetings appears to have much of the psychological flavor of the old vision quest. The speaker’s voice becomes louder as he proceeds, earnest and quavering as he sways with the fullness of his emotion and stretches out his hands toward the peyote and the fire. Sometimes his speech is wholly interrupted by uninhibited broken sobbing as he cries out for the pity of the supernaturals. John Rave, the Winnebago teacher, said that “only if you weep and repent will you be able to attain knowledge.” Several of the Delaware face-paintings collected by Dr. Speck represent “crying for repentance.”

_Incense._ Cedar incense is invariably placed on the fire at the beginning of the ceremony to purify the paraphernalia and to “bless” the participants before they eat peyote. A patient or one sick from eating peyote is incensed and fanned with an eagle wing, and incense is burnt for the fireman at midnight when he returns with the water, for the leader on returning from the whistling ceremony outside, and for the water woman in the morning. Others extend the incensing and fanning to every person who re-enters the tipi after a recess, and the Wilson rite[108] has special officials to perform this duty. Many leaders about midnight provide for the cedar smoking of personally-owned feathers, drum sticks, gourds, etc., and permit individuals to use their own after midnight until morning in place of the equipment provided by the leader.

_Method of Eating._ Peyote is most commonly eaten in the raw dried state as “buttons,” but when obtainable, in the green form also, which is said to be more potent in action. Sometimes both are provided in the same ceremony, as well as peyote “tea,” a dark-brown infusion made of soaked and boiled buttons. For the old and sick the buttons may be soaked and softened in water, or pounded dry in mortars and molded into small moist balls; the latter form is reported for the Arapaho, Caddo, Delaware, Lipan, Osage and Winnebago. In chewing the dry buttons the Kiowa, Mescalero and others take care to pick off the fuzz on the top lest it cause sore eyes and blindness.[109]

_Singing._ The leader always sings the four sets of Esikwita or Mescalero Apache songs as his assistant drums: Hayätinayo (Opening Song), Yáhiyano (Midnight Song), Wakahó (Daylight Song) and Gayatina (Closing Song). All the other songs, sung by the participants during the rounds of the drum, are entirely optional. But the standard set songs are not everywhere used: those of the Ponca are said to be Comanche. The ritual songs of the Pawnee are in the Pawnee language, and those of the John Rave rite are in Winnebago (though the followers of Jesse Clay still use the Apache songs.) The circumstances of the origin of some famous songs by Quanah Parker, John Wilson (e.g., Heyowiniho) and Enoch Hoag (e.g., Yanahiano) are widely known.[110]

Many show Christian influence. The Iowa, for example, sing the following songs with Indian vocables, but in a high-pitched style which makes the English words nearly unrecognizable:

i. Jesus’ way is the only way. ii. Saviour Jesus is the only Saviour. iii. Oh, Lord, Lord, Lord! It is not everyone who says that who shall be saved. iv. I know Jesus now. v. You must be born again.

The closing song of the Winnebago varies; Yellowbank gave this one:

This is the road that Jesus showed us to walk in.

The followers of Rave close with the Lord’s prayer and a song about wings:

There are many wings [repeated five times] It is God’s will that there should be many wings.

The first of these is said to have come from the Arapaho, the second from Isaiah 6.2, although a New Testament explanation is offered.[111] The last song of the Pawnee meeting refers to Christ.[112]

Other Winnebago songs (with repetitions omitted) are as follows:

God, I thank you for all you have done for me through Jesus’ name.

(This is an opening song, according to Yellowbank. Another opening song:)

God’s Son says, “Get up and follow Me.” Jesus said, “You shall enter into the kingdom of God.”

The following are two morning songs:

Jesus said, “Whoever asks Me for water, I will give him the water of life. If I give him water he will never thirst again.”

The sun is coming up now. God made that light for us. We are living now. God made us. To God is the glory.

Other peyote songs are not sung at ritually-set times:

Jesus, how do we know, Jesus, how do we know [him]? We think about Jesus wherever we are.

How did I know, How did I know Jesus?

When I die I will be at the door of heaven and Jesus will take me in.

God said in the beginning, “Let there be light,” He meant it for you.

Son of God, have pity on us [repeat] Son of God, when you come again, Where your people (the angels) are, let us be.

This is God’s way [repeat]

Whosoever believeth in Him will have everlasting life. This is God’s way.

We are living humbly on this earth [five times] Our Heavenly Father, we want everlasting life through Jesus Christ. We are living humbly on this earth.

He is the only way, Christ is the Way of Life, He is the only way.[113]

Radin[114] adds the following Winnebago songs:

Ask God for life and he will give it to us.

God created us, so pray to him.

To the home of Jesus we are going, pray to him.

Come ye to the road of the son of God; come ye to the road.

_Midnight Ceremonies._ The whistling outside the tipi at the four quarters is variously rationalized. The Kickapoo say the leader’s circuit follows that of the singing inside, the Shawnee that he whistles at the cardinal points “on account of the four different winds.” The Northern Cheyenne, according to Hoebel, say they are following the instructions of their culture-hero Sweet Medicine in this, while the Comanche say the whistling is to “notify all things in all directions that we are having a meeting here in the center of the cross, and calling the great power to be with us while we drink so that it could hear our prayers.” The Winnebago “flute” blown at this time is to “announce the birth of Christ to all the world”; it also represents the trumpet of the Day of Judgment, and the leader’s otter skin hat symbolizes Christ’s crown of glory. Other Winnebago[115] say the whistling symbolizes the song of praise of the birds in heaven whom God created. The Arapaho say the whistling is an eagle’s cry when it is searching for water, and imitates its coming from a great distance until it dips its beak into the water.[116]

The midnight songs of the Pawnee are said to be for the protection of the man who fetches the water. Old-time Comanche used a paunch for the water, but a bucket is everywhere now used; Comanche and Iowa drinking begin at the cedar chief, rather than south of the door as is usual. The Ponca leader dips a feather in the water and sprinkles patients and those nearby with it; and Shawnee sacrifice a cupful to the earth before drinking. The Kickapoo and others drink directly from the bucket when the fireman brings the midnight water, but use a cup when the woman brings the morning water, in graceful symbolism. Some say the woman represents “Peyote Woman”; others, like the Wichita, identify her with older native powers.[117]

The Lipan have no midnight water ceremony. The Hoag (Caddo) rite has no water ceremonies until the drum has made four rounds of the tipi, but water is brought in for visitors who might call for it or provided outside to be drunk at recesses.[118] In Moonhead’s meeting the fireman gets a feather from the leader on leaving and touches the peyote on his return as he is fanned and incensed with cedar.

_Recess._ After the midnight water ceremony anyone can leave on permission of the leader when he has returned from the whistling ritual outside and been incensed with cedar smoke. People usually leave in twos and threes, as the meeting continues, but they return promptly since others may wish to go out. The Pawnee are apparently unique in their midnight recess: after the water ceremony all leave for a ten to twenty-five minute period, the paraphernalia meanwhile resting on the altar cloth.

_Doctoring._ Doctoring in peyote meetings (save those of the Kickapoo, Caddo and possibly the Osage)[119] is of prime importance, and in a majority of cases is the expressed purpose of calling a meeting. The supposed therapeutic virtues of peyote, or in the less technological view, its “power,” have been important in the history of the cult. Quanah Parker, the great Comanche proselytizer of peyote, at first opposed to it, was cured of a stomach ailment in 1884 and became one of the most enthusiastic proponents of the herb. Peyote doctoring has been the occasion many times of the spread of peyotism from tribe to tribe (e.g., the Kiowa bringing it to the Creek). Kiowa doctoring was also probably influential in modifying the Church of the First-born on Koshiway’s visit in their country, and in bringing it into the fold of the Native American Church.

The motives for the spread of peyotism in the Plains could perhaps be equally divided between doctoring and power-seeking, but the dichotomy is somewhat artificial in terms of native ideologies: indeed, the chief “power” one gets in meetings is for doctoring.[120] Winnebago attitudes recorded by Radin[121] find parallels elsewhere:

The first and foremost virtue predicated by Rave for the peyote was its curative power. He gives a number of instances in which hopeless venereal diseases and consumption were cured by its use; and this to the present day is the first thing one hears about it. In the early days of the peyote cult it appears that Rave relied principally for new converts upon the knowledge of this great curative virtue of the peyote.... Along this line lay unquestionably its appeal for the first converts. Its spread was due to a large number of interacting factors. One informant claims that there was little religion connected with it at first, and that people drank the peyote on account of its peculiar effects.

Densmore[122] says that prayer during Winnebago peyote doctoring “are petitions to God for the recovery of the sick person, not affirmations of his recovery.”

Opler quotes a Lipan informant on doctoring:[123]