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Early years
Anthropologist James Mooney In the 1890's, Mooney studied the Ghost Dance religion and the peyote cult based on direct observation complaints filed with the Bureau of Ethnology claiming his participated in the dance present "only as a spectator who happened to be present. " both spreading rapidly and receiving much public attention As a religion of the reservation, the peyote cult was accessible for anthropological study. Hertzberg, P. 297

appointed to prepare an American Indian exhibit for the Spanish-Columbian Exposition at Madrid in 1892 and another for the Columbian Exposition at Chicago, planned for 1892 but postponed until 1893. p.250. Althea Bassf, “James Mooney in Oklahoma”, Chronicles of Oklahoma, Volume 32, (1954).

The Peyote Religion
In 1892, Mooney wrote an account, published in the Atlanta Chronicle, of his attendance at a Kiowa peyote ceremony. attendance at secret Indian ceremonies made him the subject of suspicion among some Indian agents and missionaries Mooney explained: "Having been studying the Ghost Dance all winter among these tribes, we had become pretty well acquainted, when one afternoon a young Kiowa came to tell me in a guarded manner that his people intended to eat mescal that night at a camp about ten miles up the Ouachita and would probably be willing to have me present. Accordingly I started about (!ark, in company with a Comanche and a Mexican who had been captured when a child and brought up by the Kiowas." The camp was in a strip of timber close by the river. Mooney was warned that all the men entering the sacred lodge must remove their hats, and that no one present must look at any participant actually eating the mescal. Besides James Mooney and the Mexican. about thirty Kiowas, Comanches, and Apaches made up the group inside the lodge. Eventually twelve mescal buttons were distribute to each participant in the ceremony, which began about ten o'clock. I t was a form of elemental worship. centered about a sacred fire ned with a beaded eagle feather, and with prayer addressed to the mescal, the fire, the rain, the earth, the sun, and the morning star: %ow the door flap was suddenly lifted and a man stepped in, carrying in his arms an infant. The child was sick almost to death and as a last hope he had brought it to the sacred lodge to be prayed for by the priests of the mescal. There was something deeply affecting in the pathetic earnestness of the father a s he watched the priests praying over his child, which seemed in a stupor and made no sound. The ceremony completed, he left a s silently a s he entered." At the conclusion of the rites, at about noon of the next day, the women from the camp brought hashed meat, parched corn soaked in water, bread, and coffee. Before eating, each man offered a small portion of his meal to the fire:pS "With a final prayer and another request from the old man that 1 should go back and tell the whites that the Indians had a religion of their own which they loved, the ceremony ended. From sitting full fourteen hours in such a cramped position, with the constant din of the songs and instruments and the glare of the fire in my eyes, I was pretty well used up and for a while hardly able to move, but the mescal eaters appeared to be as fresh as when they began. Before we had made ready our horses to depart the sacred lodge had been taken down and only the mound of earth and the ashes remained to show where it had been." p.254-55. Althea Bassf, “James Mooney in Oklahoma”, Chronicles of Oklahoma, Volume 32, (1954).

Mooney’s Observations
Today, messianic movements like the ghost dance and its predecessors among American Indians are no longer viewed as exotic local movements, but as cultural response to deep cultural stress.

similar movements throughout the history of the world have been compared analyzed.

Mooney’s first–hand study of the Ghost Dance remains the classic work on the subject.

"What tribe of people has not had its Golden age, before Pandora's box was loosed, when women were nympths and dryads and men were gods and heroes?  And when the race lies crushed and groaning beneath an alien yoke, how natural is the dream of of a redeemer, an Arthur, who shall return from exile or awake from some long sleep to drive out the usurper and win back for his people what they have lost. The hope becomes a faith and the faith becomes the creed of priests and prophets, until the hero is a god and the dream a religion, looking to some great miracle of nature for its combination and accomplishment.

The doctrines of the Hindu avatar, the Hebrew messiah, the Christian millennium, and the Hesunanin “Our Father” of the Indian Ghost Dance are essentially the same, and have their origin in a hope or longing to all humanity. Hertzberg, P. 13.

Native American Church
Mooney supported the Native American Church was exiled from his work and his fiends Native American Church strongest historical continuity as a Pan-Indian organization Hertzberg, 347.

first group to incorporate outside Oklahoma

received charter on

In 1921. Winnebagos and Omahas of Nebraska goodwill in Nebraska from politicians, the Nebraska Historical Society

In 1922, Lakota in South Dakota 1923 Nebraska 1925 Kansas Potawatomi Montana Crow and Northern Cheyenne Idaho Shoshones and Bannocks By 1925, Native American church was incorporated in seven states and possibly a few others. Their statement of purpose and organizational formats were basically the same. Their major differences was varying emphases on Christianity. The period between 1918 and 1925 when the anti-peyote campaign was most vigorous marked the height of incorporation efforts. Hertzberg, 272–278.

In 1918 Mooney described Pan-Indian character of the growing religion and it's relationship to Christianity.

The Indian, under the influence of this peyote religion, has given up the idea that he and his tribe are for themselves alone, is recognizing the fact of the brotherhood of the Indian race.

evolution of traditional tribal religion.

central ideas human brotherhood. cordial precepts are goodwill insobriety. Hertzberg, P. 252–253

Congressional Hearings
Mooney Bureau of American ethnology

testified behalf of the peyotists at Congressional hearings

referred to interview and photo of Bonnin in the Washington Times

Bonnin with a peyote man’s fan

Bonnin dressed in Indian costume. woman's dress from some southern tribe as shown by the long fringes belt is a Navajo men's belt the fan is a peyote man's fan, carried only by men, usually in the peyote ceremony. Hertzberg, P. 174. A number of Indian anthropologists, such as Arthur C. Parker, J.N.B. Hewitt, and Francis LaFlesche, became active in pan-Indian affairs, creating a tradition which has continued to this day. Hertzberg, p.24.

Dr. Harvey W. Wiley, former chief of the Bureau of Chemistry of of the Department of Agriculture, testified on behalf of the Hayden Bill.

He reported that James Mooney of the Bureau of American Ethnology had brought him peyote in 1893, and asked him to determine as far as possible the physiological properties of the product. P. 259.

Pratt believed that ethnologists brought the Indian’s mind back to the past. Hertzberg ,P. peyote craze was from the same impulse as the Ghost Dance Mooney was a promoter of both the Ghost Dance and the peyote religion Hertzberg, P. 261-262.

Mooney defended ethnologists against the charge that they had never helped the Indians. stated ethnologists "have always endeavored to help the Indians, as is born out by hundreds of letters from representative Indians showing appreciation

disparaged Bonnin, Secretary of the Society of American Indians who had testified at the hearings along with Charles Eastman

Bonnin based her attack on peyote because of her first-hand experiences with the Utes. Hertzberg, P. 262. Testimony

In February and March, 1918, hearings on the proposed legislation were held before the U.S. Congress House Subcommittee on Indian Affairs.

Mooney opposed Hayden Bill defended the peyote religion demonstrated peyote cult was a genuine religion an Indian approximation patient of Christianity analyzed reasons for spread of the religion

temperance rounds, pointing out that followers of the peyote right reject whiskey

first ethnologist to make a study of the peyote religion

initially encountered peyote during his investigations of the Ghost Dance

For some twenty-seven years thereafter major task for the Bureau of American Ethnology was to study tribes using peyote. He had attended a number of peyote meetings and had himself taken peyote. told the history of the initial investigation of peyote in United States which he had initially initiated in 1891 by turning over a number peyote buttons to Dr. Wiley at the Department of Agriculture.

offered into evidence Prentiss’ and Morgan's articles

therapeutic uses peyote

had considerable respect for the native medical practice impressed by the medical properties of peyote

thought it might become a valuable medicine as quinine

report by Dr. Weir Mitchell, to whom we had also given some peyote buttons for analysis.

stated peyote was often confused with mescal, a misunderstanding with caused a great deal of prejudice and public sentiment against the peyote

mescal was used by the Indians to make a highly intoxicating distilled brandy with no religious connection

distinguished from peyote which was used in the crude state never distilled.

confusion was shared by Indians who used peyote and referred to as mescal Hertzberg, p. 265. Religious use of peyote dates as far back as our knowledge of the Indians in the Spanish territories,

peyote cult had become an intertribal religion emphasizing Indian brotherhood me involving a large number of tribes,

outlined a peyote ceremony in detail describing the curing rights

analyzed reasons for spread of the religion

"The Indians are now largely civilized. They are becoming citizens, they are educated, and they travel about and take an interest in each other. A great many of the young men who have been sent to eastern schools, in a climate damper than the one to which they have been accustomed, come back with weakened lungs, coughs and hemorrhages, and they are told go by their friends at home that they use the peyote if they use the peyote it will relieve the coughs, and check the hemorrhages, and they have found that to be true. That is the universal testimony of the Indians, and is is collaborated by Dr. Prentiss’ experiments.

The result is that young men, not the older uncivilized ones, but the younger, middle-age an educated men, have taken the peyote cult and organized it as a regular religion, among various tribes.

Charges of immorality on the part of peyotists were completely false Hertzberg, P. 266

Parker materials
Parker served as either an interpreter or informant for the anthropologist James Mooney when Mooney was making his investigation of the Ghost Dance for the Bureau p.of American methodology. Hertzberg, P. 45. Parker entered anthropology at a time when the academically trained professional was replacing the self–taught anthropologists like Louis Henry Morgan, Jay in the US and James Mooney. Hertzberg, P. 51. Parker referred Miss Seymour to the use of peyote as appealing native ceremony and I work on the Kiowa by James Mooney. Hertzberg, P. 145.

Thomas L Sloan
Thomas L Sloan described the

peyote religion among the Omaha and Winnebago

"It changed a large number of men from drunkards decent people. It has been reported that there was some immorality connected with the ceremony. I am convinced that there is nothing of the kind. The old-time medicine men are opposed to the use of peyote. There they are some of the person to make detrimental remarks and spread rumors against it. Some opposing the use of peyote have grown rich selling liquor to Indians.

"There is now an active wave of Christianity among the Omaha and Winnebago Indians and it is a growth among the Indians themselves, and due in part to the religious use of peyote.” Hertzberg, P. 268

Exile
In the summer of 1918, Mooney was in Oklahoma studying Kiowa peyotism for the Bureau of American Ethnology. attended a peyotist conference

persuaded the group to obtain a charter to give them a firm legal status which would place them clearly under protection of religious liberty guaranteed in the Constitution of the United States. Hertzberg, P. 272.

the name “native american church” Pan-Indian solidarity response to the anti-peyote drive Hertzberg, P. 272. Mooney's role in the formation of the Native American Church did not go unnoticed by the Indian Bureau.

In October, 1918, Mooney's last visit to Oklahoma letter to Mrs. Prentice from Mount Scott on June 29,1918, was the occasion of much controversy: "In regard to your inquiry, the peyote hearing was conducted before a special Committee of Congress was open to the public and a full report is published as a Government document for distribution. There is no secrecy about it. "The question which some of the delegates and tribes are debating is the matter of organizing their own native religion on a regular business basis, like any other church or society, as American citizens. Some of the Northwestern Indians have already done this more than twenty years ago. As a result of this letter, Mooney was accused of "recommending the use of peyote" and the Bureau expelled him from the Kiowa reservation and halted his study. In 1919, and again in 1920, the Smithsonian Institution that he be permitted to return to the reservation, submitting a physician’s report that he had a bad heart and could not live much longer. The Bureau refused the request, and Mooney died in 1921. Mooney was unable to complete his study on the peyote religion. Hertzberg, P. 274.