Text: Subject: Re: [svpvril] Native traditions [was Astral Sharing] Date: Mon, 25 Sep 2000 22:08:57 -0700 (PDT) From: Michael Riversong While studying Anthropology in 1973, i became very aware of the fact that most Native American men, and many women, consumed large quantities of tobacco. Some tribes had their entire economic structure built around tobacco. I also found that outside of war problems, there seemed to be a pretty good life expectancy, much higher than would usually happen with non-literate cultures. (Good statistics on this were unavailable, and of course contact with white people severely altered life expectancy). And cancer was virtually unknown. During that time, i ran into a visiting medicine man of the Oneida tribe. I asked him about all this. He laughed, and said, "Tobacco can't cause cancer!". So i asked, "What does cause cancer, then?" His reply: "FEAR causes cancer." The main ways tobacco was consumed, were pipes and, in the southern areas, cigars. A few tribes, mostly in the far north, made some kind of tea. Tobacco was often mixed with other herbs, including red willow, mullein, and cedar bark. Marijuana was never used by Native Americans on this continent -- it is not a native plant. An interesting sidelight to this is that the Lakota word for alcohol and marijuana is the same -- pich'e, pronounced sort of like clearing your throat of something particularly obnoxious. Tobacco was used medicinally for colds and various women's problems. Tobacco was often made into a sort of paste and put on infected wounds -- it will prevent gangrene. Cigarettes were of course unknown to Native Americans. That delivery system was set up in the late 1800s by white people. Cigarettes have been heavily altered, with the addition of various chemicals and other herbs. In the 1930's they started adding coumarin, saltpeter, and chocolate, among other substances. In the 1970's, they started putting in ammonia (Marlboro was the first brand with that) and several Volatile Organic Compounds such as benzyl acetate. Brands like Merit, True, Carlton, Eve, and Doral are most heavily adulterated. Now there are over 600 chemicals that are commonly added to tobacco. Even pipe tobaccos have lots of flavorings added, and are often cured in various sugar compounds. Pure tobacco is now hard to find. Once i was given a bit of home-grown tobacco from a farm in Oregon. That stuff knocked you on your keester! The most well-known brand of pure tobacco is Natural American Spirit, an upstart company headquartered in Santa Fe. I have been doing business with them for many years, and have found their products to be far superior to anything else on the market. Recently some of the major companies have been selling pure tobacco cigarettes, which are mostly available only in the New York City area. Tobacco is currently very much a government utility. Make no mistake about that. Its cultivation is heavily regulated -- you must have a special limited license to grow it, which is not ever actually issued. You can only get one by buying it from someone who already has one. Lots of subsidies are involved for farmers as well, but most of those go only to the largest organizations. The majority of tobacco is grown by small family operations which have been doing this for several generations. All steps of tobacco processing and manufacture are overseen to at least some degree by government entities. It is illegal for anyone to disclose the ingredients of any tobacco product, especially cigarettes. Without government intervention, the tobacco industry would not exist in its present form. Interestingly enough, governments are heavily involved in tobacco in almost every country in the world today. It is traditional for Native Americans to offer tobacco as a gesture of friendship or thanks. Where i live, that is a very important thing. If you give a cigarette to an Indian, you have opened up a rare and precious line of communication. The use of tobacco varied greatly from one tribe to another. Each group had its own methods, mythology, and social context. The "peace pipe" was one of the few universal things, and even with that, there were a few tribes, such as the Modoc and Mojave, which did not use it. If anyone is interested, i could post a widely circulated story about how the sacred pipe was given.

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