Indians of North America -- Religion; Indians of North America -- Rites and ceremonies; Peyotism
[114] Doctoring is second only to the vision for individual knowledge
and power in the Plains. Kiowa peyote doctors have special prestige
among other tribes. In 1936 I sponsored a Kiowa meeting near Stecker,
Oklahoma, for Belo Kozad to doctor Ernest Kokome who was suffering
from tuberculosis. (Ernest had given me his trade-blanket beaded
peyote-necktie in 1935 on the morning after a meeting at which I had
admired it.) After midnight, Belo chewed four peyote and gave them to
Ernest, fanning him with feathers and cedar incense; then he made a
cross in front of the patient with a glowing coal, and, putting it in
his mouth, blew all over the face and chest of the sick young man, who
unbuttoned his shirt for the purpose. Next Belo fanned or batted him with
his feathers, the patient holding up his palms to absorb the medicine
virtue. Finally he took a mouthful of water and blew it on Ernest’s head,
praying and beseeching in the name of Jesus Christ for him to get well.
Peyote gave Belo the power to doctor thus and not be burned by the coal.
Peyote was brought to the Creek, indeed, for doctoring by Jim Aton
(a famous Kiowa peyote doctor). Much in demand, he has doctored in
peyote meetings of the Yuchi, Shawnee, Kickapoo, Creek, Caddo, Osage,
Comanche, Kiowa Apache, Kiowa, Mescalero Apache and Quapaw; also whites
and Mexicans. His methods of doctoring have been described previously.
The well-known Comanche peyote doctor, Jim Post-oak, “hollers like a
bear in doctoring.” (People often imitate the animal-sources of their
power in the morning, in the midst of others’ singing, either from
peyote-“euphoria” or in praise of particularly good singing.) Peyote
doctoring by Old Man Horse (Kiowa) influenced the Oto rite of the Church
of the First-born too. Peyote can perform cures unassisted outside
meetings also, as shown by the case of Tommy Cat who ate peyote over the
protests of his nurse in a hospital and was cured.
[115] Polonian obviousness is usually the note in these harangues (sit up
straight and keep awake in meetings, wear clean clothes and bathe before
coming, wear a blanket, keep your mind on good things in the ceremony,
don’t look around the tipi, don’t drink whiskey, don’t lie to your wife
or show off, but pray for your wife and children, respect old people,
humble yourself, go home again if you come to a crowded meeting)—but
occasionally specific admonitions are made. A Kiowa jokester, J. S., had
had trouble with his wife, and was plainly talked to in meeting. Quanah
Parker used to lecture young people in the morning. Long prayers are
another means of making psychological transactions. Some tribes make
individual public confessions at this time.
[116] Mooney, _The Mescal Plant_, 8.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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