Pubdate: Thu, 03 Nov 2005
Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)
Copyright: 2005, The Globe and Mail Company
Contact:  http://www.globeandmail.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/168
Author: Robert Matas

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.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman