Note 9 — APPENDIX 7: JOHN WILSON, THE REVEALER OF PEYOTE

Some of Wilson’s Caddoan teachings were sufficiently unlike those of the Delaware to antagonize them. A Delaware informant of Petrullo (The Diabolic Root, 66) said, “It [peyote] should be eaten in order to get well, not to have visions.” (Benedict’s study indicated, one recalls, that in the Woodlands only puberty-visions occurred, while in the Plains adults too may obtain them.) Again (p. 68) “Wilson was wrong. Peyote is good, but it is good and powerful medicine, not a religion like the Big House. [For instance] four boiled Peyote placed on top of the head will help in cases of insanity.”