Note 114 — THE ETHNOLOGY OF PEYOTISM

Doctoring is second only to the vision for individual knowledge and power in the Plains. Kiowa peyote doctors have special prestige among other tribes. In 1936 I sponsored a Kiowa meeting near Stecker, Oklahoma, for Belo Kozad to doctor Ernest Kokome who was suffering from tuberculosis. (Ernest had given me his trade-blanket beaded peyote-necktie in 1935 on the morning after a meeting at which I had admired it.) After midnight, Belo chewed four peyote and gave them to Ernest, fanning him with feathers and cedar incense; then he made a cross in front of the patient with a glowing coal, and, putting it in his mouth, blew all over the face and chest of the sick young man, who unbuttoned his shirt for the purpose. Next Belo fanned or batted him with his feathers, the patient holding up his palms to absorb the medicine virtue. Finally he took a mouthful of water and blew it on Ernest’s head, praying and beseeching in the name of Jesus Christ for him to get well. Peyote gave Belo the power to doctor thus and not be burned by the coal.

Peyote was brought to the Creek, indeed, for doctoring by Jim Aton (a famous Kiowa peyote doctor). Much in demand, he has doctored in peyote meetings of the Yuchi, Shawnee, Kickapoo, Creek, Caddo, Osage, Comanche, Kiowa Apache, Kiowa, Mescalero Apache and Quapaw; also whites and Mexicans. His methods of doctoring have been described previously. The well-known Comanche peyote doctor, Jim Post-oak, “hollers like a bear in doctoring.” (People often imitate the animal-sources of their power in the morning, in the midst of others’ singing, either from peyote-“euphoria” or in praise of particularly good singing.) Peyote doctoring by Old Man Horse (Kiowa) influenced the Oto rite of the Church of the First-born too. Peyote can perform cures unassisted outside meetings also, as shown by the case of Tommy Cat who ate peyote over the protests of his nurse in a hospital and was cured.