83 KILOGRAMS OF POT NEEDED FOR RELIGIOUS RITE, CHARGED NATIVE SAYS

VANCOUVER -- A widely known B.C. native dancer charged with smuggling
83 kilograms of marijuana across the Canadian-U.S. border says the
illegal drug was for use in a religious ceremony at an American
Indian reservation.

U.S. border guards found the marijuana on Sunday in two motor homes
crossing the border at Sumas, Wash. Ranger Oppenheim, who is in his
30s, was driving one of the vehicles, which were carrying nine people.

Mr. Oppenheim said he knew marijuana was in the motor home, according
to the formal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle.

When questioned by a special agent from the U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement Agency, he said the group of seven adult natives
and two children was going to a peyote ceremony at the Lummi Indian
Reservation, about 30 kilometres south of the border.

Mr. Oppenheim told the U.S. agent that all of the marijuana was for
use at a ceremony where peyote is used for religious purposes, the
document states.

All seven adults were charged with importing marijuana, and could
face more than 10 years in prison if convicted.

Emily Langlie, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's office, said
prosecutors in Seattle did not recall a previous case at the border
in which people accused of smuggling asserted marijuana was for a
peyote ceremony.

"I'm not sure we have ever seen one where someone is bringing it in
for ceremonial or religious use," she said in a telephone interview.

Mr. Oppenheim lives on the Shacken Indian reserve, an isolated
community of 25 homes about 130 kilometres southwest of Kamloops. He
is a well-respected drummer and dancer who has performed at events in
British Columbia and across the United States, a neighbour and a
family member said yesterday in interviews.

Jimmy Toodlican, who lives next door to Mr. Oppenheim, said Mr.
Oppenheim goes to "powwows" to participate in competitions of
traditional dancing and drumming. "He learned it from the elders. He
used to run drumming groups," Mr. Toodlican said. "He goes wherever
there is a powwow."

Mr. Oppenheim also makes traditional regalia for dancers and
drummers, with eagle feathers and porcupine quills, he added.

"He's pretty well known, both north and south."

Mr. Oppenheim's cousin, Joan Seymour, said he has travelled to
Arizona and New Mexico and to the eastern United States to perform as
a traditional dancer. He stopped dancing after his father died a few
years ago and did more drumming, she said, but has recently started
dancing again.

Despite Mr. Oppenheim's comments to the border guards, a spokesman
for the Lummi Nation said that the Lummi Indian Reservation does not
welcome illegal drugs in its territory and that the Native American
Church does not use marijuana in its peyote ceremonies.

"We have a community mobilization against drugs and alcohol,"
spokesman Jewell James said yesterday in a telephone interview.

"Our community and our leadership is committed to eliminating
trafficking of narcotics and drugs into our community. This is an
insult to the Lummi Nation. It's a disgrace to native American
traditionalists and a disgrace to the Native American Church."

After a hard-fought battle for religious freedom, the Native American
Church won the support of the U.S. Congress in the mid-1990s to use
peyote as a sacrament in its ceremonies. Church members use peyote
strictly according to ceremonial protocols, and not as a drug, Mr. James said.

He also said he had never heard of Mr. Oppenheim. "Whatever [those
arrested at the border] were doing, it had nothing to do with those
practising traditional methods of prayer," Mr. James said. "All
members of the Native American Church would be deeply hurt when they
hear this insult. . . . The American Native Church does not use
marijuana in the peyote ceremony."

In the court document, U.S. Customs Enforcement Special Agent Shaun
Smith states that five of the seven adults "confessed" to knowingly
attempting to smuggle marijuana into the United States.

The marijuana was found in vacuum-sealed bags inside hockey bags, he
stated. He heard different explanations from different people in the
group. Some said they had come across the border with marijuana on
several occasions and were paid for taking the trip. Others said the
group was going to a religious ceremony.

A bail hearing for the seven Canadians is scheduled to be held today in Seattle.