Every time a western movie or really any movie with Native Americans in it, I've noticed that the people act "high" off tobacco. I know the first time I smoked a cigarette I got a buzz from it, but never again. So my question is, are there any historical texts that point to tobacco being stronger in the past? Better yet, are there any that speak on tobacco lessening in potency over time? If so, is a reasoning provided for this? Thanks for any responses in advance.
It is doubtful that it was any more potent in the past, but there are different varieties of tobacco that have different tastes and amounts of nicotine and other differences. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Types_of_tobacco
As for them acting stoned in movies. They were probably not smoking tobacco in that movie but peyote, an hallucinogenic plant smoked by several tribal groups in Texas and Mexico. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peyote
Westerns had a habit of mixing together numerous tribal groups and combining rituals and religions, or placing religions on the wrong groups so they would show native Americans from other places of the American Southwest as using peyote when the plant does not even grow in their region.