Welcome to the Street Prophets Coffee Hour cleverly hidden at the intersection of religion, art, science, food, and politics. This is an open thread where we can share our thoughts and comments about the day. Today we are going to look at the traditional use of Jimsonweed by California’s Yokuts Indians.

Throughout the world, different religious and spiritual traditions have used hallucinogenic drugs to enhance the mystical experience. These drugs can trigger the experience of flying or floating. In Southern California, many tribes traditionally used jimsonweed (a part of the nightshade family Datura, also known as toloache and datura) to help produce visions. Most frequently this was used during the initiation of boys into full manhood. During this time the initiates would drink an infusion made from jimsonweed root. The visions received at this time would guide people for the rest of their lives. In recognizing the spiritual power of jimsonweed, the tribes also knew that the plant could be deadly if used incorrectly and thus it was used only in ceremonial context and administered by knowledgeable elders. Even with these cautions, there were occasional deaths from using the plant. 

The aboriginal territory of the Yokuts Indians was in central California along the San Joaquin River Valley.

Among the Yokuts, jimsonweed was known as tanai and the boy’s initiation ceremony which used jimsonweed was called tanyuwish (“Jimson weeding”). The ceremony initiated the boys into manhood and tribal status and was conducted when the boys were 12-15 years of age. 

For six days prior to the public initiation ceremony, the boys would fast, consuming only a thin acorn soup. During this time, the elder in charge of the ceremony would explain to them the origins of the world and their future in it.

Concerning the use of jimsonweed for the Yokuts boy’s initiation, Alfred Kroeber, in his 1925 Handbook of the Indians of California, reports: “The drug is not only a narcotic but produces visions. This is unquestionably the cause of the tremendous supernatural power ascribed to it, and of its selection as the foundation of an important public ritual. The vision producing effect must also have been enhanced by the preceding period of fasting.”

The jimsonweed roots were crushed and soaked in water for several days prior to the ceremony. At the end of the fasting period, each boy would drink some of the jimsonweed concoction and then be taken to locations outside of the village where they would sleep in the open under the watchful eyes of the elders. Consuming the jimsonweed was felt to give the boys good health, long life, general prosperity, and the ability to dodge arrows in battle.

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