Note 65 — HISTORICAL INTERPRETATIONS
Reading edition
“PEYOTE FAILS. It is a good thing that peyote is stopped for it was doing more harm than good. Our young men of the reservation were just beginning to start in eating the devil’s root.... Peyote fails because it has no mouth so can not speak to its followers of their origin and destiny, nor as to sin, repentance, forgiveness, salvation nor of anything else. It has no ears, so can not hear prayer; it has no eyes, so it can not see a person’s needs; no hands so can not help; no mind, so can not think. It is therefore unable to ask God for the thing which its worshipers need, and which they plead with it to implore God for. Our boys tried to make others believe that peyote is a God and a religion, but if one wants to believe in mysterious things it must be Christ or peyote.” (Sam Newman, Ree [Arikara], in The Indian Leader.)