"PEYOTE CHURCH" DRUG CULT IS FOUND AMONG WISCONSIN INDIANS
O'Brien, J. Paul
"Peyote Church" Drug; Cult Is Found Among Wisconsin Indians Cactus Preparation Stupefies Followers of Rites; Studv Habit Effect By J. PAUL O'BRIEN PEYOTE, a drug which has betn variously called...
...That is where I first came into ipontact with mescal or peyote...
...Superior, reported expenditures of $871 and debts of $27...
...When the Indians became crazy drunk Cn mescal, they were unceremoniously deposited in a dry well in the plaza •f the village until they yelled themselves to sleep and awoke sober...
...while the Gehl-for-Judgc club of Hartford, through Its secretary Roy E. Kelso, reported spending $890 and owing $366...
...Changed to Buttons' "That is the way the Kickapoos acquired the mescal habit, and from that they went to peyote beans or buttons, which have a somewhat bitter or puck-ery taste...
...Gehl spent SI.167...
...but because of its religious significance little effort hsus teen made to stamp out'peyote...
...Tenure Loses By Close Vote In State Ballot MADISON—The fight over teachers' tenure in Wisconsin will break out with new fury when the slule legislature convenes again, In January, 1841, The official vote In the April referendum, announced last week by the secretary of stale's department, showed an extremely close division of sentiment...
...As the prohibition enforcement agents began to extend their operations to include peyote, a society was formed among the Omahas known as the 'Peyote Society.' By this means It was possible to cloak the use of peyote as a ceremonial or religious rite and invoke the constitutional right of religious freedom as a bar to operations of the special officers...
...The Daley-for-Judge club of Polk county, through its secretary Clarence Hallberg, Balsam Lake, reported expenditures of $60...
...Many of the Winnebagos make use of it and attend what are known as 'peyote meetings,'" the Rev...
...John J. Boyle, of Madison, recently met an Indian hign priest of the church at Tomah, Wis., which is only about 100 miles northwest of Madison...
...of the University of Chicago department of anthropology, who has been making a study of the Winnebago tribe for several years...
...That it has taken firm root here is attested to by reports emanating from Wittenberg, Tomali...
...Philip G. Fox, of the University of Wisconsin school of commerce, for two slot machines to be used for experimental purposes in university statistics classes was granted by Superior Judge Roy H. Proctor last week...
...May Be Habit-Forming Although medical authorities are unanimous in stating that peyote does have a stimulating narcotic effect, they are divided as to whether the drug is habit-forming...
...Sihler and others report that the spread of the peyote church has caused great interest among medical men and anthropologists...
...peyote is a small hard pellet formed from the shredded Toots and stalks of the cactus plant...
...Got Court Aid "This was a clever and crafty defense on the part of the Indian users of this drug as there is no end of sympathy aroused among maudlin sentimentalists in behalf of the abused and downtrodden I.idians...
...Peyote is a product of the cactus plants of the southwest United States and Mexico...
...2 elections, official figures in the secretary of state's office showed last week...
...Thomas W. Foley, Superior, candidate for judge in the 11th circuit who withdrew before the election, spent $55...
...O. C. McCollow...
...Saw Indians Affected "It finally got so that most of the Kickapoos were in Mexico when it came time to renew leases or complete transfer of title to heirship lands...
...I was working in Oklahoma 36 Jears ago when I first heard of this Substance...
...Fox stated that the slot machines would be useful to the university In demonstrating the law of probabilities and the sampling theory in statistics...
...Rector contended that the Republican-controlled legislature of 1939 worded the tax commission reorganization law in such way aa to give Barlow absolute authority over the commission staff subject to no review by the courts...
...But according to some doctors, marijuana also is not habit-forming...
...29 and W. R. McCabe...
...Contributors to this club were Sen...
...The Rev...
...R. J. Dempsey...
...all over again next January...
...To members of the "peyote church...
...Minnesota and Wisconsin...
...Leon Srole...
...Fred Bloor, $10, and O. P. Kissel...
...field aide of the Lac Courte Oreilles agency, 'it Reserve, Wis...
...We had to get rid of the accumulation of lease and land sale money, so I made a trip down to the Kickapoo settlement in Mexico with a lot of deeds, leases, receipts, etc., as well as $8,000 or $10,000 in federal treasury-checks payable to the Indians...
...Zeta McCollow...
...The Indian custom was to get on a week's drunk, then sober up and leave it entirely alone for a considerable length of time...
...Blanche Kissel...
...Right of Courts to Review GOP Firings Denied THE courts of Wisconsin have no right to compe: reinstatement of discharged employes of the state tax commission, J. Ward Rector, deputy attorney general, argued last week in behalf of Elmer Barlow, Gov...
...The club reported it had received $43,747 from the Garner for President committee and spent the same amount...
...It requires that the name, quantity and percentage of peyote be stated on a label, and that the label bear the usual narcotics warning, 'May be habit-forming...
...while the Taylor-for-Judge club of Barron, through John W. Sodcrberg, Its secretary spent $1,277 on behalf of Taylor's candidacy...
...According to agents of the bureau of Indian affairs, the federal government annually appropriates money for the suppression of traffc among the Indians of intoxicating beverages and other deleterious and injurious drugs "including peyote...
...is making inroads among the Indians of Wisconsin...
...According to various sources on the subject, the Indians sat in a circle, beat drums and at regular intervals consumed peyote buttons...
...Wiley recently after a scientific indictment of peyote before the senate committee on Indian affairs concluded: "So far as building up a peyote church is concerned, if that is established we will have an alcohol church, a cocaine church and an opium church and any person who wants to use drugs and escape the legal penalties for doing so can call It a religious rite...
...Studv Habit Effect By J. PAUL O'BRIEN PEYOTE, a drug which has betn variously called •'God's flesh" and the "devil's curse...
...2 primaries...
...U. of W. to Get Slot Machines ForExperiment A request of Prof...
...Lawsuits and restraining orders were invoked to prevent this 'ruthless' invasion of the fight of religious freedom...
...Moore pointed out...
...See God," Claim Jesuits report that the Indians claim that the consumption of peyote enables them to "see God...
...effective June 25, 1939, groups peyote with cocaine, heroin-marijuana, morphine and opium," Mr...
...The "peyote church" as it exists in Wisconsin is believed to be of this semi-Christian type...
...S. J., who for some years was a missionary among the Sioux in South Dakota told of the spread of the "peyote church" into the Dakotas, Montana...
...Boyle said the Indian told him of the ceremonies of the church, and that the ceremonies as the Indian described them are quite similar to those of Christian churches...
...to doctors and to the missionaries and agents who work .among the Indians, peyote is an evil to be crushed, a "diabolic root,"—a drag ,as vicious as marijuana or cocaine...
...To toxicologists...
...Hell's $7,000 a year tax commissioner...
...At first, ceremonies of the "Peyote church" were very similar to Indian ceremonials, with the church adher-ants gathering in the home or tepee of a high priest at sundown...
...U. S. Dist...
...During the weeks in which the bill was debated in the legislature, Republicans frequently argued that the Progressives were wrong In contending that the measure wrecked civil service protections...
...After he left the Southwest, he heard little of peyote among the Indians until about five years ago while he was stationed among the scattered Poto-watomi Indians in northeastern Wisconsin, Blakeslee said...
...Prof...
...All of the machines had been seized as gambling devices by sheriff's officers during 1939...
...Atty...
...Judge Proctor ordered two machines, seized at the Nakoma country club a year ago, turned over to Prof...
...Since the rcfp-endum was advisory and not binding on the legislature, the two camps will have to fltjht the Issue out...
...Blakeslee said that for some time after this, efforts were made to atop the spread of peyote by government officers yvho travelled along the Mexican border, purchasing quantities of the drug intended for Indian consumption and destroying it...
...The act...
...I was located on an Indian reservation in eastern Nebraska in 1908 about ,the time the Omahas and Winnebagos became addicted to the use of peyote...
...At the same lime, he ordered four other slot machines, two clgaret machines, 20 punch boards, one E-Z picking jar and one other device destroyed this afternoon...
...I noticed several Indians walking around with an uncorked bottle protruding from belts or hip pockets and in various stages of intoxication...
...A. A. Hauser...
...It is drug addiction, pure and simple...
...Referring to the peyote church, Mr...
...That would cause death within six months...
...Moore quoted from statements made by Dr...
...Founding and growth of the "peyote church" is a direct result of efforts to stamp out use of the drug among .Indians in Oklahoma previous to 1910, According to George H. Blakeslee...
...Philip Nelson <P), Maple...
...John N. Garner in the Apr...
...E. W. Sihler, superintendent of the Bethany Indian mission, at Wittenberg, writes...
...He said that he intercepted the shipments and reported them to the bureau cf Indian affairs at Washington and was informed that despite the fact that peyote was classified as i narcotic, the policy of the then Indian administradtion was "not to interfere with the use of the drug .until more tangible evidence of addiction and other harmful results was obtainable...
...9,496 Spent In Campaigns For Judgeships Taylor, Heil Appointee, Spent Highest Individual Amount A total of $9,496 was spent by and on behalf of candidates for circuit judgeships in the Apr...
...In a recent article in "Jesuit Missions...
...43,747 Spent In Campaign For Garner The Wisconsin Garner for President club reported to the secretary of state last week it had spent a total of 543.747 on behalf or the delegates supporting Vice Pres...
...Tells of "Church" Spread But while Blakedee lost contact with the drug for many years after leaving Oklahoma, the "peyote church," started among the Omahas, spread until missionaries no<j variously report that it numbers between 20.-0OO and 100.000 believers...
...George Kissel Jr., and Carl Peck, each $49.50...
...According to various missionaries, the services were patterned after Catholic, Lutheran or other Christian services with the priests distributing peyote buttons in the same manner that Catholic priests or Protestant ministers distribute communion...
...T. F. Longlin...
...Harvey w. Wiley, chief chemist of the federal department of agriculture...
...Fox requested by letter that two of the machines be turned over to the university, Judge Proctor said...
...Srole last winter attended several of the peyote meetings at Wittenberg, but that he has as yet made no report on his findings...
...Highest individual amount was spent by Charles A. Taylor, Barron, Heil appointee to the bench of the Hth Judicial circuit, who was defeated by Carl H. Daley, Superior...
...Fox stated that his btatistlcs classes have already found use for dice-throwing devices and other glambling machines in experimental work, and declared that by means of experiments with slot machines, students would be able to determine just what are the chances prisons lake when they play slot machines...
...Moore pointed out that under the new federal food, drug and cosmetics act, any drug product containing peyote if shipped in interstate commerce is subject to jurisdiction of federal law...
...There have been meetings last fall and this winter in our locality and at times they were almost weekly affairs...
...As it is used among believers m the "peyote church...
...William J. Moore...
...Taylor reported spendng $1,462...
...The following were listed as having contributed to Gehl's campaign: Irene Hauser...
...president of the club, for travel and expenses, $1,249 to Willam R. Callahan, Milwaukee, for travel and expenses, and $265 to James E. Finne-gan, Milwaukee, delegate-at-large, for travel and expenses...
...While Boyle could not recall offhand the Indian's name, he said the man lives near Tomah and that from his conversation he concluded that he was only one of the many Wisconsin believers in the "peyote church...
...Sihler reports that Dr...
...Prof...
...In his article In "Jesuit Missions...
...Opponents of teachers' tenure registered 403.782 as compared with 372,-524 for friends of tenure, or a difference of 31,258 votes...
...The shipments originated from a southwestern Wisconsin city...
...Superior, $39...
...Blakeslee said...
...Henry Lockney, Waukesha, Heil appointee in the 13th judicial circuit, who was defeated by Edward J. Gehl, Hartford, spent 51,182...
...In granting the request, Judge Proctor ordered, however, that the cash drawers and fronts of the machines de destroyed, leaving only the mechanism for the university's nurnose In his letter to Judge Proctor, Prof...
...G. A. Kissel, P. L. Weyenberg...
...In liquid form, it is known as mescal, a vicious, nerve-destructive liquor used to some extent among Mexican peons...
...Among the expenses listed were $1,230 to John J. Slocum, Wausau...
...The effect of the peyote was first to exhilirate and then stupify the eater...
...Oklahoma was being rapidly settled with an unending stream of homeseekers, and the Kickapoos took adavntage of this influx to sell or lease their lands and move to Mexico, where they could 'live in the old way,' as they frequently Expressed it...
...As the church spread, it included among its members more and more Christian Indians, and among them the ceremonies became quite different...
...Demolition of the devices was recommended by Court Commissioner Douglas A. Nelson, before whom hearings had been held to perpetuate testimony branding the machines and punch boards as gambling devices...
...and various other parts of the state where large numbers of Indians live...
...Among these men is Dr...
...The Daley-for-Circuit Judge committee, through its secretary E. A. Salen...
...Some Meet Weekly That the use of peyote is rapidly spreading among Wisconsin Indians Is verified by Lutheran missionaries stationed at Wittenberg, Wis...
...At that time, he said, he learned of consignments of peyote beans being received by mall by a Potowatomi Indian...
...which has assumed a strange role in the lives of thousands of Indians in this and other parts of the country, peyote is the worldly re-incarnation of the body of God—it is what communion is to the Christian...
...Blakeslee said...
...It was said one could not drink enescal like a white man drinks whiskey, a highball or toddy every day or every few days...
...As the Kickapoo Indians were buffeted back and forth between Oklahoma and Mexico, they introduced the peyote into Oklahoma where intoxicants were being incrasingly more difficult to obtain as the federal government began to bear harder and harder on enforcement of laws prohibiting the furnishing of liquors to Indians...
...Grace Bailey...
...The Rev...
...Daley, who defeated Taylor for the office of circuit judge spent $1,174...
...Little is popularly known of peyote or the "peyote church" outside of 'medical, entomological and other scientific reports, but both have long proved <a problem to Indian agents and to missionaries of all denominaitons who work among the Redmen...
...Is Recent in Wisconsin While the "peyote church" has been established for several decades in many parts of the country, its presence in Wisconsin is a comparatively recent development...
Vol. 10 • April 1940 • No. 17
