a sacrament given to the Indian peoples, to be
administered with water when taking communion.
The chief believed the addition of this substance
to religion showed the difference between white
Christianity and the Native American Church: “The
White Man goes into his church house and talks
about Jesus, but the Indian goes into his tipi and talks
to Jesus,” he said.
Imprisoned by the reservation system, Indians
found themselves in constant societal crisis. In an
all-out effort to recast the Indian in the white man’s
image, once proud and free peoples were stripped
of all they revered and held dear. The rise of the
peyote religion provided a spiritual element which
undoubtedly provided much-needed strength of
purpose as the Indians took those early steps down
the white man’s road. Quanah Parker played a major
role in the spread of the peyote religion to other
indigenous tribes.
Through compromise and an innate acumen,
Quanah would emerge as the great bridge between
the whites and Indians, showing his prowess as both
politician and businessman.
PA R K E R C O U N T Y T O D AY
Sources:
• Handbook of Texas Online
• Last Days of the Comanches, S.C. Gwynne, May 2010
Texas Monthly
• Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise
and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in
American History, S.C. Gwynne, Scribner, 2010
• Other Internet sources
MARCH 2016
was instrumental in founding the Native American
Church, which blended aspects of Christianity and
peyote sacramental spirituality.
“Perhaps because it provided a powerful
alternative to both ancient tribal religions and
missionary-controlled versions of Christianity, the
Peyote religion spread like wildfire,” wrote Jay Fikes
in A Brief History of the Native American Church.
As the story goes, Quanah first used peyote for
its medicinal, not spiritual effects. While visiting his
white uncle John Parker in South Texas, Quanah
caught the business end of a bull’s horns, receiving
severe wounds. The family called in a Mexican
curandera who used fresh peyote to brew a strong
tea she vowed would aid in his recovery. Apparently
it did, and Quanah became a devotee of the little
“button” cactus of the southwest.
According to studies, “peyote contains hordenine,
mescaline or phenylethylamine alkaloids, and
tyramine which act as natural antibiotics when taken
in a combined form. Clinical studies indicate that
peyocactin, a water-soluble crystalline substance
separated from an ethanol extract of the plant,
proved an effective antibiotic against 18 strains of
penicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, several
other bacteria, and a fungus.”
Of course, mescaline is also a powerful
hallucinogen, an illegal substance in today’s society.
It didn’t take long for the missionaries of Quanah’s
time to condemn the Native American substitute for
the bread and the wine.
Quanah, ever-increasingly an important
Indian leader, taught that peyote was sacred and
79