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About The Columbia press. (Astoria, Or.) 1949-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 8, 2021)
The Columbia Press January 8, 2021 5 Earliest residents may have used psychedelic drugs By Kristin Strommer University of Oregon A new study co-authored by a University of Oregon scientist found evidence that the region’s earliest residents used psychedelic drugs. Archaeologists have long debated whether mind-alter- ing substances influenced the ancient art in caves and rock shelters. The research, pub- lished recently in Proceed- ings of the National Academy of Sciences, offers new in- sight into the role psychedel- ics may have played in some Native American communi- ties. The scientists discovered wads of chewed plant fiber, or quids, stuffed into crevic- es in the cave ceiling at Pin- wheel Cave, a rock art site associated with the Chumash people. The cave is between Santa Barbara and Bakers- field in Southern California. Chemical and microscopic analysis of the 400-year-old quids revealed the presence of hallucinogenic alkaloids and confirmed most speci- mens to be Datura wrightii, or sacred datura, a flowering plant native to California and historically used among the Chumash for ceremonial pur- poses. The study also confirmed that the fibers were crushed in a pattern consistent with chewing. Sacred datura, a highly poisonous and sometimes lethal perennial with trum- pet-shaped flowers, is known to the Chumash as momoy, named after a powerful University of Oregon The datura flower, right, is depicted in drawings at Pinwheel Cave. Foundation awards grant for child care PacifiCorp Foundation, a nonprofit arm of Pacific Pow- er, has donated to Astoria Parks and Recreation. The $4,500 grant will help Lil’ Sprouts Academy relocate and expand to provide child care during the pandemic for health and emergency work- ers and other critical staff. The foundation awarded 44 grants of $1,000 to $5,000 to nonprofit groups in six states, much of it to support the arts. “Local programs like these are the heartbeat of our North Coast area, providing connection, education and tradition and helping to heal and strengthen our commu- nities,” said Alisa Dunlap, Pacific Power’s regional busi- ness manager for the North Coast. Pacific Power also has pro- grams to help those needing help with utility bills. To learn more, call 888-221-7070. grandmother figure prom- inent in the tribe’s creation stories. Pinwheel Cave, about 50 miles northeast of Santa Bar- bara, is named after a large, red pinwheel motif painted on a sloping section of the cave ceiling. At the sum- mer solstice, sunlight travels across the pinwheel, suggest- ing a possible relationship between the art and seasonal rituals. Co-author Kristina Gill, an archeologist with the univer- sity’s Museum of Natural and Cultural History, is also an expert in the archaeobotany of coastal Southern Califor- nia. The art may depict the datu- ra flower itself, which unfurls at dusk in a pinwheel-like pattern, Gill said. Also de- picted on the cave ceiling is an anthropomorphized in- sect, which the researchers suspect may be a hawkmoth. “Datura attracts hawk- moths as one of its key polli- nators, so it wouldn’t come as a surprise to see the two spe- cies represented together,” Gill said. While the new findings con- firm a relationship between rock art and altered states of consciousness, they also call into question long-held theo- ries about the context for that relationship. “One school of thought views California rock art as the work of shamans who were on sacred retreat from the rest of the tribe,” Gill said. “But excavations here reveal evidence of food processing, cooking fires and other do- mestic activities, indicating that the cave was less a site for rarefied shamanic prac- tice and more a community hub where datura ingestion occurred alongside everyday, communal activities.” Museum associate director Scott Fitzpatrick, a profes- sor of anthropology who was not involved in the research, said that the study helps fill a void in the archaeology of mind-altering substance use. “There is so little research on this topic in North Ameri- ca,” he said. Fitzpatrick, editor of the 2018 book “Ancient Psycho- active Substances,” said he looks forward to discussing the new study with students in his ancient psychoactives course at UO.