As a volunteer at Eastern Correctional Institution (ECI) in Westover, MD, I act as a liaison between Baltimore Monthly Meeting of Friends and the Native American Circles at East, West and Annex compounds. Also, I am designated by Eagle Speak Society at ECI-W as their agent to gain accommodation for sweat lodge practice. This “spirit-led” work is an outreach of Stony Run and Homewood Friends, who have produced corporate minutes of support explicitly for sweat lodge practice by Native American devotees in Maryland state prisons. My work is immediately overseen by the meetings’ joint Indian Affairs committee, which meets regularly, about ten times per year. Friends provide some monetary support for this ministry and progress is reported annually to the Meetings for Business at Stony Run and Homewood. Information is then circulated in wider Quaker circles, especially to Baltimore and Philadelphia Yearly Meetings, both of which have actively demonstrated their support.

I visit the Circles at ECI from time to time, about quarterly, and join with them in congregate worship, usually a Pipe ceremony. I sometimes correspond with the groups by mail. I provide incidental material aid in the form of topical books, sacred herbs (viz. sage, white sage, cedar, sweetgrass and tobacco) and occasional accouterments (e.g. drum, feathers); these are sent in via the Chaplain rather than carried in directly. My work is uncoordinated with other ministries to these inmates, although I am on familiar terms with some Indian friends outside the institution also active in this service. I am sometimes accompanied by other Friends active in the concern for the free practice of traditional religion in prisons. I have given similar service to Indian inmates at Federal Correctional Institution – Petersburg (VA), where I have provided for and assisted with the construction (and reconstruction) of a number of sweat lodge domes (inipi).

The purpose of my work is, if I may, to journey together with these Indian friends; if I can, to relieve their collective sufferings in faith; and, if I am able, to lift burdens upon their traditional practice placed upon them in confinement by the State. As I make no claim to Indian identity and because the frame of their faith and practice is not my own, there are some things that I can do and some things that I cannot. I cannot, for example, act as a spiritual advisor to them in the ways of their own people; but I can support their growth and knowledge in those ways. I cannot teach them their own ceremonies, but I can join with them in ceremonial worship, as they allow. I cannot change directly the conditions of their confinement, but I can hold up their condition to Friends and to those in authority over them. Where those conditions do not meet a prevailing legal standard, I can be a witness and an advocate for appropriate change.

I supply herbs, books, etc., upon either request of the Circles or the Chaplain, with costs borne by myself, partially subsidized by the Meeting. These offerings are routinely entrusted to the chaplain, either sent UPS or delivered as I visit. I record each supply on memo, with copies to File, to Chaplain and to Circle. Some, not all, deliveries are confirmed one way or another; but, as far as I know, no supply has ever been lost or misdirected. Supplies include both smudging herbs, which are controlled, and tobacco, which is highly restricted. I provide small batches of items in series rather than a few large quantities, which seems to suit institutional needs but which can occasionally result in spot shortages. I understand that some Circles have some other sources of supply (e.g. other donations, purchase from catalogues) but I have no clear view of the overall arrangement.

Because tobacco is uniformly banned in MD state prisons except for Native American congregate ceremonial use, its supply is predictably problematic. When administrative controls fail, some Indian tobacco may circulate as contraband; but, because the amounts must be very small to begin with and are undoubtedly properly distributed for the most part, any charge that Indian inmates are somehow directly or indirectly responsible for a large illicit tobacco traffic in the institution is almost certainly unfounded. As the sole legitimate source of tobacco in the prison, however, Indian inmates are easy and convenient targets for blame or denouncement. I am told by Indian inmates that both such claims are sometimes made. On at least one occasion within the last year, an Indian inmate was believed by his fellows to have mishandled their group’s tobacco supply. Books specifically for Native American religious reference must be limited in number for secure storage; however, it is my understanding that this inventory can change and surplus volumes entered into the institution’s common library. More than a year ago I supplied about 500 (used) books to the institution, but it is unclear to me whether or not these volumes now circulate. Because I typically visit on weekends, I have been unable to arrange to visit the library at ECI to see what capacity it has to receive and process donated books. Selected and appropriate books could be provided in almost any quantity at no cost to the State if such capacity were made known

The rules which govern inmate life are strictly defined but constantly changing. Accommodations in DOC Directives are not guaranteed provisions but merely latitudes within which inmates may operate, if allowed to do so. At the very least, prison staff have broad discretionary power to control inmate life; at times, inmates appear to be subject to arbitrary interpretations of authority or capricious controls with scant ability to protest or effectively seek redress. This past year, I read one Indian inmate’s narrative of his own experiences at ECI. What emerged from this one prison journal was not an account of gross abuse or excess but a catalogue of a sequence of small indignities and deliberate affronts and minor provocations by staff, perhaps trivial when taken separately but very disheartening in the aggregate. Also, I listened, over the course of several visits, to an account by another inmate of how he had been deprived of his work in the institution by the manipulations of one staff member. I am not naïve and I know that I am hearing only one side of both stories; but I am not blind and I have a pretty good sense of when I am being manipulated. It is foolish to abuse captive men in this way, slightly but constantly. Even a dog knows the difference between a stumble and a kick.

Volunteers are instructed not to give or receive anything to or from inmates for good reasons plain enough; however, my work and the nature of Indian relations compromises this rule. As noted above, I routinely make provisions to the Circles on behalf of the Meeting with the full knowledge and support of the chaplaincy. In return, I receive openly on occasion and on behalf of the Meeting small incidental gifts such as commissary hard candy or small handicrafts. It is a mutual understanding that these presentations are basically symbolic in nature, consistent with Native American practice. I am willing to declare all of these exchanges and I am willing that they be surrendered at exit if the institution requires it, but I am extremely reluctant to refuse them on the spot.

Making accommodation for sweat lodge practice is beyond the capacity of local prison administrations at this time. As a matter of policy, DOC continues to exercise a uniform ban on sweat lodge ceremony in Maryland prisons and so Friends’ appeals have had to proceed to higher offices. After years of being rebuffed, Friends were finally granted a meeting with the Deputy Secretary for Operations of the State Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services last September; however, the Department has never responded to the concerns or addressed any of the specifics that we presented at that time.

Submitted by William O. Miles