Pubdate: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 Source: Cortez Journal, The (CO) Copyright: 2010 The Cortez Journal Contact: http://www.cortezjournal.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3602 Author: Hope Nealson PEYOTE MEETING, PRAYERS PREPARE CEREMONIAL GROUND Southwest Intertribal Voice will host an open Native American Church prayer ceremony Friday as part of its ongoing Native American Cultural Preservation Project. The space has already been cleared and plans drawn for the ceremonial grounds, which will include a hogan, tipi area, kitchen and dining room area six miles south of Cortez. Douglas Wall of Towaoc will conduct the peyote meeting to offer prayers for the development of a Native American ceremonial area to be used by all tribes. "The sweat lodge was the beginning of that and this is another step," said Southwest Intertribal Voice Director Art Neskahi. "It is anticipated that various tribal groups will use the facilities for different ceremonials throughout the year." The sweat lodge, built earlier this summer, is open to people of all races and is held at 5 p.m. the first and third Wednesday of each month. Neskahi said the NAC prayer ceremony will begin around sundown, but guests are welcome to come earlier in the evening of Friday, Sept. 3, at 3900 U.S. Highway 160/491, between Cortez and Towaoc. "There is no ceremonial ground in the area," he said. "Native people own property and have it for their own family, but for community use there is nothing." Neskahi said that since federal law dictates peyote is only legal for members of Native American tribal members, the ceremony for their latest hogan and tipi is restricted to Native Americans - at least for now. Later, Southwest Intertribal Voice plans to open the grounds for secondary use by all for educational groups and wellness programs, he said. The Native American Church was officially incorporated in 1918, with the help of a committee of Oklahoma federally recognized Native American spiritual leaders and James Mooney, an anthropologist from the Smithsonian Institution who wrote the NAC bylaws and testified in their favor at congressional hearings. According to The Legal Root, peyotists in Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado and Minnesota must be members of a bona fide religious organization, like the Native American Church or the American Indian Church. Neskahi said the different tribes and families he has contacted so far have been in support of a community ceremonial ground. "The Wall family say there is no community ceremonial ground in Towaoc," he said. "A lot of the families are now living in government housing, apartments or subdivisions that are closer together - on and off the reservation - and some don't like the drums going all night." Powwows took place on the approximately 20-acre site in the 1970s when it was Neskahi's father's land and is already known by many Native Americans for that purpose, he said. Neskahi said he hopes the grounds will eventually be a setting for cultural programs with teachings about the hogans and tipis. "We're also trying to work with the wellness program out of Shiprock (New Mexico)," he said. For more information, call 739-7280. - --- MAP posted-by: Matt