SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) – A Lakota traditional healer is arguing that tobacco is an integral part of Native American religious ceremonies and denying its use is akin to taking away the Bible from a Christian.
Richard Moves Camp testified during a federal trial challenging a South Dakota prison policy banning ceremonial tobacco use. Camp said tobacco has been a central part of prayer for thousands of years.
James Moore, attorney for the corrections’ officials, said ceremonial tobacco inside the state penitentiary was increasingly abused, and inmates had been caught separating it from their pipe mixtures and prayer ties.
