Morning Star Conservancy’s goal is to have a sustainable future for the sacrament peyote. We also believe in creating alliances with organizations in a collaborative spirit towards maintaining its ceremonial uses and with sincere and legitimate intention to use it for healing, and not for recreational uses. These alliances can collaboratively implement programs that ensure accountability, sustainability and reverence towards this medicine as desirable and responsible. For these reasons, Morning Star Conservancy is making a great effort to help the medicine peyote thrive, as well as reach and engage various indigenous communities to have reciprocity and fully embrace healing through the revitalization of indigenous cultures as a way to honor and respect the peyote in a path to healing generational trauma, addictions and for the conservation of indigenous culture, languages and spiritual practices.
Peyote is intertwined with indigenous culture and spiritual practices
Since time immemorial, indigenous communities practice spirituality considering the earth as a living entity. The results of colonization are devastating to Indigenous people and the degradation of the earth in the name of progress is a painful experience causing a disconnection and a deep wound. The commercialization of attaining the sacred medicine is lacking a spiritual connection to the land and the peyote medicine. It is important to acknowledge that Indigenous spiritual practices were still outlawed as recent as the 1970’s, practices such as the sweat lodge, Pow Wow and Sundance. Many Indigenous people were persecuted and incarcerated for the use of peyote in ceremonies. The demonizing of Indigenous spiritual practices along with efforts to “civilize the Indian” by stripping identity, dignity, cultural, spiritual practices and the process of forced assimilation has left deep wounds and has negatively affected the overall health of both the Indigenous people and the land.
