Texas’s Hebbronville (AP) Like magic dumplings, the plump cactus in this area of southern Texas appear to emerge from cracked dirt and dry dust.
The bluish-green peyote plant grows natively only here and in northern Mexico, where it is tucked away among blackbrush, acacia, and prickly mesquite.
Many members of the Native American Church, who refer to this area as the “peyote gardens,” consider the plant to be sacred and an essential component of their rituals and prayers. Indigenous populations have relied on it as a natural healer to support their physical and emotional well-being while they have endured the trauma of colonization, displacement, and the loss of their culture, religion, and language.
Lack of access for religious use
The cactus is prized for its psychedelic qualities and contains a variety of psychotropic alkaloids, the main one being the hallucinogen mescaline. A 1994 modification to the American Indian Religious Freedom Act granted Native Americans the right to consume, acquire, and transport peyote for traditional religious purposes, despite the fact that it is a banned substance under federal law.
The lack of access to peyote, which they reverently refer to as the medicine, has been a concern for more than 20 years among Native American peyotism practitioners, who are estimated to number 400,000 in the United States. They claim that the slow-growing cactus, which takes 10 to 30 years to flower and mature, is being poached and overharvested, putting the species in risk and damaging its fragile ecosystem.
Members of the Native American Church claim that the situation has gotten worse as a result of calls from proponents of the psychedelic renaissance to decriminalize peyote and increase its accessibility for medical research and the treatment of a variety of illnesses. Experts claim that the habitat is also being harmed by nearby wind farms, housing developments, agriculture, and the border wall.
The overwhelming majority of peyote users concur that the plant ought to be protected and should be inaccessible to Silicon Valley capitalists, medical researchers, and other organizations that support criminalizing the drug. However, the Native American Church has differing views on how to achieve that objective.
Others in the church are more dubious of the intentions of investors, stating that they fear exploitation and would prefer to receive funding from the U.S. government to protect peyote. However, at least one group led by Native American Church leaders has started efforts to conserve and propagate peyote naturally in its habitat using philanthropic dollars.
Peyote embodies the Creator s spirit
Oglala Lakota Darrell Red Cloud recalls using peyote and singing ceremonial songs with his family at all-night peyote ceremonies when he was four years old. According to Red Cloud, Peyote has always been about connecting with the Creator. He serves as the Native American Church of North America’s vice president.
Although we were a devout nation, our people were not religious.
Former Navajo Nation vice president and Council of the Peyote Way of Life Coalition head Frank Dayish likened peyote to the Catholic Eucharist.
“My religion is peyote,” he declared. Prayers through that sacrament have been the foundation of my entire life.
Adrian Primeaux, who is Yankton Sioux and Apache, claims that he was told as a child of an Apache woman who fell behind her group during a forced relocation in the 1830s by the U.S. government because she was starved and dehydrated.
According to Primeaux, she was lying near the earth, ready to give up on life, when she heard a plant talking to her. “Eat me and you will be well,” the peyote was telling her.
According to Primeaux, she brought this herb back to the Apache medicine men and elders, who used it for prayer and meditation. He thinks that during that spiritual journey, the Native American Church and the future Peyote Way of Life were revealed.
According to Primeaux, who is descended from five generations of peyote people, peyote is more than just a therapeutic herb; it is also a spiritual compass and a north star. Despite their horrific past, the plant has served as a beacon of hope.
He claimed that it offered us hope and assisted us in processing our feelings, ideas, and life’s purpose.
An initiative to conserve and protect peyote
The Indigenous Peyote Conservation Initiative, or IPCI, is currently in charge of the 605 acres in Hebbronville, Texas, that the National Council of Native American Churches acquired in October 2017 to create a peyote preserve and spiritual homesite.
An IPCI board member and Navajo elder from Sweetwater, Arizona, Steven Benally, recalls his family’s yearly trips to the peyote gardens. Following the takeover by the peyotero system, when hundreds of button-like plant tops were gathered by government-licensed peyoteros and sold to Native American Church members, he remembers losing access to the gardens.
As a result, Native Americans could no longer openly enter privately owned ranches to gather peyote in prayer, as they had done for many years. According to Benally, they lost their holy bond with the earth.
Benally didn’t feel connected until he threw open the gate to their expansive ranch, which they lovingly call the 605. He put a sign that read, “This is real,” at the entrance since he was so overtaken with emotion.
He remarked, “It felt like we were finally living what we had just prayed for, dreamed about, and discussed.”
Visitors have left prayer notes, painted pebbles, and other offerings to a nearby cluster of naturally growing peyote on a hilltop bench, one of Benally’s favorite sites on the property. Benally sits on the seat, enjoying the silence and the soft breeze.
He stated, “We think that these plants, animals, and birds are just like us.” They are able to hear and comprehend. Like humans, they have their own location, their own powers, and a cause.
Miriam Volat, executive director of the NGO that manages the peyote preserve, described it as a conservation site where the plant is not harvested but rather propagated and replanted naturally in its habitat without the use of pesticides. According to her, Native Americans can camp at the preserve and harvest in prayer from friendly neighboring ranches if they can show their tribal identification cards.
Within the next fifty years, the goal is to restore peyote and its habitat so that it is plentiful in the area.
According to her, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency keeps a close eye on the peyote cultivated in their nursery. The organization, which has a license to operate, aims to strike a balance between being hospitable and meeting the agency’s demand that the facility be secured behind locked gates and under camera surveillance.
The debate over peyote conservation
Whether peyote should be produced outside of its natural habitat is a topic of debate among those working to protect it. Many members of the Native American Church argue that doing so would lessen the species’ sacredness, despite scientists and conservationists saying it is necessary for its protection.
In the 1970s, peyote grew in large quantities in the area, according to Keeper Trout, a research scientist and co-founder of the Cactus Conservation Institute in Texas. It has virtually vanished.
He compared it to walking on mattresses.
Trout feels that individuals should be allowed to grow and harvest anyplace, but he understands those who disagree on religious reasons. Trout is sure the hardy plant can make it through with a little assistance.
However, a lot of Native American churchgoers believe that the plant’s growing environment is important. According to Hershel Clark, secretary for the Teesto chapter of the Azee Bee Nahagha of Din Nation in Arizona, the ceremonial regulations were kept via narrative and conferred by the Creator’s grace.
According to Clark, this is the reason we oppose greenhouses, cultivating it outside of its native habitat, and synthesizing it to manufacture pills.
Red Cloud worries that any modifications will undermine its holiness.
He claimed that after that, it simply turns into a drug that people rely on instead of a spiritual remedy.
It has also been difficult to finance conservation and preservation initiatives for peyote.
According to Red Cloud, the Native American Church of North America is urging the US government to fulfill its responsibility to save peyote in its native habitat in southern Texas, including by offering landowners financial incentives. To launch such a program, his organization is requesting a $5 million federal funding.
The first funding for IPCI came from the Riverstyx Foundation, which is led by psychotherapist and well-known advocate for psychedelic therapy research Cody Swift. According to Volat, the organization is open to obtaining financing from the U.S. government and is still looking for private donations to continue the conservation effort.
However, she stated that we are not waiting for it.
According to Clark, some segments of the Native American Church harbor misgivings and doubts regarding the motives of Swift and other investors. According to Volat, his co-director at the charity, Swift has stated in interviews that IPCI’s mission is to protect peyote in its natural habitat under the direction and leadership of Native American peyote people.
Demand for peyote exceeds supply
According to Kevin Feeney, a senior social sciences lecturer at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington, who has researched the commodification of peyote, there is no doubt that expanding the market for the drug will lead to a supply crisis and make it more accessible to those with the means.
According to him, indigenous people would find it difficult to obtain their sacred herb while witnessing others utilize it in a manner they consider to be inappropriate.
There is still a shortage of peyote for the Native American Church. Only three licensed peyoteros are currently permitted to collect the plant in southern Texas for sale to churchgoers. Among them is Rio Grande City-based Zulema Julie Morales. Her father, Mauro Morales, passed away two years ago, leaving her the business.
Since she was ten years old, she has been working in the fields. She is 60 years old and claims that illicit poaching is the reason why peyote habitat is disappearing, not ethical and lawful harvesting. While she can only fill one huge tray, she recalls her father collecting enough peyote to fill a dozen.
Morales, who sells buttons for 55 cents each, views it as an honor to supply peyote for ceremonial purposes despite being Mexican American and Catholic. She has been an astute observer of the annual ceremonies her father, who her customers referred to as “grandpa,” hosted for Native people.
“We cherish our traditions as Mexican Americans,” she remarked. It’s lovely for us to participate in their tradition in our own unique way.
Teaching future generations
According to Sandor Iron Rope, an Oglala Lakota spiritual leader and president of the Native American Church of South Dakota, one of the primary objectives of IPCI is to instill in the next generation the importance of returning to their ancestors’ spiritual and healing practices. Over the course of Thanksgiving week, at least 200 individuals came on IPCI’s grounds to learn about peyote through panels, talks, ceremonies, and prayer.
Iron Rope remarked, “We have left our footprints and our moccasins here.” It is hoped that the next generation of kids would recognize the therapeutic benefits of putting down their phones and focusing on the present.
According to Iron Rope, this is how he is carrying out his duty to the next generation.
“You will have to meet the Creator halfway somewhere, no matter how much you pray,” he stated. You will need to put your prayer into practice. And this strikes me as an act of prayer.
Note: Every piece of content is rigorously reviewed by our team of experienced writers and editors to ensure its accuracy. Our writers use credible sources and adhere to strict fact-checking protocols to verify all claims and data before publication. If an error is identified, we promptly correct it and strive for transparency in all updates, feel free to reach out to us via email. We appreciate your trust and support!