2009
University of Oklahoma Press
Peyote Vs the State
is a reworked and updated version of the author’s earlier book,
To an Unknown God: Religious Freedom on Trial, published in 2001. The current title carries this dramatic story forward to include important developments following the final legal resolution in the battle over the religious freedom to use peyote as a sacramental drug.
The author, a former reporter for the Washington Post and currently a professor of law at the University of Baltimore, writes in an easy, popular style which grips the reader’s attention. The compelling story he tells moves between two native Oregonians, Dave Frohnmayer, Attorney General for the State of Oregon, and Al “Red Coyote” Smith. The latter is a Native American (Klamath) and Native American Church participant. Both are dedicated to their families, friends, institutions and the traditions they support and that have supported them. The lives of both men, including their own personal struggles are told with such feeling and care that it keeps the reader turning pages. This is the human interest side of the story of the peyote battle for religious freedom.
The life of Dave Frohnmayer is one that at first glance would seem to be charmed and privileged. Hard work with diligent attention to legal duties in defense of the law and the people show him as an excellent lawyer and public servant. However, the births of two daughters with a deadly genetic disease rendered him into a man marked by suffering.
Al Smith in contrast was born at Modoc Point, Oregon, the center of Klamath Indian life for millennia. He like many others was sent to a boarding school where he was to be “civilized.” The education was successful in disrupting his sense of identity enough that eventually he took the road of alcohol, prison and recovery through Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). His recovery through AA led him to working in a variety of recovery programs, across much of the country. Eventually running AA programs or giving talks on reservations introduced him to the peyote ceremony which he found strengthened him against alcohol. Taking sacramental peyote was the reason for his dismissal from a recovery program job with a state funded agency. The dismissal became a workman’s compensation case and eventually a United States Supreme Court case involving freedom of religion.
The important legal side of the book tells the story of the rise and resolution of a Supreme Court case. The author’s legal training presents the reader with a polished account of the very many pertinent issues such as the length of time a case takes to get to the United States Supreme Court (usually several years). Epps describes how a case passes through courts where additional issues may arise. It also has human problems, money issues, political issues, and in this case religious issues that arise – often it would seem from out of the blue. The book reports on the various out of court maneuvers, funding problems, and concerns arising from both the issues present in the case and their potential for future legal development as precedents.
The key issue in Al Smith’s case, originally a workman compensation case, became the legal use of peyote as a sacrament. Due to a unique feature of Oregon law it was vigorously opposed by Oregon Attorney General Dave Frohnmayer because legal usage could have opened the door to much wider legalization of currently illicit drugs than other states would have experienced. The religious usage of a drug, which is any substance that has a dramatic affect upon the body, has global and historic precedence. In the case of Christianity sacramental use of wine has required exemptions to be written into legal codes in areas where prohibition of alcohol has been the law. Applying the same standard to peyote for the Native American Church seemed to be a simple decision as an analogous sacramental element. Many favored and others opposed this extension. At one point many Christian denominations joined the case through amicus curae briefs on Smith’s side.
The religious side of the story Epps tells is quite telling. It includes not only the objective issues of peyote, but the personal religious views, feelings and attitudes of both Al Smith and Dave Frohnmayer. In the case of Al Smith, using peyote sacramentally seemed natural to a Native American. No more recreational use was involved than is to be seen in the partaking of the elements of bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper anywhere in any American church. For Al Smith Native American religion was a strong influence in his sobriety. His use of his religion gave his strength for living. Epps’s poignantly details the story of the Frohnmayers’ struggle with the genetic disease, the death of one of their daughters and the constant threat to another. Protestant Christianity, a formal element in their lives, appears neglected as a religious resource. The contrast in the two religious biographies presents a contrast between Christianity in America today and the rise of alternatives.
For readers who like their historic subjects served piping hot and very human with warts and all, Epps has told a very compelling story. At the end he also includes his own involvement in the peyote story with his personal narrative of a night of worship at a Native American Church service.
This book will appeal to general readers who like a very good story; to those concerned with the recovery of Native American rights, and its legal discussions make valuable reading for students of law, government and politics. Its account of a major freedom of religion case is important to civil rights students and to civil libertarians. Its sociological features are important to sociology of religion and to social workers. Theologians, preachers and students of Native American religions have much to gain from this book.
Reviewed by Andrew J. Waskey, Dalton State College, Minister, Presbyterian Church (USA)
Make a difference. Know the history. Change the future.
Find other great books on Indigenous Peoples via our Secure Bookstore.
North America 
