this would be cool if not for living in a mickey mouse nation:
http://www.stainblue.com/quanahparker.html
Quanah Parker, born ca. 1845 in Oklahoma, was chief of the Quahadi Comanches, the last band to surrender in the South Plains war of 1874-1875. His father Peta Nocona was a revered war chief of the Nocone Comanches. His mother Cynthia was a white woman who as a child had been captured by the Comanches on May 19, 1836, at Fort Parker, in Limestone County, Texas.
Parker was influential in the spread of Christian peyotism among the Plains Indians. He was the first to integrate highly ritualized Christian elements with the Indians' traditional use of peyote, and insisted that women not be excluded from such ceremonies. The town of Quanah, Texas -- settled in 1884 and named for Quanah Parker -- is the seat of Hardeman County, in North Texas.
Today, bona fide religious use of peyote by such organizations as the Native American Church continues and is protected by the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution as well as several sections of the Arizona Constitution pursuant to Arizona State Judge Yale McFate's July 26, 1960 ruling. States permitting the religious use of peyote include Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Minnesota and Nevada, among others.
Peyote, Cactus Pudding, Dry Whiskey and White Mule are some of the common names given this sacred cactus that contains more than fifty alkaloids and related compounds. Mescaline (3,4,5-trimethoxy-beta-phenethylamine) is structurally similar to the human neurohormone epinephrine and is the primary active constituent of peyote. It produces the indescribable, brilliantly colored visions that are the hallmark of the peyote experience. Aldous Huxley's book, The Doors of Perception, vividly describes his experience while under the influence of mescaline and was an important milestone in the history of psychedelics.
Once common throughout its range in Texas (Starr, Hidalgo, and Zapata counties), peyote is now a rare plant due to overcollecting. A substantial population still survives in Mexico's Chihuahuan Desert. Cultivating peyote is a rewarding experience but requires great patience: If started from seed, it can take up to five years to obtain a plant that is 15 mm in diameter. "Pups," or lateral shoots arising from lateral areoles, can be removed and allowed to callus, and then planted in moist sand or a sand/vermiculite mixture where they will quickly form adventitious roots.
Anderson, E.F. "The biogeography, ecology and taxonomy of Lophophora (Cactaceae)." Brittonia 21(4): 299-310 (1969).
Anderson, E.F. Peyote: The Divine Cactus. University of Arizona Press, Tucson, AZ (1980).
Anderson, E.F. "The peyote gardens of south Texas: A conservation crisis?" Cactus & Succulent Journal 67(2): 67-73 (1995).
Huxley, A. The Doors of Perception. Harper, New York (1954).
La Barre, W. The Peyote Cult. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT (1938).
La Barre, W. "Mescalism and peyotism." American Anthropologist 59: 708-711 (1957).
La Barre, W. "Twenty years of peyote studies." Current Anthropology 1: 45-60 (1960).
La Barre, W. "Peyotl and mescaline." Journal of Psychedelic Drugs 11(1-2): 33-39 (1979).
La Barre, W. et al. "Statement on peyote." Science 114: 582-583 (1951).
Schultes, R.E. and A. Hofmann. The Botany and Chemistry of Hallucinogens. Charles C. Thomas, Springfield, IL (1973).
Shulgin, A. "Mescaline: The chemistry and pharmacology of its analogs." Lloydia 36(1): 46-58 (1973).
Shulgin, A. "Profiles of psychedelic drugs. 7. Mescaline." Journal of Psychedelic Drugs 11(4): 355 (1979).
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quanah_Parker
Quanah Parker is credited as one of the first important leaders of the Native American Church movement.[13] Parker adopted the peyote religion after having been gored in southern Texas by a bull.[citation needed] Parker was visiting his mother's brother, John Parker, in Texas where he was attacked, giving him severe wounds. To fight an onset of blood burning fever, a Mexican curandera was summoned and she prepared a strong peyote tea from fresh peyote to heal him. Thereafter, Quanah Parker became involved with peyote, which 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.[14]
Parker taught that the sacred peyote medicine was the sacrament given to the Indian peoples and was to be used with water when taking communion in a traditional Native American Church medicine ceremony. Parker was a proponent of the "half-moon" style of the peyote ceremony. The "cross" ceremony later evolved in Oklahoma because of Caddo influences introduced by John Wilson, a Caddo-Delaware religious leader who traveled extensively around the same time as Parker during the early days of the Native American Church movement.
Parker's most famous teaching regarding the spirituality of the Native American Church:
The modern reservation era in Native American history began with the adoption of the Native American Church and Christianity by nearly every Native American tribe and culture within North American and Canada as a result of Parker and Wilson's efforts. The peyote religion and the Native American Church were never the traditional religious practice of North American Indian cultures. This religion developed in the nineteenth century, inspired by events of the time being east and west of the Mississippi River, Parker's leadership, and influences from Native Americans of Mexico and other southern tribes.[15][16][17][18][19][20] They had used peyote in spiritual practices since ancient times.