Big moon peyotism

Big Moon Peyotism
Type	Syncretic
Classification	Native American
Founder	John Wilson
Origin	1890
Branched from	Native American Church

Big moon peyotism was introduced as a variant of the Peyote religion in the 1880s that incorporated Christian, Caddo, and Delaware religious symbols with the consumption of peyote intertwined from Caddo and Delaware rituals.^[1] The plant itself, peyote, had been used for spiritual practice by the Mescalero Apache in the 1880, and their use of it influenced other tribes like the Comanche and Kiowa. Peyotism inquires all of the same traits found in other religions such as a doctrine, a ritual, and ethics. The doctrine includes the belief of the actuality of power, incarnation, and spirits. It soon spread all over the Indian Territory while its native people were searching for spiritual help. Peyotism at this point, was a spiritual path that was soon to be taken in Indian Territory. Around 1890, the Caddo, Delaware and Quapaw tribes became the first practitioners of peyote. Black Wolf, a practitioner from the Caddo tribe, brought the religion of little moon peyotism to the Osage people. Black Wolf had intrigued enough of the tribe that his peyote prayers and rituals had truth and value, so the people sent him to heal a sick person in their tribe. His prayers and rituals could not save their life, so peyotism was not being spread for a while. After the native people's dry spell towards peyotism, it returned to the Osage tribe around 1898.^[1]

John Wilson, a Caddo- Delaware, also known as Moonhead, is credited with the birth of this religion around the year 1890^{[disputed – discuss]}. He was asked to build a Peyote altar to conduct Big Moon rituals for Tall Chief, the Quapaw chief. While Wilson was visiting Osage territory, an Osage^{[according to whom?]} man who had attended a Peyote meeting beforehand, had asked Wilson to share his new revelations about big moon peyotism and its rules with a group of Osage people. Wilson agreed and met with them. This religion was adopted by Witchita, Delaware, Quapaw, Shawnee, Oklahoma Seneca-Cayuga, but no tribe converted the Osage^{[according to whom?]}. The Osage are the only current practitioners in the religion to this day^{[disputed – discuss]}. The Chief of the Osage people, Black Dog, was left without a tribe because his was won over by the big moon peyotism worshippers^{[disputed – discuss]}.

In the two weeks that John Wilson experimented with peyote for religious and spiritual reasons, he was repeatedly submerged in spirit into the sky, being shown essential figures in the sky that symbolized the events of Christ, along with positions of the Spiritual forces such as the moon, sun and fire and their relative positions. He was also shown the empty grave of Christ while in this estate. He states that peyote told him to forever take its "road" by continually consuming peyote, to reach a higher enlightenment.^[2]