IS GIVING SON PEYOTE AN OVERDOSE OF FREEDOM?

Conflicting Visions

WHITE CLOUD, Mich. - Jon Fowler wants his 4-year-old son to have the right
to use peyote with him. It's a matter of religious freedom, he says.

A member of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, Fowler
belongs to the Native American Church of the Morning Star, where the
hallucinogen is taken as a sacrament. Fowler wants his son, Ishkwada, to
join him in the rite, if the boy wishes.

But a judge may bar Fowler from doing so, in a case that pits the
Constitution's guarantee of religious freedom against a mother's wish to
protect her child.

Fowler's ex-wife, Kristin Hanslovsky, a 31-year-old Montague resident who
is not an Indian, fears that peyote would harm her son and doesn't want him
anywhere near it.

Fowler, a 35-year-old resident of Traverse City who earns a living by
selling food and crafts at powwows, credits his use of peyote with helping
him overcome alcoholism and forge a relationship with God.

Judge Graydon Dimkoff, who two years ago gave physical custody of the child
to Fowler, prohibited him from allowing his son to be given peyote. The
father appealed, and after hearing arguments, the Michigan Court of Appeals
returned the case to Dimkoff, directing him to determine whether peyote
could harm the child. The next hearing is set for March 21.

Peyote, a bitter-tasting cactus that grows in southern Texas and northern
Mexico, has been a part of Indian culture for thousands of years. Those who
ingest the plant - it's usually drunk as a tea or eaten as a greenish paste
- - believe it provides enlightenment and other spiritual and physical benefits.

The plant's active chemical ingredient is mescaline, a hallucinogen. The
U.S. criminal code classifies peyote as a controlled substance, and in most
instances a person caught with more than 4 ounces faces the possibility of
a 20-year prison sentence.

But during the past century, peyote's use in religious rites spread among
Indians throughout the United States, including the upper Midwest. Congress
recognized this sacramental use of peyote eight years ago by amending the
American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978 to protect the practice in
all 50 states.

Fowler's attorney, Thomas Myers of Michigan Indian Legal Services, said the
case was about ensuring that "rights guaranteed to Native Americans by
treaty or statute are secured, and I think that would include
constitutional rights."

Martin Holmes, a North Muskegon attorney representing Hanslovsky, did not
return a call to his office. Hanslovsky has said she does not want to
violate anyone's religious freedom, but feeding the boy peyote "could cause
him harm or long-term neurological defects."

Testifying on Fowler's behalf at a court hearing last month, John H.
Halpern, a psychiatrist and researcher at Harvard Medical School, said he
has found no evidence of a child or adult being harmed by the use of peyote
in Indian religious services.

"This is a sacred ceremony," said Halpern, who has conducted an extensive
study of peyote use among Indians. "It's not something to entertain people."

About 300,000 Indians who belong to the Native American Church of North
America, the nation's largest church for indigenous peoples, ingest some
form of the cactus, he said.

But some members of these types of congregations do not believe children
should take the substance.

Anne Zapf, who with her husband runs the Peyote Way Church of God in
Klondike, Ariz., feels children should be allowed to attend spiritual
ceremonies where peyote is dispensed, but should not ingest it.

At Zapf's church, where peyote is used once or twice a year, a person must
be at least 18 - or 14, with parental permission - to take it.

"I'm not even into handing peyote to anybody who's under 30 because most
people aren't emotionally mature enough or prepared by life enough for the
experience," she said.

"Peyote is an introspective experience. It's a God experience, and
generally you have to have a few sins under your belt."

Most children also would not enjoy the acrid taste, she said.

"It tastes bad, and it makes you throw up," she said.

Halpern, the Harvard psychiatrist, questioned the court's decision to take
up the matter, since the federal government has affirmed the sacramental
use of peyote. He views the case as potentially harmful to Indian culture.

"We have to protect these people's traditions and ways," he said.