The Peyote Religion

The Peyote religion is found in many different Indian tribes today. It was Quanah Parker (about 1845-1911), a spiritual leader and chief of the Comanche Kwahadi division, who “was influential in the development and diffusion of the peyote religion in Indian Territory.” (The Encyclopedia of Native American Religions) By enthusiastically proclaiming the hallucinogenic virtues and supposed medicinal powers of the peyote cactus, he gained converts to Peyotism from many North American Indian tribes. Thus, among the Kickapoo, as in other tribes, the traditional religion and Peyotism existed side by side.

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What Is the Peyote Religion?

The Peyote religion has now come to be known as the Native American Church. Peyote is a small spineless cactus (see right) found principally in the Rio Grande valley in Mexico and also in Texas. The Peyote religion has over 200,000 members in the North American tribes. “Originating in prehistoric Mexico, Peyotism today incorporates elements of Christianity while remaining a pan-Indian affair.” (A Native American Encyclopedia​—History, Culture, and Peoples) The two primary ceremonies in the Peyote religion are the Half-Moon and the Big Moon. Both incorporate “aspects of Indian culture and Christianity.” The peyote ceremony is an all-night ceremony, usually begun on a Saturday, wherein a group of men sit in a circle in a tepee. They experience hallucinations while eating quantities of bitter-tasting buds or nodules of the peyote cactus and chanting sacred songs to the beating of a drum and the rhythmic rattle of a gourd.

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Courtesy TAMU Cactus Photo Gallery