BENJAMIN, Utah County — Sitting cross-legged on a woven blanket at his house, James Mooney gingerly holds his wooden pipe and takes a quick toke.
Mooney, founder of the Oklevueha EarthWalks Native American Church, contemplates the reasons he settled a federal lawsuit he filed after he was fired from a job with Utah's Department of Corrections.
Mooney, who also goes by the name "Flaming Eagle," insists he does not care about the money. He will receive $50,000.
"It's not me who wanted to settle," said Mooney, a self-described American Indian medicine man who has gained notoriety for his ritual use of peyote, a hallucinogenic drug. "It's not me who has something to hide."
Mooney filed suit in U.S. District Court against the corrections department and its top brass in 1997. That's when Mooney says he was fired from his job as as a guard because of his race and religious beliefs.
According to the lawsuit, Mooney volunteered at the Utah State Prison in Gunnison as an American Indian spiritual leader before he was hired as an officer. Mooney alleged in his lawsuit that one of Mooney's supervisors uttered racist slurs.
Assistant Utah Attorney General Alain Balmanno strongly disputes Mooney's claim that state officials were concerned about what would be said about his termination during a trial.
Mooney agreed in the settlement papers that the payment was not tantamount to an admission of guilt by the state, said Balmanno, who added the settlement was an effort to save taxpayer money it would cost to take the case to trial.
Mooney was released from his job within a probationary period because he maintained relationships with inmates that were inappropriate for a corrections officer, Balmanno said.
"He hadn't made the transition away from counselor and medicine man," he said. "Our point was that he didn't belong in uniform."
Balmanno said Mooney also would have a difficult time proving he suffered monetary damages after the firing. Investigators gathered evidence indicating Mooney's church earns "way over six figures" each year, Balmanno said.
"It would have been bad for him to go on the stand and talk about who he is and what he does," Balmanno said.
Mooney's court battles aren't over, however.
He was charged in Provo's 4th District Court in November with 12 counts of possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute, a first-degree felony, and one count of racketeering, a second-degree felony.
During an October police raid of his home in Benjamin, a small rural community near Spanish Fork, police say they found 21 pounds of peyote, which is made from a cactus plant that grows in the Southwest.
It is considered sacred by American Indians when it is blessed and used during prayer rituals.
Utah County prosecutors say Mooney, who claims Seminole lineage, can't distribute peyote because he does not belong to a federally recognized tribe.
Also, they say it is illegal to give peyote to non-American Indians, which Mooney says he continues to do in ceremonies.
The court affidavit also accuses Mooney of creating a "down-line" marketing scheme to distribute the drug across the country through other leaders of American Indian churches, some of whom are non-Indian.
Mooney has since filed suit against Utah County Attorney Kay Bryson and Sheriff David Bateman alleging civil-rights violations and demanding the return of property taken from his home by police.
"For them to come in and take our sacred pipes and call it drug paraphernalia is a disgrace," Mooney said.
Mooney's lawsuit claims police interfered with the group's ability to practice its religion. His attorney, Kathryn Collard, argues that peyote can be used during rituals of American Indian churches and the government cannot bar any race from any church, she said.
E-MAIL: jeffh@desnews.com