Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1913-07-13
RELIGIOUS WAR
SAVES NARCOTIC
FOR REDSKINS
United States Senate Permits In
dams to Use Peyote When Told
1t Makes Them Peaceful.
By SIDNEY ESPEY,

WASHINGTON, July 12.-Ths
United States Senate recently was
caught between two warning religious
factions and automatically settled
the dispdute by doing nothing. There
fore does the Indian continue the use
Of peyote, a narcotic of most pecui-
lar properties.
1t was urged by several mission
aries and others bent on reforming
the Indians that the use Of peyote. a
furry, dried button gathered from a
Mexican plant, bred a habit similar to
that which users Of cocaine and NOR
phine acquire. None of the mission
aries gave the Senate Indian Com
mittee first-hand information regard
ing this and as 1t was vigorously
disputed by Indians the Senate struck
from the Indian appropriation bill a
provision that a part of the appro-
prlation for the suppression of the
liquor traffic should also be devoted
to stamping out the peyote habit.
Indians Defend Peyote.
lnulanS VINO wrote to the committee
declared that the peyote is not a
Matchmaker and that, instead. IL has
induced frame of mind among In
dams which acCords well with the
governmental policy to make the In
dams self-supporting and able to
care for the vast properties which
the Government now holds for them
in trust.
Washington, excepting Indian res
ervations themselves, is perhaps the
greatest Indian center in the United
States. There are three or four ho-
tells along the lower part of Pennsyl-
Vanta Avenue, which in DAYS past
were aristocratic hostelries where the
barbaric brilliance Of Indian costume
may be seen almost any day.
Some wear blankets of varied COL
ors, some adopt the habiliments Of the
white man, except that their garb is a
riot of color that would make Sena-
tor James Hamilton Lewis look like a
monotone IN water color.
But whatever their garb. Poor 10
gets out among the Congressman,
And there he seems to have done a
nifty job Of lobbying in favor of
peyote.
Narcotic Effect Slow.
Last winter a group of Indians Wis
tied a Congressman and brought with
them a pocket full of peyote. They
described its effects. The peyote is
either chewed or is stepped and the
liquor is then drunk. The narcotic
effect is slow. One must take at least
whole night to get the benefit of a
peyOte spree.
But instead Of infiaming the mag
nation and prompting the Indian to
deeds Of violence. it has an effect
quite opposite Instead the peyote
user becomes retrospective, considers
his relations to his fellow men,
weighs the wrongs he has inflicted on
others and acquires, for the time
being, at least, an altruistic philoso-
ply quite at variance with the gen.
eral tendency of Indians.
Nor according to what this group
Of Indians told the Congressman, does
the effect pass, away with the recov-
cry from the narcotic effects Of the
peyote. The dreamer awakes, but he
retains for a time his humility OF
spirit and his wish to be of some value
to his fellow men instead of an in
cumbrance. So eloquent, in fact, was
the description that the particular
Congressman decided that a treat
ment of peyote might not be bad for
him. So the Indians left a few but
tons and departed.