This sub-series includes various miscellaneous materials such as reprints, pamphlets, and newspaper and magazine clippings emphasize the use of drugs in contemporary society (the 1960s), hallucinogenic drugs in general and mescal and peyote in particular. There is also a "Ku Kluck Klan" broadside warning against the use of "peyota". Other materials include listings of expenses for the summers of 1935 and 1936, sample questionnaires for gathering information about peyote meetings, diagrams of peyote altars, and a resolution of the Native American Church denouncing treatment by the press dated October 2, 1932.
Collection Restrictions:
Some of the materials in the collection are covered by copyright as of April 1976.
Access to the Raoul Weston La Barre papers requires an appointment.
Collection Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Collection Citation:
The Raoul Weston La Barre papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Indians of North America -- Great Plains Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Folklore
Vocabulary
Date:
undated
Scope and Contents:
In Schedule of John Wesley Powell's Introduction to the Study of Indian Languages; includes grammatical material, notes on mescal, pictographs (?), songs, Kiowa myth, love songs, and Comanche names. The schedule is well filled.
Local Numbers:
NAA MS 347
General:
Previously titled "Words, phrases, and sentences."
Letters from the Department of Interior, Office of Indian Affairs, Letters from the Department of Agriculture. One letter each from the following: Coulter, John M.- University of Chicago. Fisher, C. H.. Chihuahua. Marques, Don, Pueblo, New Mexico. Parker, A. C., University of the State of New York. Rithwick (?), J. T., West Chester, Pennsylvania. Three letters from Simmons, C. S., Cache, Oklahoma. One letter from R. H. Gordon to Dr Francis P. Morgan, Washington, D. C. Copies of letters from the following: Barker, B. F., Ojueles, Texas. (1) Briggs, J. R., M.D., Dallas, Texas. (1) Ewell, E. E., Washington, D. C. (2) Fuchs, Ernesto, Guadalajara, Mexico (1). Hadley, J. W., Lawton, Oklahoma. (1). McGee, W. J., Ethnologist-in-Charge (1). Prentiss, D. Webster, Bermuda, inclosing reports of effect of Peyote on various individuals. (1)
16 cards 4 1/2 x 6 1/2"- with Peyote notes. 1 list of Peyote reference books. 14 sheets from stenographer's note book containing Peyote notes. 11 sheets, 7 x 4 1/4", containing Theodate Smith notes. 58 pages- 11 x 8 1/2"- Manuscript of "The Peyote Road", by C. S. Simmons. [ca. 1912 +] [dated by Mooney] One letter and account of the Mescal Bean, from Louis P. Meeker, Darlington, Oklahoma. 8 pages total. Article on "Huskanawing"- Virginia," Beverly, History of Virginia, 175- 80, 1722, "Huskanawing- North Carolina", and Yaupon Myth.-Lawson, History of Carolina, 1714. "Peyote", by (?) Mitchell. Peyote Parallels, Brazil- Extract from Southey's History of Brazil. Extracts from Heffter- Ueber Pellote- 10 pages. Extract from Havelock's article "A new Artificial Paradise". Extract from Historia de la Compania de Jesus en Nueva Espana, by Francisco Jan'er Alegre. Extract from Rudo Ensayo (1760)- translation. Extract from Mexican Institute Medico Nacional.-translation. Extract from Lumholz, in Journal de la Societe Des Americanistes de Paris, 1899. 5 pages in Spanish. (article). Extract from Prentiss Morgan "Mescal Buttons", Medical Rec., New York 1896. Article in regard to the prejudice against Peyote as shown by the newspapers. Author's name not given. Pages 3, 4, and 5 of an article on Peyote (carbon copy). (Pages 1 and 2 and final sheets missing). One small pasteboard box containing specimens of Peyote. Printed Song, (Tam Hoscua). Extract from Current Literature (1895) on Hasheesh Eating. Extract from Medical Record (October 1895) on Mescal Buttons. Newspaper clippings. House Bills regarding Peyote. Copies of Congressional Record. 1 copy of "Apuntes Para la Historia de la Medicina en Michoacan, por El Dr. Nicolas Leon.
Copies of the following publications: "Mescal Buttons", pamphlet by D. W. Prentiss. Mescal Buttons, Reprint from the Theraputic Gazette, January 1896. Anhalonium Lewinii (Mescal Buttons)- Reprint from the Theraputic Gazette, September 1895. Contributions from ther U. S. National Herbarium, 1892-94 and -96. (3 copies) Theraputic Gazette, January 1896 (one copy) Samoan Kava Custom, by William Churchill (Extract from Holmes Anniversary Volume). Ethnos, Mexican Medical publican- April 1920 (1 copy). Cahoba, Indentity of- the narcotic snuff of ancient Haiti, Reprint from Jounal of Was. Acad. of Sc. 1916. Photostat copies from various publications, regarding Peyote (in sizes varying from 10 x 8 1/2" to 1 1/2 x 3 1/2"). 5 photos showing Peyote plant. 2 small boxes of peyote transferred to United States National Museum 2/11/55. (Letter of Stirling to Kellogg.)
List of Contents by David F. Aberle, May 2, 1952. Bureau of American Ethnology File 2537. Peyote. James Mooney. Miscellaneous material regarding Peyote. Also see File 1887. Manila envelope containing various bibliographical leads and so on, and notes regarding congressional hearings on peyote. I have taken the considerable liberty of sorting some of the remainder of the material into manila folders. These are grouped as follows: Chemistry and Botany. Therapeutic uses (by this is meant therapeutic use in Western medicine, not Indian), and Effects- visions, etc. (Accounts of experiences, etc.) Ethnology, bibliography, and miscellaneous. Accounts of use in various areas, bibliographical leads, mainly Spanish, comprise the bulk of this-only 2 items of Miscellaneous, in fact. Legislation and agitation: congressional hearings, newspaper article, etc. "Peyote Parallels": Marijuana and other drugs. Mooney apparently tried to cover Marijuana, Kava, some South American drugs, etc. In addition to the manila envelope and these manila folders, the following are in this file: 5 sheets of photographs of peyote plants. A manuscript on peyote by C. S. Simmons, Cache, Oklahoma: The Peyote Road. There are also letters to, from, and about the author. The manuscript is not complete. It includes: poetry, preface; Chapter I, Fight on the Indian Religion; II, the Missionary; III, the Rites of the Road; IV, The Drum; VI, Medicine Smoking; VII, healing the sick; XI, Unity; VIII, Physical and Psychical Phenomena; XIII, the Awakening; XIV, the Means to Power; XV, Psychometry-the awakening of the spiritual senses; XVI, the peyote in science and medicine; XVII, The explanation; XVIII, Indian Singing; Appendix- correspondence with congressmen, etc, re Peyote. Chapters 5, 9, 10, 12 are missing. Typescript of chapters 9, 10, 12 received 1968 from Simmons' granddaughter and correspondence, 6 pages. Author, a white man, an ardent peyotist, friend of Quanah Parker, his accounts of his own experiences have considerable interest, and there is also some valuable information in it. He was a complete mystic. Apparently Mooney planned to publish this. A notebook bound in olive cloth, 5 x 8, with 39 pages filled, and 2 bibliographic notes in the very back. The notebook seems to contain, among other things, detailed notes on actual meetings, but hard to read.
