Peyote

Peyote is a species of cactus grown in Northern Mexico. Peyote is a Connection Supplement used by the indigenous people's of North America.

List of Connection Supplements

Connection Supplement > 5-MEO DMT, Ayahuasca, Cannabis, Chloroform, DMT, Datura, Haoma, Kaneh Bosm, Kava, Ketamine, Kykeon, LSD, MDMA, Maikua, Manna, Nitrous Oxide, Peyote, Psilocybin Mushroom, Santa Rosa, Soma, Tobacco, Yaqona

Notes

Peyote was the basis of the "peyote cult," derived from the work of Handsome Lake which spread rapidly through the western part of the United States in the 19th century. It eventually finds its way to the Winnebago of Nebraska

John Rave, a Winnebago, introduced peyote to the Winnebago after consuming some in Oklahoma. He experimented with it and found that it helped cure his alcoholism. "Nevertheless, these peyote people preached good things and gradually lost all desire for intoxicating drinks..."

John Rave proselytized peyote consumption, based largely on its curative powers, helping with venereal diseases and consumption (alcoholism).

Daiker suggests it has effects similar to cannabis Indica, and also that there is evidence that it was given to children, as medicine. Daiker also lists the following tribes as those who use Peyote in dry or tea form: Mission, Sioux, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Havasupai, Kiowa,l Comanche, Osage, Kickapoo, Omaha, Winnebago, Pottawatomi, Sac and Fox, Santee, Shawnee, Oteo, Missouria, reaching as far as Wyoming.

Tribes considered it part of their religion, and argued in favour of its use on these grounds. Daiker dismisses this use as a "cloak" covering up its "general use."

Daiker provides an affidavit from an unamed indigenous source that says the natives at the time considered Peyote a cure for alcoholism. It probably was, though their situation (colonial oppression) probably led them back to addiction. He also provided evidence that peyote priests were exploiting people. He also says that the indigenous folk gave Peyote tea to their children, which killed them. This last calls into question the objectivity of the account.

The Lake Mohonk manuscript provides an interesting window into the Christian/colonial suppression of a Connection Supplement. Arguments where made for legal suppression based on the "christian" values and also on what appear to be highly suspect affidavits and accounts of the actual use of the substance.

General Indigenous

"The peyote plant is born out of the spirit of compassion of the Creator to teach his people the truth. In the 1800´s the peyote religion spread rapidly. These became stopped however by the Christian missionaries. Today at the Native American Church worshippers sing drum, meditate and pray, also consuming peyote at all night meetings. Peyote is regarded as a gift from God. It heals and teaches righteousness. Peyote rituals included all night dancing around a fire, and was generally inter-tribal. Reverently it is passed clockwise around the circle.”

The Huichol

The Huichol of Mexico practice a ritual "Peytote Hunt" where they travel and seek out the sacred peytote cactus.

The Huichol peoples live in the mountainous regions of the Mexican states of Durango, Jalisco, Nayarit, and Zacatecas. The Huichols are fa- mous for their brilliantly colored yarn paintings, which depict myths, images, and fantastic beings from their world view and environment. Their social and symbolic life is complex and varied, but they are best known for their yearly journey to the ancestral territory of Wirikuta, two hundred miles from the city of Guadalajara, in search of peyote and peyote visions.

Footnotes

References