In the segment on the Native American Church (NAC), Reuben Snake talks about his life and his understanding based on his decades of experience within the NAC, which he refers to as ‘the Peyote way of life.’
One of Reuben’s greatest accomplishments came in his later years when he founded the Native American Religious Freedom Project (NARFP) in response to a devastating US Supreme Court decision in a 1990 case called Oregon v Smith in which the Court said the Constitution’s guarantee of free exercise of religion did not include protecting the rights of Native Americans to use Peyote as the sacrament in their traditional religious ceremonies of the NAC. When the high Court issued that Opinion Reuben took off all his other hats and vowed to devote the rest of his life to restoring that right and the dignity of that venerable old indigenous religion even i9f it took the rest of his life…which alas it did. He died before Congress passed the American Indian Religious Freedom Act Amendments of 1994 which specifically restored legal protections for the use of Peyote by members of federally recognized Indian tribes in their traditional religious ways. But before Reuben died he created the movement and the momentum that led to its’ passage. He and Peterson Zah (President of the Navajo Nation) co-chaired the AIRFA Coalition which united Indian Country and its’ allies around the country in this historic accomplishment which remains a strong and vital federal law to this day.
Reuben was a firm believer in educating ‘those who have ears to hear’ as to the healing powers, the beauty, the significance of his beloved ‘Peyote way of life.’ This segment allows him to continue in that vein.
Reuben Snake (Winnebago) was an Indian rights activist and Peyote Roadman in the Native American Church. His leadership of the AIRFA Amendments of 1994 effort made history.
Reuben served as President of the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), Chairman of the Tribal Council of his Winnebago Tribe, national leader of the American Indian Movement (AIM), and many other leadership roles in Indian Country over the years.
For more information on the US Supreme Court case (the “Smith case”) mentioned in these clips as the case that threatened the traditional use of peyote by Indians, and which was overcome in Congress through the leadership of Reuben Snake, go to the link below of C-Span footage from the press conference held after oral arguments in the case.
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Video used on this channel comes from standard definition source material.
Footage & photos from films released 1992-2006.
• The Peyote Road, ©1992
• The Traditional Use of Peyote, ©1993
• Your Humble Serpent The Wisdom of Reuben Snake, ©1996
• Your Humble Serpent More Wisdom, ©2006
All produced by Gary Rhine, KIFARU Productions, San Francisco
• Life Spirit, ©1993
Produced by The American Indian Ritual Object Repatriation Foundation, New York
Other funding and production support by:
Eagle Heart Productions, PeaceDream Productions,
The Dreamcatchers Film Fund and Members of the Native American Church.
This video compilation was written and produced by James Botsford with production by Colleen Parquette, Shadow Collaborative.
Funding for this project provided by:
James and Krista Botsford
The Native American Rights Fund
