The U.S. Supreme Court Decision on Peyote in Employment Division v. Smith: A Case Study in the Suppression of Native American Religious Freedom

Abstract

Peyote (Lophophora williamsii) is small spineless cactus which grows in limited area in southern Texas along the Rio Grande River and in northern Mexico. Peyote contains at least eight alkaloids, most importantly mescaline, and thus possesses psychedelic powers. For perhaps ten thousand years Native Americans have known and used peyote, eating or drinking it for medicinal purposes and as sacrament in religious ceremonies (Stewart, 1987). Over the years, elements of Christianity were incorporated into the peyote religion. By 1918, peyotists in Oklahoma formally organized into the Native American Church (NAC). It is estimated that the present membership of the NAC numbers between 250,000 and 500,000.2 Because of the intoxicating properties of peyote -users report experiencing a warm and pleasant euphoria, an agreeable point of view, relaxation, colorful visual distortions, and sense of timelessness (Stewart: 3) -the peyote religion has proven to be extremely controversial. Almost immediately from the time when it first appeared on American Indian reservations, missionaries and Indian agents viewed peyote as being -in the words of one opponent -an insidious evil and sought to suppress its use. Accordingly, the Indian Bureau devoted much time and effort to attempting to destroy the religion. Beginning with Oklahoma in 1899, number of states and territories passed laws prohibiting the use of peyote. In addition, various tribes also enacted anti-peyote legislation. The most notable of these tribal entities was the Navajo who outlawed the drug from 1940 to 1967. The constitutionality of this ordinance was upheld by the U.S. District Court of New Mexico in Native American Church v. Navajo Tribal Council (1959). The federal government itself, although condoning this early anti-peyote campaign, repeatedly rejected bills presented in Congress which would have created national ban on peyote use (Stewart).3 As scientific evidence mounted that peyote was neither harmful nor addictive to the user, attitudes, and consequently laws, began to relax in regard to the drug. Recent federal drug legislation, although continuing to list peyote as Schedule 1, hallucinogenic substance, meaning it possesses high potential for abuse, provides for an exemption for its use in religious ceremonies (Stewart: 4; Nelson, 1989: 433-434). Also important is the implied protection offered by the American Indians Religious Freedom Act of 1978 (Public Law 95 341) in which the U.S. Congress formally acknowledged the application of the Free Exercise clause to Native