Peyote religion

• SIGNIFICANCE: Since the late nineteenth century, peyote has played a central part in an Indigenous American religious movement. Peyote is viewed as a spiritual teacher, and its use forms part of a long, complex ceremony.

To the Indigenous Americans who practice peyotism, peyote is considered a spiritual being. This is a concept that defies accurate definition in Western terms. Adherents describe peyote iconically and refer to it as “medicine;” it is used as a sacrament. The ritualistic use of peyote in a religious setting to communicate with and be instructed by “spirit” is an accepted way to “return to the source.”

Peyote itself comes from a type of cactus with the scientific name Lophophora williamsii, a small, spineless cactus with a rounded top. The parts of the cactus containing peyote are called “buttons.” A peyote button contains more than fifty alkaloids, one of which, mescaline, induces a state of consciousness that its users liken to a healing or religious experience.

Peyote Religion

The religion, often called peyotism or the peyote cult, is at the center of a pan-Indigenous American movement. The religion has a doctrine, an ethical code, unique rituals, and origin legends. Fire, water, the medicine, the eagle, and a drum are the central symbols. Precise rituals involve long, extensive prayer meetings and require knowledge of many songs with repetitive, chanted musical bridges. The peyote religion, referred to formally as the Native American Church of North America (NAC), is pan-Indigenous Americans, both geographically and tribally. It appeared suddenly after 1880 and spread rapidly.

The origin of the peyote religion as practiced in North America is unknown. In The Peyote Religion (1956), James Slotkin describes twenty-nine different traditions of origin. The ritual of the modern Indigenous American Church is very different from how pre-Columbian and Indigenous Mexican peoples used peyote. Peyote reveals itself as a transformer that is integrable and renewing. After 1880, religious traditions, devastated by the relentless encroachments of European Americans, opened to the inevitability of profound change. The church's origin legends reflect the devastation suffered by the old ways and depict the need for transformation in the Indigenous American psyche.

Origin legends and doctrinal formulations are of secondary importance to practitioners, who are more concerned with original religious experiences. If there is doctrine, it is the belief that God put humankind on Earth for a purpose, and it is up to humans to learn that purpose directly from God on “the peyote road,” the mediation of peyote, prayer, and focus or awareness. As outlined by Slotkin, the peyote road consists of four main tenets: brotherly love (that is, "members should be honest, truthful, friendly and helpful to one another"), care of family ("married people . . . should cherish and care for one another, and their children"), self-reliance ("members should work steadily and reliably at their jobs, and earn their own living"), and avoidance of alcohol ("there is a maxim, 'Peyote and alcohol don't mix'").

Church Ritual

Church members describe their religion and ritual as uniquely Indigenous American. Some standards seem to have developed, leading to various forms referred to as Kiowa Apache, Southern Plains, and Oklahoma Fireplace. A number of elements, however, are consistent at every meeting since James Mooney’s description of a peyote ceremony in 1892. At all the fireplaces, the door opens east, and the roadman, or church leader, sits opposite the door. The meeting opens with the placing of the Chief Peyote on the altar and closes with the Chief’s removal. The most common form for the altar is a crescent or half-moon shape. There are five officers, or roadcrew, who have various formal functions in the ceremony: roadman, drummer, cedarman, fireman, and dawn woman. Each one, at some point during the meeting, will offer a “prayer smoke,” rolling tobacco in a corn husk and praying with this smoke communicant.

All movement during the meeting is clockwise. The drum is a water drum made from a six-quart metal pot, into which are placed water and four coals from the fire. The vessel is then covered with a hide, usually deerskin, and tied with a long rope. The rope wraps around seven stones pocketed in the hide, making a seven-pointed star, seen as the morning star, around the bottom of the vessel. The fireman, in addition to keeping a ritually constructed fire going through the night, maintains a poker or burning stick from which all prayer smokes are lit. Other ritual paraphernalia invariably found at meetings are a bone whistle, gourd rattles, a beaded staff, sage, feather fans, and corn husks and tobacco used in making the hand-rolled prayer smokes. There are always four stages to each meeting: opening, midnight, morning, and closing ceremonies. Particular songs are sung in conjunction with these stages no matter which Indigenous American group or fireplace is holding the ceremony, because these particular songs were given through the origin story. Four foods—meat, berries, corn, and water—are also always a part of the ceremony.

Some details of the four stages vary with each roadman. The reason is that peyote teaches a roadman his way; this is a mark of the church’s and the religion’s vitality. These variations come from prayer, searching, and the medicine. A roadman’s ceremony is called his Fireplace.

Meetings usually last a minimum of twelve hours, and the roadman is in control and aware of the psychological state of every member of the meeting throughout. For each of the participants, the ceremony often has aspects of a long, soul-searching journey through the night. It is understood to be a prayer meeting from beginning to end. Church members come to a sacred area, concentrate on its transcendental center or source, and sit with their peers in community to receive healing and instruction.

Bibliography

La Barre, Weston. The Peyote Cult. 5th ed., University of Oklahoma Press, 1989.

Maroukis, Thomas C. The Peyote Road: Religious Freedom and the Native American Church. University of Oklahoma Press, 2010.

“Native American Church of North America Mission Statement.” Native American Church of North America, 2015, nacna.info/mission-statement-1. Accessed 10 Jan. 2025.

Sayin, H. Umit. "The Consumption of Psychoactive Plants during Religious Rituals: The Roots of Common Symbols and Figures in Religions and Myths." NeuroQuantology, vol. 12, no. 2, 2014, pp. 276-296.

Slotkin, James S. The Peyote Religion: A Study in Indian-White Relations. Free Press, 1956.

Stewart, Omer C. Peyote Religion: A History. University of Oklahoma Press, 1987.

Wiedman, Dennis. "Upholding Indigenous Freedoms of Religion and Medicine: Peyotists at the 1906–1908 Oklahoma Constitutional Convention and First Legislature." American Indian Quarterly, vol. 36, no. 2, 2012, pp. 215-246.