In 2004, the Supreme Court of Utah, where Mooney is domiciled, unanimously held that, under Utah law, the religious exemption for the use of peyote by bona fide members of the Native American church extended to church members who were not members of a federally recognized tribe.

Federal authorities say that is not the case under federal law. In 2006, the Utah legislature passed a bill that limits the religious exemption for peyote use to members of federally recognized tribes. In the same year, Mooney agreed to stop using peyote in his ceremonies in return for the dropping of the federal indictments then pending against him and his wife.

I do not know whether James Mooney is preserving or diluting an embattled culture. I have never spoken with him or attended one of his ceremonies. I have no idea what is in his heart. I would suggest that you write him and ask him.

I think there is a deeper issue here, in exactly the same way there are deeper ethical and constitutional issues underlying the question of eagle feathers. There are good reasons to try to curtail the appropriation of indigenous ceremonies by outsiders to the tradition. And, under both the American Indian Religious Freedom Act and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, there is every reason to accommodate Native American religious use of peyote. At the same time, there are legitimate questions raised by restricting that accommodation to a group defined first in racial terms and then by a quintessentially political act of regulatory legitimation.

There is a quote similar to the one you referenced in the last sentence by Peter Tosh that states a lot, “I am, that I am, I am.”