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A DESCRIPTION OF A TONKAWA PEYOTE MEETING HELD IN 1902
Author(s) -
Opler Morris Edward
Publication year - 1939
Publication title -
american anthropologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1548-1433
pISSN - 0002-7294
DOI - 10.1525/aa.1939.41.3.02a00060
Subject(s) - citation , library science , art history , computer science , art
In the years 1932-34, during the course of ethnological investigations among the Chiricahua Apache Indians living on the Mescalero Indian Reservation of New Mexico, 1 the writer was fortunate enough to obtain a lengthy autobiographical account from Samuel F. Kenoi, a prominent member of the tribe. Mr. Kenoi had been a victim of the forced exodus of his people from Arizona following the Geronimo outbreak of 1886 and had been removed with other Chiricahua, first to Florida, then to Alabama, later to Ft. Sill, Oklahoma, and at length, in 1913, was permitted to take up residence at Mescalero. At various times during his childhood and youth he attended government schools, and this excerpt from the autobiography is his description of a Tonkawa peyote rite which he attended in 1902 while on a visit to former classmates of Chilocco school days, of some seven years before. The Chiricahua Apache never used peyote and there is no reason to believe that Apache notions have been injected into this account. Because of the present keen interest in the history and growth of the peyote cult and the paucity of information concerning the Tonkawa Indians and their peyote rite, the publication of this section has been thought desirable. According to Lipan Apache informants, the Tonkawa were among the first of the tribes north of Mexico to accept peyote, having been taught its use by the Carrizo Indians of the Texas Gulf region.2 While the informant's words have not been changed, this section has been greatly condensed, for aspects of the account irrelevant to the ethnology of the Tonkawa or to their peyote rite have been deleted.