Jonathan Fowler, a member of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, belongs to the Native American Church of the Morning Star, where the hallucinogen plant is taken as a sacrament.
Fowler, a 35-year-old resident of Traverse City, wants his son to join him in the rite, if the boy wishes. His ex-wife, Kristin Hanslovsky objects, saying it could harm her child.
A judge may bar Fowler from allowing his son to be given peyote in a case that pits the Constitution's guarantee of religious freedom against a mother's wish to protect her child.
The couple split up soon after their son was born in 1998. In October 2000, a judge granted Fowler custody of his son but prohibited him from giving peyote to the child.
Fowler challenged that portion of the decision in the Michigan Court of Appeals, which returned the case to the lower court so it could determine whether peyote use could harm the child. The next hearing is set for March 21.
Fowler, who earns a living by selling food and crafts at powwows, credits his use of peyote with helping him overcome alcoholism and forge a relationship with God.
Peyote, a bitter-tasting cactus that grows in southern Texas and northern Mexico, has been a part of Indian culture for thousands of years. Those who ingest the plant - usually drunk as a tea or eaten as a greenish paste - believe it provides enlightenment and other spiritual and physical benefits.
The plant's active chemical ingredient is mescaline, a hallucinogen. The U.S. criminal code classifies peyote as a controlled substance, and in most instances a person caught with more than 4 ounces faces the possibility of a 20-year prison sentence.
But during the last century, peyote's use in religious rites spread among American Indians throughout the United States, including the upper Midwest. Congress recognized this sacramental use of peyote eight years ago by amending the American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978 to protect the practice in all 50 states.
Fowler's attorney, Thomas Myers, of Michigan Indian Legal Services, said the case was about ensuring that ``rights guaranteed to Native Americans by treaty or statute are secured, and I think that would include constitutional rights.''
Martin Holmes, who is representing Hanslovsky, did not return a call to his office. Hanslovsky has said she does not want to violate anyone's religious freedom, but that feeding the boy peyote ``could cause him harm or long-term neurological defects.''
Testifying on Fowler's behalf at a court hearing last month, John H. Halpern, a psychiatrist and researcher at Harvard Medical School, said he has found no evidence of a child or adult being harmed by the use of peyote in Indian religious services.
``This is a sacred ceremony,'' said Halpern, who has conducted an extensive study of peyote use among Indians. ``It's not something to entertain people.''
About 300,000 Indians who belong to the Native American Church of North America, the nation's largest church for indigenous peoples, ingest some form of the cactus, he said.
