Native American Church
A North American religious movement that holds peyote sacred and combines Indigenous and Christian beliefs.
The Native American Church is the most widespread Indigenous religious movement among North American Indians and is considered one of the most influential forms of Pan-Indianism. It is also called the Peyote Religion or Peyotism [1].
Peyote was used for visions and healing in pre-Columbian Mexico; from the mid-19th century its use spread north into the Great Plains. It probably became a distinct religion around 1885 among the Kiowa and Comanche in Oklahoma and reached Canada after 1891. The church was incorporated in 1918 [1].
Its beliefs combine Indigenous and Christian elements in varying degrees: there is one supreme God (the Great Spirit) who works through spirits, while peyote is personified as the Peyote Spirit and eaten as a sacrament to commune with God and the spirits. The ceremony usually begins on Saturday evening in a tepee around a crescent-shaped earthen altar and a sacred fire; it continues all night with prayer, singing and water rites and ends on Sunday morning with a shared breakfast. The way of life known as the “Peyote Road” teaches brotherly love, care of family, steady work and avoidance of alcohol [1].
Peyote was banned by government agents in 1888 and later by 15 states; in the 1960s religious-freedom appeals were upheld by several state supreme courts [1]. Peyote is a potent and legally restricted plant; it appears here as a cultural record.