A Rare and Unusual Harvest

But subsequent conflicts between federal policy and state drug laws precipitated the passage of a federal law in 1994 to guarantee the legal use, possession and transportation of peyote "by an Indian for bona fide traditional ceremonial purposes in connection with the practice of a traditional Indian religion." The law extends protection against prosecution for the possession and use of peyote only to members of federally recognized tribes.

"Over the last 40 years, there have been lots of equal protection defenses to criminal prosecution thrown up, with people saying, 'My use of this controlled substance is religiously derived,' " said Steve Moore, a senior staff attorney with the Native American Rights Fund.

One recent case in Utah is being watched closely by Moore's office and other legal advocates. Last year, the Utah Supreme Court threw out state charges against James "Flaming Eagle" Mooney, a self-described medicine man accused of giving peyote to non-American Indian visitors to the church he and his wife, Linda, founded in 1997. Mooneyclaims to be a member of a Florida tribe of Seminole Indians.

But federal prosecutors are pursuing the Mooneyswith charges of illegally distributing peyote and attempted possession of peyote with the intent to distribute. Prosecutors contend that the tribe of Seminole Indians in which Mooney claims membership is not federally recognized and does not use peyote in religious ceremonies. Prosecutors also contend that the tribe revoked Mooney's membership.

"There's not a year that goes by that we don't see a handful of these cases come up," Moore said. "These are sham defenses in most cases, but it always puts the Native American Church and its legitimate use of peyote in the crossfire."

Though not considered addictive, peyote is included in the Drug Enforcement Administration's list of Schedule I controlled substances along with heroin, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), marijuana and methaqualone. Although the DEA acknowledges the importance of the hallucinogenic cactus to the religious rites of Native American peyote users, the agency says the drug has a high potential for abuse and has no accepted medicinal purpose in the United States.

The Texas Department of Public Safety has licensed peyote distributors since the mid-1970s, when the number in the state peaked at 27. It dwindled to nine in the 1990s and to four last year. State records show that only three distributors have harvested and sold peyote buttons so far this year. For the past five years, an average of almost 1.9 million peyote buttons have been sold annually, according to state records.

Besides presenting a certificate that shows a peyote buyer to be a member in good standing of the Native American Church, Texas law also requires a purchaser to show documentation that he is at least one-quarter American Indian. Every buyer who appears at Johnson's house signs a visitor's log and presents the required paperwork.

Nez and his father-in-law, Russell Martin, also brought with them ceremonial items -- a Navajo altar cloth, a dried peyote button, an eagle bone whistle and mountain tobacco wrapped in a corn husk for smoking -- that they use in a short prayer ceremony at the small peyote garden outside Johnson's home. Next to the garden is an open-air shed, surrounded by a locked double fence, as required by law, where thousands of cut plants dry atop wooden tables.

"When you come here, you come to someplace that's sacred," Nez said about the prayer ceremony. "Peyote doesn't grow just everywhere."

Martin, 57, a road man or minister in the Native American Church, purchased 4,000 freshly cut peyote buttons -- azee , he calls it, the Navajo word for medicine. He said his family will use the peyote -- dried, boiled into a tea or cooked into a porridge -- over the next year, starting with a ceremony to pray for his grandchildren as they start school on the reservation.

The ceremonies, which usually last all night, according to Martin and Nez, involve hallucinations which, in combination with their religious beliefs, give them insight into problems they pray over or help heal illnesses or addictions.

Francis Elsitty, 57, a Navajo from Greasewood, Ariz., said he overcame alcoholism in the mid-1970s the first time he used peyote in a religious ceremony on his reservation. "It showed me the path," said Elsitty, who drove to Johnson's home to buy 1,000 peyote buttons for $250 that he said his family will use in a special ceremony to offer thanks for the safe return of his 19-year-old son from a year-long tour of duty in Iraq.

"I saw the burned-out shell of a bar I used to hang out at, and it [the peyote] told me if you want to drink, that's where you belong," he said. "I quit the partying. It's been over 30 years. That's the kind of power it's got. It's a holy medicine."