Ronald,

Thank you again for meeting with Shanna Zarbock, Nancy Escobar, David Hamblin PhD, Linda Mooney and me, who are all Authorized Participants of Oklevueha Native American Church (Also known as the Lakota Sioux Nation Native American Church, Wounded Knee of South Dakota), last Friday. We appreciate your time as you listened to us talk about the consequences of the illegal activities perpetrated upon Oklevueha Native American Church by the State of Utah and the United States Attorney General's Salt Lake City office. These activities have had a negative effect upon the citizens of Utah in many different areas, primarily a diminished public confidence in our judicial system. I pray all United States Senators and House of Representatives will take the necessary steps to remedy this easily solvable issue immediately.

We want nothing more than to have all of our Sacred Sacrament (15,000 Peyote Buttons) returned to us or $7,500 to reimburse our Sacrament supplies immediately. We have exercised patience for more than 4 years. To have some of our Sacrament returned to us and not the bulk of it is bewildering to us, to say the least. For more than two years U.S. Attorney Steve Killpack and his office (Utah Federal Defenders Office) have exercised a respectful campaign to get U.S. Attorney Richard Lambert to abide by the law to no avail.

U.S. Attorney Richard Lambert set three dates where he promised to return our Sacrament, and he reneged on all of them. Finally last month he informed Steve Killpack that he has no intention of returning our Sacrament due to "health reasons". We as a church find the actions of the U.S. Attorney Richard Lambert appalling.

The illegal intrusion of Oklevueha Native American Church was first begun by Utah County Attorney Kay Bryson over 7 years ago. At that time public opinion was against the Native American Church, in large part due to the slanderous campaign orchestrated by the Utah County Attorney Kay Bryson and Attorney General Mark Shurtleff.

From the recent Poll conducted by the Daily Herald it is becoming obvious that public opinion has shifted. The results of the pool asking "Should federal authorities return confiscated peyote to a Utah County Man?, (http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/276071/57/, showed that 59 percent agreed that "Federal authorities ought to return peyote that was seized from an American Indian church In Utah County and stop trying to deliver their own brand of justice outside the 'court system') There were a total of 390 responses to the poll. Some of the responses included the following:

August 9, 2008
Dear Friends and Family, some of you know James Mooney, some don't. He is a medicine man here in Utah who has been at the forefront of trying to obtain religious freedom and the right to use plant medicines as sacrament for all US citizens, regardless of race or ethnic heritage. He WON his Utah State Supreme Court case, and then was immediately indicted by the federal government. The feds DROPPED their case against him when it became apparent that their case was not constitutionally valid, yet the victories are hollow as long as the sacrament is not returned to James for use in ceremony. There have been at least 3 deadlines for returning sacrament that have come and gone as the prosecuting attorney's office has invented excuses to not comply with the law (the most recent excuse was the use of peyote is a 'health risk') James has tirelessly worked to push the government to honor their commitments and the outcomes of the court battles, and FINALLY, others have taken up the banner. Here is an opportunity for you to participate in a newspaper poll demanding return of the sacred peyote to the Oklevueha Earth Walks Native American Church, which James directs. I encourage you to add your name to the petition in support of James's good work and to pass on this e-mail message to all those you know who feel similarly compelled to support this good brother in his service. Bonnie Glass-Coffin PhD., Logan Utah
August 12, 2008
It is un-American to deny freedom of practice to some religions and bestow it on others. The Mooney's proved sacramental use of peyote to be legal. They did so through the court system at great emotional and financial cost to themselves and their family over YEARS. Their case is a landmark case. Not returning the Peyote to the Mooney's would be shameful. Not returning the peyote would be a stain on the U.S. Constitution and on our court system as a whole. GIVE THE PEYOTE BACK. Either we are what we claim to be, a land of justice and respect for plurality in religious practices, or we are a joke. Don't let the United States of America be a JOKE. Lisa Robesch, San Francisco, CA
August 17, 2008There's no way this is fair, I feel that this is such an injustice to the Native Americans. They have had so much taken from them. Yet they move forward. Don't let them also lose this substance that has been part of their ceremonies for decades. Give this back! Stand up and show you respect their ways and religion, after all this great country was built on the fact of religious freedom. Jody Hastey, Tooele, Utah

Our prayer is that through our solicitation of the United States Senators and House of Representatives Oklevueha NAC will see the United States Attorney General's Office of Salt Lake City abide by the very laws that it has taken a solemn oath to uphold. It is our prayer that our Sacred Sacrament is returned or that we receive$7,500.00 to replace it. This will put the issue behind us so that we can continue to worship the Great Spirit in the manner we have chosen to do and assist in the healing of the ones that seek us out.

We pray that you have watched "Chasing a Good Day to Die" and have passed it on to Senator Orrin Hatch. Oklevueha Native American Church is committed to growth through attraction of service rather than active proselytizing for membership. We are strictly a spiritual organization that serves individuals and the wider community, and makes absolutely no claims about being in authority or having the ability to conduct saving ordinances. We simply conduct ancient and traditional American Native Ceremonies which assist human beings in healing themselves by providing an environment where participants can be in direct contact with their Great Spirit.

We seek nothing more than what all other religions receive in the United States of America.

The Native American people have been practicing Shamanism for hundreds or thousands of years. What makes their practices less significant or viable than anyone's religious practices? The use of peyote in the Shaman culture is not a use for an abusive purpose. I am not a Shaman or a drug user, but I am a person who believes in having respect for any religious practice even if they do use peyote. Like the article said, You can't take wine away from a Jewish or Catholic religion. So why would anyone take away peyote from the Shaman religion? I think to take away their ceremonial substance would be disrespectful, ignorant, and unconstitutional!

So what else is new when it comes to bureaucrats? The Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye, Inc. had to go to the US Supreme Court over Santeria animal sacrifice being banned by the City of Hialeah. The city's attorney requested an opinion from the Florida Attorney General as to whether Florida section 828.12 prohibited "a religious group from sacrificing an animal in a religious ritual or practice," and whether the city could enact ordinances "making religious animal sacrifice unlawful."

The attorney general concluded that the "ritual sacrifice of animals for purposes other than food consumption" was not a "necessary" killing, and so was prohibited by section 828.12. Fla.Op.Atty.Gen. 87-56, Annual Report of the Atty.Gen. 146, 147, 149 (1988). The attorney general appeared to define "unnecessary" as "done without any useful motive, in a spirit of wanton cruelty or for the mere pleasure of destruction without being in any sense beneficial or useful to the person killing the animal." He advised that religious animal sacrifice was against state law, so that a city ordinance prohibiting it would not be in conflict.

The US Supreme Court didn't agree, stating, "our review confirms that the laws in question were enacted by officials who did not understand, failed to perceive, or chose to ignore the fact that their official actions violated the Nation's essential commitment to religious freedom. The challenged laws had an impermissible object; and in all events, the principle of general applicability was violated because the secular ends asserted in defense of the laws were pursued only with respect to conduct motivated by religious beliefs." CHURCH OF LUKUMI BABALU AYE, INC. v. CITY OF HIALEAH, 508 U.S. 520 (1993).

I have always found it to be interesting in my studies of World and U.S.History, that although this Nation was founded upon certain principles, one of them being the Freedom of Religion...this country has, from the very start, denied and restricted religious freedoms to many in contradiction to that principle.