Black Drink: A Native American Tea (review)

In this reprint edition of the 1979 original, we are presented once again with the results of Professor Charles Hudson’s excellent research into the American Indian cultures of the southeastern United States. We have grown accustomed to his excellent, in-depth reconstructions of many of the cultural practices of the tribes of this important region. His description concerning the desire for ritual purity sought by American Indians of the Southeast such as the Creek parallels a similar concern I have addressed in the Plains, Great Basin, and Plateau regions of western North America in “Witchcraft and Sorcery of the American Native Peoples” and “Conflict and Schism in Nez Perce Acculturation.” Ritual purity may be achieved in numerous ways, including bathing, fasting, vomiting, laxatives, dancing, prayer, and several other means.

The book contains richly illustrated articles by Shiu Ying Hu on the botany of Yaupon, William L. Merrill on the importance of ilex vomitoria among the Indians of the southeast and adjacent regions, Jerald T. Milanich on the origins and prehistoric distributions of black drink and the ceremonial shell drinking cup, Charles H. Fairbanks on the function of black drink among the Creeks, and William C. Sturtevant on black drink and other caffeinated beverages among non-Indians who early on adopted ilex vomitoria and other caffeinated plants for both medicinal and recreational purposes. A rich bibliography and index are included, as well as notes on the contributors and a list of maps and illustrations. Finally, the notes contained within each article will be particularly helpful for other researchers interested in the place of ritual purity in American Indian ceremonial life throughout the Americas.

This book belongs to the ethnobotanical literature concerning American Indian medicinal plants as well as to the ethnographic literature concerning ceremonial and spiritual practices. While geographically limited to the southeastern United States, the volume is part of the larger comparative commitment of American anthropologists to the description and interpretation of the ceremonial uses of many other plants ingested to achieve various ritual states. The list is indeed long, and this book is a welcome addition in that it attempts to more adequately describe the black drink and other related medicines of the American Indian southeast. For both the interested layman and researcher, this book may be read profitably in conjunction with books dealing with peyote, such as David Aberle’s The Peyote Religion Among the Navajo, Vine Deloria’s God is Red: A Native View of Religion, Peter T. Furst’s Flesh of the Gods: The Ritual Use of Hallucinogens, Ake Hultkrantz’s Shamanic Healing and Ritual Drama: Health and Medicine in Native North American Religious Traditions, Barbara Myerhoff ’s Peyote Hunt: The Sacred Journey of the Huichol Indians, Omer C. Stewart’s Peyote Religion: A History, and Christopher Vecsey’s Handbook of American Indian Religious Freedom.

I look forward to a time when Professor Hudson’s research can be extended to the uses of ilex vomitoria and similar plant medicines in ceremonial life. It is important for those who are so familiar with the various plants used to achieve ritual purity to further enlighten us as to the part they play in the actual ceremonial life of the tribes of the southeast and elsewhere. An example would be the various descriptions of how peyote enters into ceremonial procedures and the ways in which it enables participants to achieve desired ritual states. This book is an important beginning and hopefully will be followed by one delving even further into the actual ceremonial uses of the many sacred plants used among the tribes of the Americas.