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Peyote and the Native American Church
History of Mirando City
MIRANDO CITY, TEXAS. Mirando City is on Ranch Road 649 thirty miles east of Laredo and 110 miles west of Corpus Christi in eastern Webb County. The
elevation is 600 feet above sea level. The townsite, on land originally
granted to Nicolás Mirando, was previously occupied by a small ranching
community. When the Texas-Mexican Railway built through the area in 1881,
the community acquired a small siding that enabled it to ship cattle and
sheep. In addition to livestock, the area around Mirando City has also long
supported the peyote cactus. Webb, Zapata, Jim Hogg, and Starr counties
contain the only commercial range of peyote in the United States. Area
residents known as peyoteros have harvested and supplied peyote for
religious ceremonies to Indians in the United States since the nineteenth
century. Indians also travel to Mirando City from across the country to
harvest the cactus themselves.
In April 1921 Oliver Winfield Killam brought in the first commercial oil
well in the area. Killam, who had already promoted the town of Locust Grove
in Oklahoma, bought land in the Mirando Valley and started laying out the
town of Mirando City in September 1921. Several months later, in December, a
gusher at another drilling site ushered in an oil boom. Lots began selling
rapidly, and the town quickly became the hub of activity in the oilfield. A
post office was established in 1922. Mirando City had the distinction of
being one of the few towns established in Texas without a nearby water
supply. Until the fall of 1922 all of the drinking water for the town was
hauled from the neighboring community of Bruni at a cost of $13.00 per tank
car. Two tanks and a pump were furnished by O. W. Killam and located near
the Mirando City Lumber Company, which Killam had established earlier that
year. Also in 1922, William W. Sterling and John Long organized the first
water company in Mirando City. They dug wells in the nearby village of Los
Ojuelos, which had flowing springs. The partners then laid a pipeline to
Mirando City, constructed a 500-barrel storage tank, and installed the
town's first water meters. The heavy water use dropped the water table,
however, and the springs at Los Ojuelos dried up. Although deepened several
times, the wells themselves dried up in the 1930s, and other wells were
drilled farther east to supply Mirando City.
In the fall of 1922 a power plant was built to furnish electricity to the
community. After eight months of operation the plant closed, but on May 12,
1923, Richard C. Young, a resident of Mirando City, purchased the plant, and
power was subsequently resumed. The Mirando City Bank operated from June
1922 to May 1923. During the 1930s, successful businesses in Mirando City
included H. F. Danmier Trucks, founded by Herbert F. Danmier in 1923; Long
Brothers Drilling Company, founded by John D. Long in 1923; and the Border
Foundry and Machine Company, founded by Edgar and Conrad Mims in 1922. The
Mirando City Record, the unincorporated town's only newspaper, was
established by Weldon Pharr on June 12, 1939. The newspaper, published every
Friday, reached a peak circulation of 1,500 in September 1939. After a
successful two-year run, the newspaper ceased publication in 1941.
During the expansion years of the town, prominent residents included Deputy
Sheriff William W. Sterling, independent oil operator George L. Buck,
Triangle Garage owner Richard C. Young, and R & S Truck Company owner Gus A.
Becker. Because there was no school district, town residents, along with
Killam, organized to form the first school. Killam agreed to pay half the
salary for a teacher, while the residents agreed to pay the other half and
find an appropriate building in which to conduct classes. In September 1922,
the school opened with fifteen pupils from the first through sixth grades.
The Mirando Independent School District was established in March 1923. The
first commencement exercises were held on May 10, 1927. Three years later
Mirando High School was accredited by the state of Texas.
Throughout the early years of Mirando City, several neighboring communities
played a pivotal role in the success of the town's development. Aguilares,
six miles west of Mirando City, supplied the fledgling town with dry goods
during the first few months of its existence. Bruni, ten miles east of
Mirando City, provided a meat market and several restaurants. Oilton, two
miles northeast of Mirando City, was a source of firewood. Los Ojuelos,
three miles south of Mirando City, provided drinking water for several
months before a water company was established in the town. With the
development of the South Texas oil industry, the town's population soared
from fewer than 100 residents in 1922 to more than 1,000 by 1925. In 1929
the population peaked at an estimated 1,500. In 1990 the population of
Mirando City was 559.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Michael F. Black, ed., Mirando City: A New Town in a New Oil
Field (Laredo: Laredo Publishing, 1972). Stan Green, The Rise and Fall of
Rio Grande Settlements: A History of Webb County (Laredo, Texas: Border
Studies, 1991). George R. Morgan and Omer C. Stewart, "Peyote Trade in South
Texas," Southwestern Historical Quarterly 87 (January 1984). Hermilinda
Murillo, A History of Webb County (M.A. thesis, Southwest Texas State
Teachers College, 1941).
Laura Lamar Ramirez
(From the Handbook of Texas Online)
KILLAM,
OLIVER WINFIELD (1874-1959). Oliver Winfield Killam, oilman and
town founder, was born on April 27, 1874, in Lincoln County, Missouri, the
oldest of seven children of Winfield and Katherine (Macgruder) Killam. At
the age of eighteen he entered La Grange College in La Grange, Missouri,
where he excelled in football. In 1896 he graduated from the law department
of the University of Missouri. Soon thereafter, he moved to Joplin to
establish a law practice, but after only six months he abandoned law in
order to work in zinc mining. With no experience or knowledge of the
industry, Killam began working as a laborer. In 1898, only six months later,
he became manager. In the spring of 1902 he met and married Harriet (Hattie)
Smith, the daughter of a prominent physician in South West City, Missouri;
they had three children. The couple moved to Grove,
Oklahoma, where Killam established a successful lumber and mercantile
business. In 1907 he became politically active as a strong advocate of
Oklahoma statehood. In 1910 he won a seat in the Oklahoma House of
Representatives, where he remained for four years. Also in 1910 he
established Locust Grove, Oklahoma. In 1914, Killam was elected to the
Oklahoma Senate, where he served for four years and befriended the first
governor of the state, Charles N. Haskell. In 1919, Haskell suggested to
Killam the idea of moving to South Texas to look for oil. Killam sold his
business and property, abandoned his promising political career, and, in the
spring of 1920, moved to Laredo.
He secured an oil lease on the Hinnant Ranch in Zapata County. After
erecting his first oil derrick, he purchased a rig and began drilling.
Mirando Oil Company Hinnant No. 1, as it was called, proved a failure.
Killam's second attempt, Hinnant No. 2, was lost because of bad casing.
Success finally came with No. 3, on April 17, 1921. At 1,461 feet the well
came in and pumped about twenty barrels a day. It became the first
commercial oil well south of San Antonio and encouraged others to join in
exploration. In 1921, with Colon Schott of Cincinnati, Ohio, Killam
developed the Schott oilfield, just south of the fledging town of Mirando
City, which he had established. Killam's biggest and most successful gusher,
Schott No. 2, produced 300 to 400
barrels of oil daily, plus several million cubic feet of natural gas.
Photographs of the well flowing wild, plus accounts of its success in
newspapers all over the state, encouraged the South Texas oil boom of the
1920s. After the development of the Schott field many South Texas cattle
ranchers began leasing large tracts of land to explore for oil, and Mirando
City soon became the center of the fastgrowing South Texas oil business.
Killam next established the Texpapa Pipe Line Company in order to carry the
oil to tank farms or railroad tank
cars. In 1923 he established the Misko Refineries at Mirando City in order
to capitalize further on his investment.
During the 1930s he served as president of both the Laredo Chamber of
Commerce and the South Texas Chamber of Commerce.qv He was named "King
Petrol" at the Oilmen's Jubilee by the oil operators of the
Laredo district on July 4, 1937. In 1956 he was named Outstanding Citizen of
South Texas by members of the Washington's Birthday Celebration Association
of Laredo. In only a few short years, Killam became one of the best-known
wildcatters in South Texas. He died at the age of eightyfour on January 1,
1959.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Michael F. Black, ed., Mirando City: A New Town in a New Oil
Field (Laredo: Laredo Publishing, 1972). Vertical Files, Barker Texas
History Center, University of Texas at Austin.
Laura Lamar Ramirez
From the University of Texas Web Pages, Texas Handbook Online
Buck's granddaughter Janice Hinds.
 |
|
| W. W. Sterling Justice of the Peace Office, Mirando City, TX. |
STERLING,
WILLIAM WARREN (1891-1960). William Warren Sterling, lawman, son
of Edward A. and Mary (Chamberlain) Sterling, was born near Belton, Texas,
on April 27, 1891, and spent his early years on his family's ranch before
they moved to Beaumont in 1901. He entered Texas A&M at seventeen and two
years later was working on ranches near Falfurrias and in Hidalgo County.
During 1915-16, when political unrest in Mexico spilled over the Rio Grande
border, he was a posseman and scout for the Third United States
Cavalry in Hidalgo and Cameron counties. During World War I he was
commissioned a second lieutenant in the Ninth Texas Infantry. Afterward he
was in Mirando City as deputy sheriff and justice of the peace during the
oil boom in Webb County. In 1927 Governor Dan Moody appointed him captain,
Company D, Texas Rangers, and he was sent immediately to the boomtown of
Borger. In 1928 his ranger headquarters was moved to Falfurrias. About this
time the sculptor Gutzon Borglum used Sterling as the model for his planned
Texas Ranger statue. In 1929 Sterling was in Pettus when an oil boom started
there, and he helped stop the lawlessness. During the administration of
Governor Ross S. Sterling he served as adjutant general (commander of the
Texas Rangers and the Texas National Guard); in this capacity he closed the
Red River bridge at Denison during the much publicized Red River bridge
controversy between Oklahoma
and Texas in 1931. Sterling resigned from the rangers at the close of his
service as adjutant general in 1933. As a colonel during World War II he
helped set up selective service for the Eighth Service Command. Sterling
managed the Driscoll ranches in South Texas and later appraised ranches. His
book, Trails and Trials of a Texas Ranger, was published in 1959. He was
married to Zora Lou Eckhardt, and they had two daughters. Sterling died on
April 26, 1960, and was buried in Seaside Memorial Park, Corpus Christi.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Austin American, April 27, 1960, August 28, 1969. Brooks
County Texan, March 22, 1929. Cattleman, May 1960. Corpus Christi Caller and
Daily Herald, February 15, 16, 27, 28, 1915. Oran Warder Nolen, "Col. W. W.
Sterling: Cowman, Texas Ranger and a Prince among Men," Cattleman, June
1966. Vertical Files, Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at
Austin.
From University of Texas Web Pages, Texas Handbook Online
borne in Cleveland, Tennessee, on September 8, 1902, a Son of Joseph P.
Morris and Mayme Harris Morris both natives Tennessee. The family moved to
Fowlerton, Texas, where the Elder Morris was engaged in developing and
selling farmlands and where the younger Morris was educated. On March 2,
1932 Mr. Joseph S. Morris married Mrs. Hazel Summers of Galveston, Texas.
Miss. Summers, Daughter of Mr. Jack Summers of Fort Worth, Texas. Mr. and
Mrs. Morris are the parents of 2 Daughters: Jean Elizabeth and Lynne Summers
Morris. In 1919 Mr. Morris served his apprenticeship in the employ of Mr.
Allen. At that time the firm was Newton and Allen, Contracting Firm for
Drilling Services. In 1923 Mr. Newton sold out his entreats to Mr. Joseph
Morris. This dissolved the firm of Newton and Allen. Then the new firm of
Allen and Morris was formed in 1924. With a small start with just one
light-drilling rig, the firm has steadily expanded its operation and now has
ten heavy drilling rigs manned by a full force of experienced drillers. They
have drilled 1,600 wells most of them in South Texas, with a few being
drilled in North Louisiana and some in Arkansas. Recently the firm brought
in the discovery well for Seabord Oil Company in the Dominican Republic. The
First successful oil well completed on the Dominican Island in the West
Indies. They also brought in the First flowing well in the Mirando Valley
Field 1921. Mr. Claude Witherspoon was driller on the discovery well. The
first gas well in the Bruni Field was drilled, the first 1,800 Ft. oil well
at that level and the first deep pay in the 3,400 Ft. strata of the Bruni
Field. They drilled the first gas well in the Mirando District in the Schott
Field. They drilled the discovery well on the Chapman Ranch in Nueces County
and the discovery well in the Luby Field. The discovery well in Larosa in
Refugio County was drilled by Allen & Morris as was the first well for the
Colorado Interest and the First well for Fred Shield in the Robstown
District. The firm of Allen and Morris had been together for 16 Years in
1940. Mr. Joseph S. Morris now lives in San Antonio, and has offices in the
Alamo Building when I corresponded with him in 1986. (The Historical
Encyclopedia of Texas the 1936 Addition)
Article supplied to me by William Layton - wlayton@lwol.com
This article was scanned from The McIntosh Express (Laredo Community College
Newspaper) and was written by William Layton.
No history of Mirando City would be complete without mentioning Lala's
Cafe. This little cafe has been one of the most recognizable landmarks
in Mirando City for decades and has been a big part of the history of this
little town. Any other information that anyone could provide would be
appreciated. Send info to
rlblack5@gmail.com
Peyote is a unique product for the Mirando City Area. Below is some
information about the small little cactus and its uses
by the Native American Church. If you have any other information about
peyote and are willing to share it, please email me at
rlblack5@gmail.com
Seeds
of the Spirit: In the South Texas Brush, Indians use Peyote to Heal
By: Jim Jones
© 1996 Fort Worth Star-Telegram
MIRANDO CITY, Texas -- Drumbeats pounded into the Texas
night. Ghostly shadows wavered on the walls of the tepee. The air filled
with the smell of incense from tobacco and corn-husk cigarettes. In a close
circle, 40 American Indians prayed ... for the dead, for the sick, for world
peace. Their voices chanted ancient, glorious noise. Then came the peyote.
It was passed clockwise, with reverence, around the circle. The true
spiritual journey began.
It was a grueling all-night ritual, and these
worshipers gathered around a blazing fire were among more than 1,000
American Indians from various tribes, including major officials of the
250,000-member Native American Church, who've made this holy pilgrimage.
It was an annual, mid-February trip for many seeking
spiritual renewal in South Texas brush country, the only place in the United
States where the sacred plant grows.
The "peyote gardens,'' stretching from Rio Grande City
to Laredo, are considered holy ground by those who venerate peyote, a
humble-looking flat spineless cactus, as the central sacrament of the Native
American Church.
Believers see it as a magical plant that can evoke
visions of truth. They say it heals and helps fight diseases from heart
ailments to rheumatism. More important, they are sure it as a path toward
the Divine Presence.
"It brings us closer to God,'' said Alden "Junior''
Naranjo, a Ute Indian Shaman from Colorado, as he prepared for his peyote
service in a 30-foot high tepee. "Peyote is our blessed sacrament; it is our
healer.''
Despite such reverence, peyote is still under fire as a
controversial hallucinogen, the source of court battles and legal disputes
for decades. Even some Native American tribes are skeptical of its use.
Drug enforcement officials classify peyote, a drug of
choice by hippies in the '60s, in the same category as LSD. Non-Indians
caught using it are charged with illegal drug possession.
But for about 30 years, Texas has made it legal for
believers who are at least 25 percent American Indian to use peyote in
religious observances, a right supported by the Religious Freedom
Restoration Act.
Understandably, there is the fear among Indians of the
ritual being misunderstood.
One group of Apaches who worshiped in another tepee set
up in nearby Oilton declined to talk about their faith.
"We don't want to be exploited,'' said a woman who
asked not to be quoted by name. "This is all we have.''
Other leaders are eager to make their case that peyote
ritual is not an excuse to get high.
"We get a lot of goodness out of it,'' said Anthony
Davis, 86, of Santa Fe, N.M., who has been making the Texas pilgrimage since
he was 17.
Davis, president of the Native American Church in
Texas, attributed his longevity and great health to peyote. "I've been using
peyote since I was a boy in Pawnee, Okla.,'' Davis said. "I had heart
problems. But a Navajo man doctored me and I still have my heart.''
Peyote religion combines Christian and Native American
traditions, and some of the ceremonies use Christian imagery, such as
crucifixes. But the theology centers on the belief that peyote can bring
peace of mind; teach one to think good thoughts; know the difference between
right and wrong; and heal illnesses if one sincerely believes and
concentrates.
Peyote, which is eaten, usually causes sweating,
heightened attention and wakefulness. Some people, but not all, have
hallucinations that they interpret as visions of truth. Sometimes, peyote's
effects are unpleasant: Worshipers occasionally vomit and are said to be
"cleansed'' of their sins after eating peyote. They spit a lot, since the
drug stimulates the salivary glands.
Certainly, peyote has time and history on its side.
It's been used for at least 10,000 years by tribes in North and South
America, sometimes to increase adrenalin during battles. Often, it was a
tool to look into the future or help find lost objects.
Comanche Chief Quanah Parker, one of the organizers of
the Native American Church, popularized peyote use among tribes in Oklahoma
in the late 1800s. In those days, peyote was shipped from South Texas by
such old railways as the Fort Worth and Denver City line. But Naranjo said
peyote use here dates back even further. "People have been coming down here
and south of here (in Mexico) from time immemorial. They came down here
before the Europeans arrived,'' he said.
PRIVATE RITUALS
The recent peyote meetings at Mirando City, held at the
home of Amada Cardenas, a highly revered former peyote seller who has willed
part of her land to the Native American Church, were private. But the
Indians welcomed visitors to observe preparations for the services and
permitted them inside the tepee before the prayer meetings began. Later,
they were allowed to remain near the tepee to listen and catch sight of the
rituals as a fire keeper emerged several times to bring in wood.
A Japanese film crew producing a documentary on the
Native American Church positioned large microphones near the edge of the
tepee to pick up sounds of the peyote prayer services. For observers, this
was a rare glimpse of ancient ritual in a world that sometimes seems intent
on discarding the past. But believers worried that even this ritual, so
central to their spiritual lives, won't be around forever. That's because
the cactus, which hides in rattlesnake-infested caliche hills, is getting
scarce. "We don't have enough,'' said Isabel Lopez of Oilton, one of about
nine peyote dealers licensed by the controlled substances division of the
Texas Department of Public Safety. Behind Lopez's white frame residence,
Indians carried away burlap sacks stuffed with peyote buttons, which sell
for $100 per 1,000. Lopez had just sent her husband, Margarito Lopez, to a
site 40 miles away to harvest more peyote. Sometimes, when supplies are low,
she has to diplomatically ration the amount of peyote that she sells to each
individual.
Salvadore Johnson, a veteran peyote distributor in
Mirando City, said there is no way to obtain adequate supplies for the
growing Native American Church. "The hardest part is that we don't have
enough peyote to sell,'' said Johnson. "This weekend (during the
pilgrimage), we easily could have sold 250,000 buttons.'' At one time,
there were no fences around the prairies where peyote grows. "We were able
to just go out there in the fields and harvest the medicine,'' Naranjo said.
"A lot of people had prayer meetings out in the fields where the peyote
grows.'' Now, most of the peyote grows behind well-fenced land owned by
ranchers and by those who lease land for deer and quail hunting. Typically,
licensed peyote dealers pay a fee to allow them to harvest on land they do
not own. Frequent harvesting has caused the size of peyote buttons to
decrease.
"Twenty-five years ago we would only pick peyote
buttons that were 21/4 to 21/2 inches in diameter,'' Johnson said. "Now we
are harvesting buttons only an inch in diameter.'' Last month in Laredo,
Indian leaders asked state and county government officials and ranchers to
help put a stop to improper harvesting and the black-marketing of peyote.
"We are saying this was a historic meeting because it is the first time we
have had a dialogue by all those involved with peyote harvesting,'' said
Robert Whitehorse, president of the Native American Church of Navajoland.
This is just the beginning of the dialogue. Albert Hale, president of the
Navajo Nation, said that, with the help of botanists, they can ensure
supplies of peyote for future generations.
"We want to be sure peyote is here from now to
eternity,'' Hale said.
*************************************************************
Peyote still thorny
topic in law, faith
By Bonnie Pfister
Express-News Border Bureau
Web Posted : 10/15/2001 12:00
AM
MIRANDO CITY ~~ To tens of thousands of
Native Americans, this little dot on the map south of Texas 359 is holy
land. And here, unique in the United States, lives a deity. It is peyote,
an ancient hallucinogenic root that grows only in the Sierra Madre
Occidental of Mexico and north of the border between Laredo and Rio Grande
City. Bitter-tasting peyote is both savior and sacrament in the Native
American Church. But who may purchase it is increasingly a matter subject
to debate. Various state laws are in conflict, and localities' attempts to
harmonize their rules with federal regulations have raised further
questions.
In Texas, new enforcement procedures by the Department
of Public Safety have, unintentionally, left Canadian indigenous groups
uncertain of whether they can continue to purchase the cactus. And in Utah,
the state Supreme Court is considering whether to take up a case that pits
constitutionally protected freedom of religion for all Americans against the
congressional mandate that peyote only be available to members of federally
recognized Indian tribes.
James Mooney, founder and leader of a 4-year-old
Oklevueha EarthWalks Native American Church, face 12 felony counts for
distributing peyote from his Spanish Fork, Utah, home. State prosecutors
say Mooney's claims of more than one-quarter Indian blood are irrelevant
because he is not a member of one of the 550 federally recognized tribes. By
distributing peyote ~ often for a price ~ at weekend ceremonies, prosecutors
say Mooney is running an enterprise akin to Mafia racketeering.
In Mirando City, about 30 miles east of Laredo, peyote
harvesters and distributors have stopped shipping their goods to Mooney
until the legal battle plays itself out. Salvador Johnson, a peyotero for 30
years, is one of six distributors in the nation licensed by the Texas
Department of Public Safety and registered with the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Agency. "I've seen Mooney help a lot of people ~ people with drug
addictions, alcohol problems. But it gets controversial when you start
giving peyote to white people," Johnson said.
Lophophora Williamsii was first revered by Huichol
Indians of Mexico perhaps as early as 200 A.D., according to Jay Fikes,
writing about the Native American Church for the Council on Spiritual
Practices. The mescaline-dense cactus was considered the "heart, soul and
memory of their creator." Ingesting it, like taking communion in the
Catholic Church, was a way of getting closer to, and understanding, the
supreme spirit.
Spanish missionaries document peyote's use in rituals
by the Carrizo Indians near Laredo as early as 1649. But it wasn't until the
late 19th century that a Smithsonian Institution ethnologist began studying
the cactus' use among the Kiowa in Oklahoma, as well as the Tarahumara in
Mexico. In 1918, Fikes wrote, the ethnologist testified in favor of Native
American peyotists before Congress, and went on to help Oklahoma tribes
charter the first Native American Church to protect their religious freedom.
Today there are three "umbrella" Native American
Churches: the original Church of Oklahoma; the Church of Navajoland in the
Four Corners region, and the Church of North America, which is run by board
members based in Arizona, New Mexico and Wisconsin. Perhaps 100 other
loosely affiliated and independent churches exist in the United States, said
Jerry Patchen, a Houston lawyer who has represented the Oklahoma church for
20 years. "It's not a monolith," Patchen said. And the question of who is
or is not a Native American ~ and who, in turn, may partake of the sacrament
that became a counter-cultural icon for hippies in the 1960s ~ has long been
interpreted differently, depending on the state. In Texas, Patchen said, the
law until recently held that one must either be 25 percent Native American
or a member of a federally recognized tribe to ingest peyote legally.
Confusion has sprung up in recent months as the DPS tried to more closely
align its enforcement with the provisions of the 1993 American Indian
Religious Freedom Act, which state that only members of a federally
recognized tribe may partake of peyote. "The Canadian tribes are now trying
to figure out how they fit into that definition," said Jody Patterson, DPS
supervisor of controlled substances registration. "We didn't realize the
rules would have this impact. We're looking into the issue." Such a
definition excludes many, including Utah's James Mooney, Johnson and Patchen
himself. Patchen, whose wife grew up near Mirando City, said he never held
himself out to be a Native American. Rather, he has taken the sacrament at
the invitation of members of the Native American Church of Oklahoma. "Every
religion has the right to educate the dominant culture of their religious
practices and level of sincerity. Do Indians have a right to invite me in?
As part of the law dealing with religious freedom, I'd say they do," he
said.
Johnson said he, too, has been invited to join in the
church's ceremonies. "Peyote is only a small factor of what goes into the
ceremony. But I believe in the medicine," he said. On a recent October
morning, Navajo Lewis Peshlakai drove 32 hours straight from Window Rock,
Ariz., to purchase 5,000 peyote buttons with his own money. A "roadman," or
priest, Peshlakai, 44, refers to the harvest peyote buttons as medicine.
Before driving back to Arizona, he visited a backyard shrine to the cactus
in Mirando City. "I'm going to tell the medicine, 'You're mine now. You're
going to belong to me,'" Peshlakai said.
He will use the plant in ceremonies to heal the sick,
without asking for payment, he said. While he usually makes the pilgrimage
once a year, this trip is special: in celebration of winning back his job at
a coal mine after being fired two months ago. After 17 years on the job,
Peshlakai said that development made him feel "as if I didn't exist." "With
my first paycheck, I promised I would come here to gather peyote. With this
good blessing, I am going to give it back to my community, to say 'thank
you' for getting my job back," he said.
Johnson, who generally charges about $180 for 1,000
fresh peyote buttons, loaded his customer's cargo into burlap potato sacks.
Smaller, dried peyote buttons sat in his side yard, drying on rough, wooden
pallets in the still-strong October sun. A fence and locked gate surround
the area, as DEA requires.
"The Indians who come here are not on vacation, or to
sightsee," Johnson said. "It's a pilgrimage for the Indians to make the
sacrifice to come here."
bpfister@express-news.net
10/15/2001
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