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.-The
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 pecul-
lar properties.
It 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 it was vigorously
disputed by Indians the Senate struck
from the Indian appropriation bill a
provision that a part of the appro-
prlatlon for the suppression of the
liquor traffic should also be devoted
10 stamping out the peyote habit.
Indians Defend Peyote.
Indians who wrote to the committee
declared that the peyote is not a
Matchmaker and that, instead, it has
induced a 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 no.
tells along the lower part of PennsyI-
Vania Avenue, which in DAYS past
were aristocratic obstetrics, 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
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 pocket full of peyote. They
described it's 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
a whole night to get the benefit of a
peyote spree.
But instead Of infiaming the imag-
ination and prompting the Indian to
deeds Of violence, it has an effect
quite opposite. Instead the peyote
user becomes interpretive, 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.