The Supreme Court versus Peyote: Consciousness Alteration, Cultural Psychiatry and the Dilemma of Contemporary Subcultures

The Supreme Court's decision in Employment Division of Oregon v. Smith ignored accepted ethnographic research on the Native American Church's use of Peyote. This paper argues that Peyote's Schedule I status contradicts ethnographic findings, which show the substance is safe and therapeutic when used in this tradition. The Court's ethnocentric assumptions and rationale for denying religious freedom are unsupported by both ethnographic evidence and legal precedent. The right to use Peyote involves not only religious freedom but also the rights to raise children in one's culture and to access culturally relevant therapeutic treatment.

Study at a glance

Abstract

The Native American Church is examined as an illustrative example in the political anthropology of consciousness. Specific attention is paid to the Supreme Court's ignoring of accepted research on this tradition and its sacrament, Peyote, in the case of Employment Division of Oregon v. Smith. An anthropological reaction to the Smith decision is constructed, focusing on ethnographic findings regarding Peyote that contradict the Supreme Court's ethnocentric assumptions. This paper argues that Peyote's Schedule I status is not supported by the ethnographic findings. Peyote, as used in the Native American Church, is recognized as safe and therapeutic. It is also argued that the Supreme Court's rationale for denying Peyotist religious freedom is not supported by the ethnographic findings nor by legal precedent. Not only is the Native American's right to use Peyote a matter of freedom of religion, it also involves other rights such as the right to raise one's children in one's own culture and the right to be treated using a culturally relevant therapeutic modality.