Indians of North America -- Religion; Indians of North America -- Rites and ceremonies; Peyotism
Peyote taught Wilson many variations in the ceremony as well. He used
a crock instead of a kettle for the peyote drum. At one period in the
development of the ritual only the firemen did the drumming besides the
leader and his assistant (i.e., four men, three firemen and the leader’s
assistant, proceeded clockwise around the tipi with the drum, drumming
for each singer in turn, instead of the standard method of passing the
drum for all to use); Wilson did not require the drum to make four
rounds, for this might occasionally have interfered with the morning
rite of filing out of the tipi “to meet the sun” with raised arms and
prayer. In his rite only the leader made the initial prayer-smoke, though
older men might ask for smokes later in the night if they so desired.
Cigarettes could be made only at one of four places, one informant
stated: at the leader’s place, at the north or south at the ends of the
cross, and at the fireman’s place, and the leader had to smoke all of
them first. Upon reentering after a recess, each person was incensed and
fanned by the firemen and others to blow away whatever evil influences
might cling to him from the outside night. In time Wilson added special
functionaries at the cross-bars of the crucifix to perform this fanning,
making eight officials: two fanners, three firemen-drummers and three
leaders (road man, drummer and cedar man) symbolizing the Father, Son
and Holy Ghost of the Christian Trinity. In the Wilson rite there was
much touching of the father peyote as communicants made their circuit
of the altar on reentering. It is said that water could be asked for at
any time, and permission to leave was not necessary if the rules about
passing in front of an eater or smoker were observed.
Wilson himself took his “moon” to the tribes of northeastern Oklahoma.
The Shawnee were influenced impermanently, and today only Ernest Spybuck
has a modified Big Moon. The Seneca were influenced through the Quapaw,
whom Wilson first succeeded in deeply influencing. The Quapaw leader,
Victor Griffin, made a moon at Devil’s Promenade which was modified
around 1906 or 1907 from Wilson’s moon.[13] The Delaware around Dewey
were much influenced by Wilson from 1890-92 on.[14] But the Osage were
the most important converts. By 1902 “most of the Indians at the Hominy
camp and elsewhere in the Nation [had] taken it up and become devoted to
it.”[15] Black Dog, one of the first Osage converts, introduced the “West
Moon” in which the door is at the west and the altar similarly reversed;
most of the Osage moons today, however, are the standard Clermont east
moons. The Potawatomi may have been influenced by the teachings of Wilson
somewhat also.[16] Wilson’s nephew, Anderson, brought the Seneca peyote
in 1907 on the request of a Seneca married to a Quapaw woman.[17]
The economic motive seems evident in much of Wilson’s behavior. Speck
tells of the introduction of peyote among the Osage as follows:[18]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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