The Native American Church

with Nico Wind

[audio:https://www.wisdomoftheelders.org/s2_progs/202_tr.mp3]

Arlie Neskahi :
In the aftermath of the forcible removal of Indians who lived in the coveted lands of the eastern woodlands and the central plains, people of many Native nations found themselves in the unfamiliar territory of Oklahoma. Apache, Arapaho, Cheyenne, Cado, Kiowa, Ponca, Comanche, Sioux, and many other tribes struggled to find relief from the devastating loss of lives and culture. In the midst of this struggle, a healing spirit traveled from the south. Nico Wind, in today’s Tribal Rhythms, takes us to the heart of the Native American Church.

Nico Wind:
In a large tepee, perhaps thirty or forty feet in diameter, the people enter through an open flap and sit on the floor, forming a circle along the outer perimeter. A fire burns in the center of the tepee. It burns all night during a prayer meeting of the Native American Church.

Gerald Primeaux :
My grandfather always told me, Harry Primeaux. He said, “When you do something, you’re going to sing, grandson, listen.” He said, “Sing it right. Know what you’re singing about.” Try to remember the prayers that when we’re singing, that’s what it’s about. It’s about keeping the mother earth turning.

Wind:
Gerald Primeaux, and his nephew, Mike Primeaux, grew up in the tradition of the Native American Church. Gerald’s father, Asa Primeaux, was a roadman and a carrier of the sacred pipe of the Yankton Sioux. The roadman leads the people in prayer during the all-night meetings.

Primeaux :
I grew up on the reservation. My family, we were always right there at the church grounds in Greenwood, was where I learned. They used to have meetings once a month every first of the month and we used to go down there. Even when my dad moved us into the city temporarily to work, you know, we still took that weekend out to go down to

Greenwood and take in meetings. And we used to try to sit up, and if we got tired, my dad used to say, “If you’re going to sleep, go outside.” And so he used to take us outside in the car if we wanted to sleep. Otherwise, he told us to stay awake and try to pay attention so which I did.

Wind :
The origins of the Native American Church trace back ten thousand years to Mexico where the people first discovered the sacred properties of a small spineless cactus called peyote. Peyote cactus buttons found in a cave in southern Texas date back to 5000 B.C. ancient legend says that peyote came as a gift from the Creator to help people in peril.

Music:

Gerald Primeaux

Yankton Sioux Peyote Songs

Cool Runnings Music

Primeaux :
The old people said it made the blind see. It healed the broken bones. And that’s the way it came to us like that but just to be acknowledged to where we won’t have to get breaking the law or whatever, they made it into a church, and they put the Christianity teachings in there. So it came to our people like that.

Wind :
In the early nineteen hundreds, the practices of the Native American Church spread north onto the Great Plains. Gerald’s great grandfather, Samuel Necklace, chartered the church in South Dakota in 1915.

Primeaux :
The white man was putting us on reservations and they were saying we couldn’t pray this way. We couldn’t talk this way. They were saying that to us and a woman fell behind when she was trying to keep up with her people. And she fell over, ready to just give herself up and die, you know. So maybe through that life she was carrying, a plant was saying, talking to her, telling her, “Why don’t you eat me? Eat me and you will be well.”

This lady ate this medicine. She was able to get a little bit of strength so she could sit up again. She gathered all what she can around her and she stayed there for about a week eating medicine. She was able to get her strength back. She was nourished. So she walked forward and she caught up with her people. She caught up with her people. She kind of shared with the medicine man what she, what she found on the ground, and how it talked to her, how it had some kind of life into it.

Music:
Gerald Primeaux

Wind:
The prayer meeting begins at sundown and goes until the sun rises again the next morning. The roadman and other singers sing four rounds of four songs each. In between each round, a bowl containing a thick peyote tea is passed, followed by long periods of prayer and contemplation. Gerald says the peyote is not used to bring vision or spiritual experience, but to bring healing into the body.

Primeaux :
You go in to pray. You go in to eat medicine. You go in there to get healed, maybe encouraged to where they sing all night. And they pray all night to where by the time that sun comes up, there is a way of greeting that sun. Greeting the new day to go forward, you know, that was the understanding that was taught into me.

Wind :
The spiritual practices within the Native American Church vary from tribe to tribe. Some incorporate Christian teachings and others remain close to tribal traditions. Common to all, however, is the water drum, a small kettle half filled with water and then stretched with a wet hide. As the hide dries out, the water is sloshed against it, producing a rich, resonant sound.

Music:
Gerald Primeaux

The only other instrument used is a small gourd rattle. Both the drum stick and the handle of the shaker are often beaded with small, beautiful beads and topped with horsehair.

Since the early nineteen hundreds, the Native American Church has spread from one tribe to another across America despite opposition from political and religious corners. Although the cactus is considered a healing gift from God, used as a sacrament, in the eyes of the law it is still a controlled substance.

O pposition to government policy eventually led to the passing of the Native American Religious Freedom Act on August 11, 1978, which upheld the use of peyote for religious purposes by Native Americans. There are now 80 chapters of the Native American Church across 70 tribes with a reported membership of 250,000 Native people.

Primeaux :
You know, it actually came from, our people say it came from the Presbyterian style of singing when they were teaching us how to talk English and they had the songs, the Christian songs. But they turned it and put Indian words in there. They put it into those words and then they just start harmonizing and you know, the harmonizing part is what, our belief is, we come from the plains, the rolling hills, sometimes they say, the Black Hills, sometimes when the people used to sing a song they want it to carry out so everybody can hear it, carry out through the hills. So that’s where that harmonizing, the voice, to kind of carry the tune.

Music:

Verdell Primeaux

Mystical Warrior

Cool Runnings Music

Wind :
The church provided a bridge between cultures and gave Native people a way to protect spiritual traditions against political efforts to remove them.

When the sun rises the prayer meeting comes to a close. T he hide is removed from the drum, the water emptied and the sacred items carefully stored until the next prayer meeting of the Native American Church. What began as an innovation, a response to loss, has now become part of the traditional life of men like Gerald Primeaux and his nephew, Mike. They learned from their fathers and now carry the healing forward.

Music:

Verdell Primeaux

Mystical Warrior

Cool Runnings Music:

Primeaux:
To me I say “traditional” because of the style of it, because of some of the songs are, we use them to maybe pick somebody up, uplift their spirit maybe, heal them, and then we try real hard because we want God to hear us.

Wind :
For Wisdom of the Elders, I’m Nico Wind.

Neskahi :
Tribal Rhythms is written by Milt and Jamie Lee, produced by Clark Salisbury and Larry Johnson, and hosted by Nico Wind. Thanks to Gerald and Mike Primeaux for their words, their dedication and their on-going prayers.