September 29, 1990
U.S. Capitol, Washington, D.C.
Statement of Reuben A. Snake, Jr. (1937 - 1993)
Coordinator, Native American Religious Freedom Project
A Gathering Of Native American Religious Leaders To
Obtain Guarantees Of Religious Liberty
BACKGROUND: In the spring 1990, the U.S. Supreme Court abandoned well-established free exercise of religion precedents in case involving a member of the Native American Church who worked for a drug treatment program that required staff to be "drug-free." He was fired because he used peyote in his worship. He sought unemployment compensation but Oregon denied it. His appeal went to the Supreme Court which upheld Oregon. The court ruled that the drug law is a law of general applicability, not designed to block religious practice. Almost all religious denominations joined to ask Congress to restore the old precedent. Members of Native American Church were alarmed about implications of this precedent. The Quaker lobby, Friends Committee on National Legislation had a long relationship with the Indians and the Native American Church. A meeting to plan a strategy was called for Washington. At the last minute, FCNL asked Eric Sterling, a Quaker and recently retired counsel to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee and expert on drug law, to join the meeting. He suggested a political and media strategy to educate Congress, the news media and other faiths about the Native American Church. The Native American Religious Freedom Project was created and based in Eric's office at the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation. The events were: (1) A press conference at a teepee erected just to the west of the Capitol on the site of the future National Museum of the American Indian including a representative of U.S. Senator Daniel Inouye (D-HI), Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs; and (2) A worship service of the Native American Church with the holy medicine, peyote. Eric made many calls to find a location where the worship could be held without a police raid. Finally he found that the National Park Service would be happy to host the worship and set aside an area in Greenbelt National Park for that purpose for Sept. 29-30. After the press event, and the speeches, including the one below, worship was held in three sacred fireplaces created by three different branches of the Native American Church of North America in Greenbelt. At the conclusion of the all night worship at dawn on September 30, a celebratory meal was shared by all participants.
Senator Inouye, Church President Emerson Jackson, honored guests, as an American it is inspiring to stand here at the foot of the U.S. Capitol to exercise two of our basic American rights, the freedom of speech, and the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
Senator Inouye, Church President Emerson Jackson, honored guests, as an American it is inspiring to stand here at the foot of the U.S. Capitol to exercise two of our basic American rights, the freedom of speech, and the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
Native Americans have been associated
with the liberty of the American people since the founding of the nation. In
1773, at the Boston tea party, the early protestors against British royal
tyranny dressed as Mohawks because Indians, in England and in Europe, were a
symbol of American liberty. Indians, and our way of life, were the very symbol
of American liberty adopted by the earliest American revolutionaries. But four
or five centuries before that dramatic event, even before Christopher
Columbus sailed from Spain, the Five Nations of the Iroquois confederacy formed
a government under a constitution called the Great Law of Peace. Consider some
of the enlightened features of that government -- parliamentary-type
government, separation of politics and religion, separation of civil and
military government, the concept of checks and balances, veto, referendum, and
so forth. Those governmental concepts were so remarkable, books were written
about them in the European languages. These concepts became known to John Locke
and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, European political philosophers, whose writings are
cited in identifying the sources of the U.S. Constitution. The free exercise of
religion was among the many features of that great Native American government,
and the freedom of religion is one which many of us take for granted today.
On September 15, 1620, English
subjects sailed from Plymouth, England, to seek refuge from religious persecution.
The story of the Puritan pilgrims landing at Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts to
achieve religious freedom is one of the best-known stories in American history.
It is tragic to say however, that we
are now in a situation in the United States of America where we can no longer
take such a fundamental right, the free exercise of religion, for granted. As
venerable as the heritage of religious liberty has been in America, religious
liberty is now in jeopardy for all minority religions.
Last April, in
the case of Employment Division of Oregon v. Smith [494 U.S. 872, 110 S. Ct. 1595, 108 L. Ed. 2d 876, 1990 U.S. Lexis
2021 (1990)], a case involving Native American religious liberty, the U.S.
Supreme court threw out its long standing precedents and declared that no
longer does the government have to show that laws which burden and restrict
religious liberty must be justified by a compelling government interest. Even
very large religious organizations issued protests and sought a rehearing in
the court. The Baptists, the Methodists, Jewish groups, dozens of religious
groups, and over 50 of America's most distinguished constitutional law
professors sought a rehearing of the court's decision.
But consider the implications of
this case from our perspective. The U.S. Supreme court reversed a long line of
settled cases in order to rule that the use of the sacrament of Native American
worship, the holy medicine, peyote, is not protected under the First Amendment
of the constitution. They said, in our case, our religious exercises, our form
of worship, the use of our holy sacrament, is not protected by the constitution.
The court said that Native Americans, who have enjoyed religious liberty on
this land since before the pilgrims fled here, are no longer entitled to religious
liberty. This trampling of Native American religious liberty is intolerable. Our
people have been using the holy medicine, peyote, for thousands of years, thousands
of years.
For the last twenty years, the American
people have been suffering an epidemic of abuse of refined chemical drugs like
cocaine, heroin, amphetamines, PCP, and so forth. American cities are crawling
with violence and crime. This is a terrible tragedy, and this kind of drug abuse
is also a problem for some Indian youth. But there is no peyote drug abuse
problem. I defy the justices of the Supreme Court to find newspaper reports of
drive-by shootings in connection with the holy medicine. I challenge anyone
concerned about the problem of drug abuse to find examples of dope peddlers selling
the holy medicine in America's school yards and play grounds. The idea is preposterous.
We don't have a peyote abuse problem
in this nation. Yet the widespread fear, bordering on panic, about the tragedy
of drug abuse has clouded the minds of the justices. In the name of the war on drugs,
our use of our holy medicine is restricted. In the name of the war on drugs,
our guarantee of free exercise of religion has been violated. In the name of
the war on drugs, the religious freedom of every American has been placed in
jeopardy.
The consequences are outrageous. For
decades Native Americans have endured the harassment and persecution of law
enforcement authorities ignorant of, or indifferent to, our ancient ways of
worship. The law reports are filled with tragic cases of our men and women
dragged from worship, or from their homes, to jail cells and to courtrooms,
forced to defend themselves, to justify themselves to the ignorant and the callous.
But in those degrading circumstances, we could always point, confidently, to
the First Amendment's guarantees of free exercise of religion, and
know that ultimately we would prevail. Now, unbelievably, we are no longer
assured that we will prevail.
This has been intolerable to us,
this is intolerable to us, and it is intolerable to every American who treasures
their right to worship God without government interference.
In the Native American Church every
day is a holy day, but today is special. In the Hebrew calendar, today is Yom
Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the most solemn day of Jewish worship. Many Jewish
friends of Native Americans invited to join us this morning explained that they
could not worship with us here, for they would be in their own temples in
prayer.
For many of the 5741 years of the Hebrew
calendar, the Jewish people have suffered oppression on account of their
religion. Today, 199 years after the American Bill of Eights was adopted, we
are thankful that the Jewish people feel free to worship without fearing
government harassment. But ladies and gentlemen, today the 250,000 members of
the Native American Church are not free to worship God without fear of government
harassment.
Church President Emerson Jackson has
declared tomorrow a day of prayer for peace. Today, hundreds of our people are preparing
for a night-long Native American Church service and prayer for peace. But many
of our elders, who have traveled thousands of miles to be here to worship in
our nation's capital, who have experienced the indignities of religious
persecution, expressed to the organizers of this worship service a great fear
-- will we be arrested? Will we be arrested? We have had to
call law enforcement authorities -- attorneys general, prosecutors, assistant
state's attorneys, narcotics units -- around the region to assure ourselves
that our worship will proceed undisturbed by the hideous specter of a police
raid.
I ask my
brothers and sisters who are Christians, my brothers and sisters who are Moslem,
my brothers and sisters who are Hindus, my brothers and sisters who are Buddhists,
my brothers and sisters who are Jewish, do any of you worry that your worship
services will be raided by the police? Do any of you feel it necessary to call
the police in order to set up a worship service? Do any of you have to explain
to law enforcement officers that you have a right to worship your God in your own
manner?
I ask my brothers and sisters who
are Christians, do you need permission from your state alcoholic beverage
control commission to give sacramental wine to communicants under the age of
21? Do your priests need licenses from the government to perform a mass? Of
course not, but under the Smith
decision, that shocking possibility may yet come to pass.
I ask my brothers and sisters, when
they tell their children about their religious rites, do they have to warn
their little ones about the police? Do they have to explain that they should
not be ashamed because of the special police "interest" in their
worship? I ask the American people, does this sound like the religious life we
expect to live in the United States of America? Well my brothers and sisters,
this unbelievable condition burdens our worship. This relic of prejudice
burdens our worship. This government involvement in our religion burdens our
worship, and it is intolerable.
Today, at the highest point in Washington,
overlooking our little press conference, the National Cathedral is being
dedicated. Today the last stone is being placed in that beautiful monument to
the central importance of God and prayer in American life. It is profoundly
ironic that just as that glorious cathedral is being completed and dedicated in
our nation's capital, the U.S. Supreme court has jeopardized the status of
every minority religion, and it has done so in a case involving Native American
Church members using the holy sacrament of our church.
We are here today with one simple
message -- we demand that our use of our sacrament, the holy medicine peyote,
be fully protected by law without qualification. We ask no more, we expect no
more, and we are entitled to nothing less!
Why must we stand here and defend
our religion? Why must we tell you that our church is a good church? Why must
we tell you that we do not tolerate drug abusers or alcoholics in our church? We
are reduced to this posture because of laws passed and enforced in an
atmosphere of almost total ignorance about Native Americans.
Perhaps we should not be surprised.
Like most Americans we like to go about our business quietly and without
drawing attention to ourselves. One of the central teachings of our church is
humility. We have never held a press conference before. We have never drawn attention
to ourselves before. We are uncomfortable this morning, but to protect
ourselves, we have a duty. We are here today to tell the American people that
our worship is sacred, it is legitimate, it is profound, it is good, it is
wonderful in the eyes of God, it is wonderful for our people, and we must, we
must pray the way God has taught us.
Americans, you have taken much from
us. You have benefited from us in many ways. You have left us little land, you
have taken away our traditional livelihoods. Do not allow the government to
take our religious freedom away. We urge you to join us in supporting the
"Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1990," H.R. 5377. But this is
only a first step. The bill does not go far enough. It does not specifically
protect our worship, the one that the Supreme Court chose to disregard and deny
protection. We urge that the bill be amended to specifically protect Native American
religious freedom. That is not too much to ask.
Soon we will be returning to our
homes across America and to our children and grandchildren. We will say we engaged
in the political process, we spoke to the American people and to the national
news media. We went to Washington, and we told our story. Can we tell our
children, "we succeeded, you are now safe"? Can we tell our children,
"we have brought back for you the security, the safety, the certainty that
you, our children, and your children can worship God as we have been
taught"? It is our prayer that we can!
* * * * *
Mr. Snake was assisted in the preparation
of these remarks by Eric E. Sterling, Executive Director of the Criminal
Justice Policy Foundation. The Native American Religious Freedom Project was
housed and supported by the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation in Washington,
DC. Please contact Eric Sterling if you would like more information about the
occasion on which these remarks were made. Eric Sterling was introduced to Mr. Snake by Jay C. Fikes, then with the Friends Committee on National Legislation.
The Religious Freedom Restoration Act, reversing Employment Division ofOregon v. Smith (494 U.S. 872, 110 S. Ct. 1595, 108 L. Ed. 2d 876, 1990
U.S. Lexis 2021 (1990)), passed Congress overwhelmingly and was signed on
November 16, 1993 by President Clinton (P.L. 103-141). It had no provision specifically
addressing the religious use of peyote. The Act prohibited any unit ofgovernment from substantially burdening a person's exercise of religion unlessthe government demonstrates that the application of the burden to the person isin the furtherance of a compelling governmental interest and is the leastrestrictive means of furthering that governmental interest. (The law can be
found at 107 Statutes at Large 1488. It was H.R. 1308, 103rd Cong., House
Report 103-88, and Senate Report 103-111). On June 25, 1997, the U.S. Supreme
court held the Religious Freedom Restoration Act unconstitutional as applied to the states. City of Boerne, Texas v. P.F. Flores,Archbishop of San Antonio (521
U.S. 507, 117 S. Ct. 2157, 138 L. Ed. 2d 624, 1997 U.S. Lexis 4035, (1997).
On October 6, 1994, President Clinton
signed Public Law 103-344, the "American Indian Religious Freedom Act Amendments
of 1994," to protect the traditional use of peyote by Indians for religious
purposes throughout the United States. (108 Statutes at Large 3125). The billpassed the U.S. House of Representatives on August 8, 1994, and passed the U.S.Senate on September 26, 1995. (H.R. 4230, 103rd Cong., House Report 103-675).
The Native American Rights Fund (NARF) played a major role in enacting this
legislation. Robert M. Peregoy, Esq. (1947-2015) was senior counsel for NARF, 1514 P Street,
NW, Washington, DC 20005, tel. 202-785-4166; and Walter Echo Hawk,
Esq., then at NARF's Boulder, CO office, 303-447-8760
A book about the religious use of peyote
and the political struggle that this speech was a part of was published in 1996
by Prof. Huston Smith (1919-2016) with the collaboration of Mr. Snake, One Nation Under God, The Triumph of theNative American Church (1996).
The autobiography of Reuben Snake
was published in 1996, Reuben
Snake, Your Humble Serpent, Indian Visionary and Activist, as told to Jay C. Fikes. Both books were
published by Clear Light Publishers, 823 Don Diego, Santa Fe, NM 87505
(800-253-2747).
Two documentary movies were made in
the course of the lobbying for this law. “The Peyote Road" and "YourHumble Serpent” by film maker Gary Rhine, (1951-2006), Kifaru Productions.
Sphere: Related Content
Posts
