Our talk in class about peyote and its uses in the Native American Church reminded me of Sherman Alexie's book, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven. The work is basically a collection of short stories centering around Alexie's experiences growing up on a reservation in
Washington state. In one chapter, he and a few friends stumble upon some psychosylabic mushrooms and head off into the woods to try to reconnect with their ancestors in the spiritual world, or as his friend says, "do some real Indian shit." The point of the story was to show how disconnected his generation had grown from their tribal roots, reverting to popular drugs to try and reaffirm their Indian identity.
I think drugs such as peyote and other natural psychedelics carry with them a misconception about tribal life before the Native American Church. Alexie's tribe had no history of ceremonies involving psychedelics (only tribes in Mexico and Texas, where the cactus grows naturally, involved the drug in their religion), yet he felt that to truly be an Indian he had to trip into some other dimension and talk with spirits and ghosts. I know that I have had multiple discussions with my friends about trying peyote, going out in the woods, and doing some real Indian shit, man. Just last week I was watching Reno 911 and the guest character, who was an Indian, tripped peyote with the officers.
I am not trying to smear the tenants of the Native American Church or anything, but I think popular culture has embraced an incorrect image of pan-Indian drug use. Regardless of geographic location or tribal history, peyote has now become synonymous with all native spiritual practices, and that is wrong. I think it's just another example of how society at large ignores the diversity of native culture, and instead just lumps them all together as "Indians."
3 comments:
You make some really great points in your article. Many of which I never really thought about before. It is true that we paint the Native American experience with a wide brush, often lumping them together into one catagory and determining that to be what it is to be Indian. It is difficult for the young Native people to identify with their traditional ways because they are constantly bombarded with outside influences. I think it would be especially difficult while going to public schools who often overlook the history of the native American. Hopefully, as a future social studies teacher, I can do a better job than those teachers did in teaching me about the Indian culture.
I would have to agree with your statement about the blurred conception of Indian religion. I think that the usage of drugs probably doesn't help establish new enlightenment but however there are many other tribes throughout the world that use substances for spiritual purposes.
Unfortunately, I think America is no better at understanding Indian issues now than it was a century ago. It really must be difficult for Indian adolescents growing up to try and embrace their culture, many who identify as American and members of their Indian tribes. I think this is so often the case with immigrating people trying to maintain their heritage and culture, while embracing a new one.
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