We all know the position that certain political groups and organizations have publicly taken towards marijuana (Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, NORML, DEA, etc). But I was wondering, what is the Native American stance towards marijuana...is it positive or negative, is it treated like alcohol or tobacco in some way?
i think i see where your going with this.... didnt they smoke that shit in peace pipes or something? i have no doubt that if it grew here, they would have enjoyed it
I am not aware of any tribes insane enough to hate nature, or natural medicine. You'd have to be a real heathen to outlaw a plant.
Seeing how destructive alcohol has been to the native tribes of America, I'm sure they have a very positive stance towards smoking the ganj and its relatively beneficial properties. Only a degraded people that allow the politicization of individual beliefs would ever ban something as benign as cannabis.
No they smoked tobacco in "calumet" (peace pipe). They use Peyote more than any other drug for spiritual practices and medicinal uses. And im sure theyll look upon marijuana as the same as peyote. <-----Cherokee
Well, I'm an enrolled member of a Native American tribe in Washington State. Native Americans of the United States and Canada did not traditionally practice marijuana use (nor did they practice Peyote rituals). The situation on most Indian reservations can be pretty impoverished. Drug use among the youth is rampant. Marijuana is rightly so grouped into drug prevention measures among the youth across the nation - this is no different on reservations. The attitude against pot isn't politicized on the reservations. Drug use, including pot, is a major issue. Sociologically, historical scars are very apparent to several populations across the country. The same is true for Native Americans. Demographically, as a population, they have historically shown that introduced substances have a detrimental affect on Native communities.
My grandmother is a head tribes woman of the creek indian nation and she tokes, so I don't understand the disconnect here. Most Indians I talk to either have partaked in it or talk positively of it, maybe it is just a creak Indian thing. Creek Indians are closely related to the Seminole, the Seminole are actually a tribe that disbanded from the creek Indians about the time Florida became a state, which was 200 or so years ago.
Yeah for sure. I know TONS of people on the Rez who toke up for sure. Growing up there ,we even called it "being chief'd out" heh. While individual attitudes may vary, Tribal governments across the nation are struggling to deal with the rising drug epidemic among the youth.
Thank you for setting the record straight. You are correct that Native Americans did not traditionally use marijuana in ceremonies. I am an enrolled member of a Native American tribe in North Dakota and it always irritates me to hear people make that assumption.
My 5th great grandpa was a Sioux Indian chief and my family has a long long line of being full of stoners. So I'd say its pretty positive?
Can you go on a bit more for those of us who are too lazy to fact-check you? I'm not saying you're wrong, just want to read more.
Yes, how did Canadian Native Americans manage to use peyote when it doesn't grow for thousands of miles in any direction around them? There is no such thing as "Native Americans", it's just a term that describes a bunch of different cultural/ethnic groups that covered 2 continents. It's like talking about "European Oktoberfest Rituals", the Germans celebrate Oktoberfest. The Portugese don't.
Peyote usage and rituals came primarily from the Comanches, specifically Quannah Parker, last chief of the Comanches. The story goes that an old healer (coulda been an Arapaho, I dunno) gave him peyote while he was wounded during a big battle. He tripped the fuck out and thought he saw Jesus, giving rise to the Native American Peyote Church. With the imprisonment of Indians onto reservations, many parts of different tribal cultures intermingled. For example, the Comanche never wore the big eagle feather war bonnet - only a funky bison horn helmet, one of which I own - but after mingling with the Sioux and others on collective reservations in Oklahoma (where they were forcibly relocated) they adopted the standard old feather war bonnet too. And so it was with peyote rituals and usage, it spread throughout the tribes, spreading from Oklahoma on outwards. As far as the whole 'Native American' thing goes, I hate to say it but SE is pretty much right. 'Native American' is about as useful as 'European', which isn't even slightly fucking useful because a Portugese person is so culturally different from a Russian that it's quite senseless in any kind of anthropologic sense to lump them in with each other. They share a continent, and no more - so it is with Indians. In fact, according to my Dad no Indians really even go around CALLING themselves 'Native Americans' - their tribal identity (for us, Numunuh, 'The People') or just 'Indian' is the norm. As far as the actual thread topic goes... it's a bit of a dumb question really. What is the black stance on marijuana? The white stance? The Asian stance? You can make generalisations, but the white/black/Indian/Asian communities are made up of INDIVIDUALS, each with their own stance on weed. As far as a generalisation goes, my Dad and all his Indian friends were toking by the time they were 14 or 15. Very prevalent back then, as it was among whites and practically everyone. I dunno about now because I don't live in America and am not American, but I'm told that most reservations are basically third world countries with rampant drug and alcohol usage, or more to the point straight up abuse. As such, I'd imagine weed generally isn't shunned on reservations...
Thanks for reviving this thread, it's been a while since I created it! I have to agree with previous tokers in that the singular classification of Native American's is incorrect (on my part lol). Each tribe is unique is regard to cultural stance and politics. If anyone could extrapolate further on individual tribes (which maybe you are a part of?!) we could keep the discussion going.
They mainly smoked tobacco in peace pipes. Tribes in the deserty regions used paoty (sp?) I'm not exactly sure which ones or which area it was, but certains tribes in a certain area did use some marijuana for medicinal and some religious use. But back to what the OP originally said, there can be no 'Native American Stance' on marijuana. That would be like having an African-American or Mexican-American stance on it. You cant segregate when it comes to shit like this. Just to brag.. I'm 1/4 Choctaw, I got it from the Colt Brother's who ran with Jesse James when he first had his gang that was made up of some family members (the Colt's were his cousins i believe) One of the Colt brothers married a Choctaw woman. And whala!