The Peyote Road: Religious Freedom and the Native American Church. By Thomas Constantine Maroukis. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2010. xii, 281 pp. $29.95, ISBN 978-0-8061-4109-1.)
Journal of American History December 1, 2010 Christopher Vecsey
The Peyote religion became a major historical development among Native Americans in the United States. For millennia, people in northern Mexico ingested the hallucinogenic peyote cactus for medical and inspirational purposes. In the 1800s, peyote use spread to Indian Territory and, influenced by Christianity, formed into a religion with mythology, theology, ritual, ethics, and organization. Government and church agencies launched an assault on their faith. To defend religious freedom, Peyotists established the Native American Church of Oklahoma in 1918, the mother church of Peyotism. Despite prohibitions, the movement grew as pan-Indian yet rooted in tribal spirituality. Its ethical teachings, the Peyote Road, guided people in social distress, and its repute in curing alcoholism heightened its appeal. Today the Native American Church has approximately 300,000 Indian members.