Should Native American parents be allowed to give their minor children hallucinogenic peyote as part of Indian religious ceremonies?

That may be at the heart of a case that will be heard Friday in Leelanau County by family court Judge Joseph E. Deegan, according to county prosecutor Joseph T. Hubbell.

“Tied into this case is a First Amendment religious freedom argument,” Hubbell said. “Generally, the law prohibits any interference with Native American religious practices.”

Nonetheless, Hubbell is asking Deegan to “take jurisdiction” over five minor children who, according to court papers, “may be or are eligible to be members of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians (GTB) and/or are children of Native American parent(s).”

Hubbell said he could not explain why the GTB Tribal Court had not taken jurisdiction in the case. Tribal Prosecutor Sara Brubaker did not return a reporter’s phone call.

The former chief judge of the Tribal Court, Katherine Scotta, resigned unexpectedly in January following months of bitter infighting and Tribal Court challenges among candidates in a long-postponed Tribal Council election. A replacement for Scotta has not yet been named.

Coincidentally, an associate judge now shouldering much of the Tribal Court’s caseload, Wilson D. Brott, works part-time as an assistant Leelanau County prosecutor. Brott could not be reached for comment.

According to court documents, the father of three of the children who were allegedly given peyote in Suttons Bay Township. The mothers of the three children are different women, two of whom the father never married, according to court documents.

One of the father’s three children, an eight year-old boy, lives with him. The two other children, girls aged 7 and 2, live with their mothers in Leelanau County.

One of the father’s girls and two other girls who were allegedly given peyote – a nine year-old and a seven year-old – reside with their mother in Suttons Bay. According to court documents, she was never married to any of the three men who fathered her three children.

The mother admitted to a social worker “that her children have taken the medicine,” according to court documents.

An investigation conducted earlier this year by the Grand Traverse/Leelanau Department of Human Services led up to the current Family Court proceedings. A preliminary Family Court hearing in the case was held April 25. A pretrial hearing will be held Friday.

According to court documents, one of the children – the seven-year-old female – described a gathering attended by her father, mother and others, during which “there is a medicine that she does not like and tea.”

The medicine “looks like mud and the tea is green,” according to a report of the social worker’s interview with the girl. “The medicine is in a bowl which is passed around and she had one spoonful. The tea is contained in a bucket into which everybody scoops out with a cup. (The girl) stated after she takes the medicine she kind of has a headache.”

A Child Protective Services worker who interviewed the girl and her half siblings said the eight-year old boy “explained that Peyote opens our mind to God’s ways and helps you to be brave and do a very good thing. Peyote is in a bowl which is passed around, using a spoon.”

The boy is reported to have said that the peyote “makes him feel good.” He said that when another child tried to spit it out, “a lot of grownups told her to swallow it.”

Another child told the social worker that “she takes the medicine every time at church,” according to court documents. “They meet in teepees when the weather is warm and at people’s houses.”

A number of the children and their parents were interviewed at Suttons Bay Elementary School in February by a Child Protective Services worker, according to court documents.

The court documents include reports from Munson Medical Center indicating that tests of the children’s urine were conducted – and results were positive for mescaline, one of the active ingredients in peyote.

Peyote is a species of cactus that is indigenous to the American southwest. Its use is not associated with traditional practices of the Ottawa and Chippewa Indians or other Great Lakes tribes.

Historically, the use of peyote has been more closely associated with religious practices of tribes in Arizona and New Mexico.