Assignment task: Study questions about the Peyote Road film
Note: questions here are in the order they are presented in the film.
Q1. Throughout the film, what religious word do Native Americans use to describe the peyote ceremony?
Q2. At the beginning of the film, we learn that for thousands of years, indigenous people of North America did what in order to be able to hold peyote ceremonies?
Q3. Near the beginning, Beatrice Weaselbear tells the legend of a woman who was very thirsty, hungry, and tired. What happened next?
Q4. Whose attempt to get unemployment benefits (after he was fired from his job after taking peyote) went all the way to the Supreme Court?
Q5. According to the film, in what part of the world does peyote grow?
6. What do the Huichol Indians of Mexico think that peyote is, according to Dr. Jay C. Fikes (in a similar way that Catholics say that the wine they drink at mass is the blood of Christ)?
Q7. Which of the following did the US Government do to stamp out Indian religious practices in the 1880s and 1890s? (answer true or false to each one)
- Gave Indian lands to Christian missionaries
- Appointed missionaries as Indian Affairs Officers
- Used explosives to blow up Native American Church buildings
- Slaughtered Ghost Dancers
- Imprisoned Indians engaged in religious rituals
- Denied food rations to groups that continued to practice Indian religions
Q8. What does the crescent moon around the fireplace in the peyote ritual represent?
Q9. Where did the peyote ceremony take place in the film? (i.e. outdoors, in a house, etc.)
Q10. What happened in 1965 and 1967? Mark True or False
- Peyote was added to the list of controlled substances in 1965
- Native Americans were given an exemption from the law so that they could use it for religious purposes in 1965
- Texas outlawed peyote possession in 1967
- Arizona arrested a man for carrying peyote across state lines
Q11. True or False: Government agencies have had to invest thousands in treating peyote addiction.
Q12. True or False: Native Americans use peyote to get hallucinations
Q13. True or False: President Nixon and President Kennedy both went on the record stating their support the sovereign rights of Native Americans (including the right to use peyote).
Q14. At the end of the film, Rabbi Joseph Glaser talks about certain Jewish practices that could be outlawed using the legal precedent established by the Smith case. What practices does he mention?