Four and a half centuries after Europeans first set foot upon North American soil, it boggles the mind that in this day and age an American Indian’s national, civil and religious rights can still be violated.
American Indian tribal members are supposed to be afforded sovereignty, due their tribal affiliation. The United States government supposedly protects their religious rights, but this is not the case in California’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. CDCR denies access to tobacco for the practice of American Indian religious ceremonies.
Used as an offering to the Sacred Fireplace, tobacco’s spiritual significance cannot be substituted with sweetgrass, cedar or kinik-kinik, all sacred in their own right. A tobacco offering, by definition, cannot be made without tobacco. Whether offered in tobacco ties, spread upon the earth, or burned in the Sacred Fireplace, tobacco is a sacred sacrament that cannot be replaced or changed by anyone other than the adherent who practices that religion.
As adherents of a federally protected religion, American Indians in CDCR are exempt from the tobacco ban, due to an exemption put in place and signed by the governor. By law American Indians are allowed to use tobacco for religious ceremony.
According to federal law, “It shall be the policy of the United States to preserve and protect the traditional religions of the American Indian.” You would think that since American Indian religious practice is protected, they would be allowed to practice their religion unhindered by the CDCR bureaucracy. But even with President Obama recently speaking on the right of freedom to practice religion, CDCR will not allow this freedom without a direct order from the courts.
One day the indigenous people of the United States of America will be afforded the right to practice their religion without interference of governmental entities. Until then, all that adherents can do is practice their religion hoping that they can obtain the necessary item needed, and hope that they are not given a CDC 115 for using tobacco in the practice of their religion.
