zation of Endangered Species" (TOES). The effectiveness of this 

 new policy would depend upon a number of factors, including the 

 care taken by Range Conservationists. 



The increased frequency of improper harvesting within the last 

 few years by Indians and teenage "cutters" hired by Peyoteros is 

 said by many people concerned with the plant to be a major cause 

 of the plant's reduction. Improper harvesting would include not 

 only derooting and cutting deep or too shallow, but harvesting 

 flowering and immature plants. Peyoteros in Starr County tradi- 

 tionally sold Peyote by the "sack," a practice which encouraged 

 deep cutting. Since 1 977, the Texas Department of Public Safety 

 (Narcotics Division) required Peyote traders (all of whom must 

 be registered) to specify in an issued sales book the number of 

 plants sold. This regulation officially ended sales by the "sack," 

 and thus reduced deep cutting and de-rooting of the plant. But 

 sales by the number encouraged cutting immature plants; harvest- 

 ing pressures on fewer areas of harvest have resulted in most of 

 the plants in the field being immature. Most Indians use improper 

 tools for harvesting, especially long shovels, which tend to muti- 

 late the plant. The ideal tool specifically designed for Peyote 

 cutting, the one traditionally used by Peyoteros, is a "cutter," 

 which is like a sharp, straight-edged hoe with a handle 

 approximately two feet long. Requiring only slight pressure on 

 the handle of this remarkable tool, severed crowns can be 

 retrieved with ease from the dense thorn brush. 



There has been a large increase in the number of Indians 

 coming to Texas since 1968; most have been from the Navaho 

 tribe. Although some Navaho used the plant in the 1930s, by the 

 late 1960s the Navaho became the major consumers of Peyote in 

 North America. Larry Etsity, Vice-President of the Native Amer- 

 ican Church of Navaholand, estimated that, as of 1975, there were 

 about 70,000 Navaho following the "Peyote Way" (Etsity, 1975); 

 that is well over half the Navaho using the plant. Peyote sales of 

 1972 73 indicate that the Navaho of Arizona alone (many 

 Navaho live in New Mexico and California) purchased over a 

 third (38 per cent) of the total recorded sales that year. The 

 following year (1973-74), the Navaho purchased over half (53 per 

 cent) the Peyote recorded sold. Records of 1 973-74 indicated that 



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