Nierika

Peyote Conservation Project

MULTIDISCIPLINARY ASSOCIATION FOR THE PRESERVATION OF THE INDIGENOUS TRADITIONS OF SACRED PLANTS

The concept of the Nierika (from the Huichol) refers to the space in between worlds, a portal or opening, it also refers to the Sun and to the face of the Divine - the eye of God – mirror – a peyote family is a Nierika

ABOUT US In Nierika AC we strongly believe that traditional indigenous medicine and western science coexist in the same reality in the service to humanity as a whole. Thus we encourage interdisciplinary dialogue bringing together traditional healers and professionals in medical health, communication, law, social sciences, and natural sciences. In an effort to scientifically relocate the value of the use of sacred plants, the territories where they grow and the tangible and intangible practices that contextualize them.

We are a group of people who share a common vision of life; we believe that as humans, being so intimately dependent on nature, we possess the virtues to be its active and practical expression of consciousness and awareness on the planet. Rising-up to this great responsibility and in an effort to be ever more congruent in our fleeting passage through life, we focus our attention on the specific service to the traditions and/or indigenous customs that preserve the use of sacred plants (entheogens) in America.

We understand that the ceremonial rituals that give context and basis for such plants are technologies revealed by themselves by way of symbiotic relationship with human beings, to help continue the cycles of fertility and rain on earth.

From this perspective, we position ourselves in the world as facilitators of consciousness on the planet proposing new conceptual definitions of the ceremonial use of sacred plants based on experience and the ritual protocols practiced by the native cultures.

Current Peyote Situation A question that we pose ourselves has to do with social knowledge: What do ordinary people know about peyote? To answer this question, we define social knowledge as the amalgam of scientific and ordinary knowledge that takes place within laboratories, academy, institutions, etc., reinforcing, discussing or entering into a certain kind of controversy, with the knowledge and practices of those who interact daily or eventually with the plant, as part of their culture, their habits, religious customs or beliefs. We refer to two central issues: 1) What do we know about its effects, is it a drug or a medicine?

2) Is it currently threatened at risk or endangered?

Clearly, it is pertinent to discuss the current uses, because it ventilates an old controversy and reveals the power resources used since colonial times by the Holy Inquisition to impose submission to alternative rationales (ontologies). Under this institution, an extremely negative perception was spread and still continues to this day in Mexican territory. Formerly, people were accused of peyote consumption with the intent of communicating with the devil – now the crime is drug trafficking.

Today, peyote is transferred to the legalistic and medical discourse of drug abuse and addiction. However, the use of peyote in ceremonial contexts and popular therapy has remained discreetly active. Stemming from the counterculture of the 60´s, an interest has been growing and spreading in the attributes and health benefits –understood widely as physical, emotional and spiritual wellbeing- of peyote among sectors of international society.

The controversy involves a tacit separation between two positions: one prohibitionist and the other humanistic. The former, qualifies peyote as a drug, and along with its political devices, has canceled, in fact any possibility that supports multidisciplinary research protocols, which may put into question this assertion, while simultaneously, has instituted a persecutory and repressive framework to this issue.

The latter, confirms and accepts the existence of a peyote “field” (diffuse and heterogeneous network). This, however, renders the challenge of defining the bio-political context necessary as a starting point for the research that will lead to the conservation of the species, and to define the regulatory frameworks for peyote use in ceremonial and therapeutic contexts.

Far from a purist position, we could recognize that peyote is not a drug, it does not cause addiction -its taste is irrepressibly bitter- but, rather, the opposite is true; it is a medicine that cures if used properly. In that sense, it is more appropriate to refer to the definitions of cultures that have used it for millennia: medicine, flower, sac-

rament, blue deer, big brother, grandfather. In a matter of perspective, the bridge between indigenous and contemporary users is that peyote expands or increases awareness, is a precursor of the mind and a powerful therapeutic agent that reconnects and restores meaning to experience.

Linked to its current uses, it is necessary to inform about its availability. In Mexico, peyote is found in several Mexican states characterized by having arid and semiarid ecosystems that are part of the “Great Chihuahuan Desert Biome”. Here, the land is characterized by the existence of ejidos, agrarian communities and private property.

In some places, like those comprising the historical cultural route of the Wixárika People, within the Protected Natural Area of Wirikuta in San Luis Potosí, it is possible to see signs of overexploitation of this biocultural resource, including the popularization of hiking routes for magical-religious tourism. But claims about imminent extinction are unfounded, if we consider the lack of inventories and of a comprehensive view of the looting of cacti in general, and the effects of changing land use along with the natural processes of regeneration in previously degraded ecosystems. Regardless, we must proceed in line with the verified fact that any natural resource can be exhausted and extinguished, and, in that sense we recognize that peyote conservation plans must conform to the forms of social organization and land ownership.

Today, we know that consumption of peyote should be preceded by a minimum of rules that, in the way of prescriptions, enable and prepare the body and mind for the therapeutic process or spiritual experience (religious), and that ancient knowledge must adapt and be practiced in a globalized world.

Importance of Peyote to Native People Over the past four decades, a massively widespread of peyote use has been displayed among the Wixaritari (Huichol), but little attention has been paid to the conceptions and uses by other groups such as the Cora, Tepehuan and RarĂĄmuri have about peyote. This has been, in part so, due to the concatenation of a diplomatic and performative ability that the Huichol possess, and the undeniable diffusing role of an abundant academic and journalistic work on the customs, worldview and rituals of the people of the Sierra Madre Occidental. In this sense we can see that many aspects of the consumption and the importance given to this plant by other native cultures still warrants further studies.

However, there is no doubt that the consumption of peyote among these groups has played an important role in maintaining and strengthening ties and collective identity. The consumption of peyote has enabled a sort of continuity in the historical framework of the people, by allowing them to reproduce the mythical stories that Westerners have, until now, called - modernity. From a relational and relativistic point of view, we recognize that rather than the peyote itself, what stands out are the associations, the relations between various elements of culture and that peyote is responsible for articulating, always from a peculiar, and not at all linear perspective of time and space. Therefore, the use

of peyote among indigenous peoples should not be translated into a relativistic asepsis of the cultural kind, where their world is part of the study and academic digression, but rather within a pragmatic dialog of reconnection and transmission of knowledge. What a WixĂĄrika Maraakame (intercessor between people and spirits) says about Wirikuta as a university is also applicable to peyote as a teacher, which has equally teachings for all who are willing to learn.

A necessary step forward that should be reflected in actions at an administrative and legislative level in Mexican territory, must recognize that the contemporary peyote use is not restricted to certain Mexican indigenous groups. That as part of the resistance of the peoples, traditional peyote uses have not only been maintained, but have been adapted and transformed according to important processes of multiculturalism and internationalization. Likewise, it is necessary to adopt a binational perspective inasmuch as the most important volume consumed is located across the northern border of Mexico, by the native people grouped under the Native American Church and the Wixarika –Huichol peoples in Mexico.

Here the historical trajectories and the different national conditions for the exercise of territorial rights and self - diffusion of Peyotism during

the late nineteenth century by the native people in the United States, show significant differences to the accessibility of the peyote. Nevertheless, an essential denominator among peyote cultures is a shared gesture of appreciation and sacredness that represents the common foundation for dialogue and the establishment of alliances with reciprocal benefits on both sides of the border.

However a particular research agenda must be set in motion that allows us to understand how the model of the pilgrimage (Wixarika) and the tipi (NACNA) are developed and adapted from their convergence, exchanges and approaches to non - indigenous public. Yet, mechanisms for collaboration under which a bilateral agenda for the conservation and sustainable peyote use can be continue constructed to be a shared priority.

Legal Status of Peyote The current legal status of peyote in Mexico is regulated by three types of norms: sanitary, criminal, and environmental. These rules, in turn, must be referred to in relation to international agreements and regulatory frameworks, which Mexico has signed on psychoactive substances, human rights (customs and religious customs) and the culture of traditional peoples.

Contemplating them as a whole, it is possible to detect contradictions, ambiguities and misinterpretations, which eventually contaminate a fair evaluation of the sociology of peyote, and stagnate the implementation of a positive regulatory system different to the punitive one that prevails today.

The General Health Law and the Penal Code The General Health Law created in 1984 and still enforced in our country, considers peyote as a psychoactive substance with low or no therapeutic value and high addictive potential - classified as Class I for containing mescaline.

This is an equivocal position to be explained and corrected. This classification is the result of confusion between the part and the whole; it attributes to peyote the criteria applied to mescaline as defined by the International Convention on Psychotropic Substances, held in Vienna in 1971. This is similar to equating cocaine to the coca leaf. Lophophora williamsii is not on the green list of substances subject to international control by the Conventions.

Peyote contains more than 50 alkaloids, including mescaline, which was isolated in the laboratory in 1889, and identified as the main responsible molecule for the psychoactive effects; not much is known about the effect of the other components nor about the synergy between them.

This convention does not explicitly mention peyote, but mescaline. Nevertheless, the Federal Penal Code in Mexico, translates and extends the ban based on its concept of “crimes to health� (in an unfounded supposition that the State has an obligation to deter harmful use), applying minimum sentences of six months to seven years in prison for those who collect, transport, market or consume peyote, unless they can invoke an indigenous exception to the application of criminal law (Art. 195Bis).

The Penal Code was adjusted in 2009 to match: 1) The reservation made by the Mexican government to the original 1971 Convention by establishing an exception to the prohibition of substances that are part of the customs of indigenous groups; 2) The constitutional reforms on the recognition of the multicultural composition of the nation and international human rights instruments; 3) The articles of ILO Convention 169 that protect and provide guarantees for the reproduction of native cultures, respect for their territories, and use of biodiversity. Thus, it stands in Article 195 of the Mexican Penal Code, the respect and protection of indigenous groups who use psychotropic substances, in this case of peyote and mushrooms, as part of their customs, rituals and ceremonies, when duly recognized by their indigenous authorities. However, the Criminal Code is inadequate, as it lacks a sensible judicial foundation to cultural uses, and, because of the ignorance and corruption that prevails in the judicial system, it imposes the criterion of an illicit drug along with a criminal act that must be punished – superseding the therapeutic and ritual values associated with peyote. Furthermore, because it is classified as Class I as a controlled substance possession invokes the highest punishment for drug trafficking denying access to liberty under bond – even for indigenous people unable to give proof of their community status.

Environmental standards - from looting to the peyote conservation Mexican Official Norm 059 The main instrument for the protection and conservation of flora and fauna in Mexico is the Official Mexican Norm 059, published in 1994.

In this law, peyote is classified as a species subject to special protection, which is the fourth category, the laxer one, since according to the Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT), peyote is neither in a process of frank extinction, at risk or threatened. This contrasts with the approach taken by the International Treaty on Endangered Species (CITES) assumed by Mexico, where peyote is considered “likely to become endangered species”. Additionally, in the update of the Red Book of Endangered Species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), peyote was reclassified, in 2013, changing its status from “least concern” to “vulnerable”.

Both from the national and international perspectives, environmental criteria lack the appropriate technical (ecological) foundations to support the qualifying category, but more grievous is the lack of viable strategies for conservation and propagation methods to reverse its vulnerable condition.

NOM 059 imposes a lock on peyote via the simple fact of it being a species subject to special protection; and also, because it is considered a species with little or no therapeutic value by the General Health Law, automatically preventing any chance to study it or analyze it in the laboratory. That is, researchers are not allowed to generate the research protocols to determine its benefits or therapeutic properties. At the same time, it has impeded studies on its biology, and has not stimulated research initiatives to deepen the study on the ecology of this cactus: What conditions favor its growth? How can we restore degraded areas?

The General Wildlife Act The General Wildlife Act (2006) is a complementary, but so far incomplete support for the safeguarding of peyote. This instrument should be calibrated in the coming years and evaluated for its results. It seems appropriate, for example, that sustainability criteria should be established, and that responsibilities may be set, primarily in the ritual use of species under one of the four categories of protection. Furthermore, the law should promote production and marketing schemes, rather than imposing the impasse of prohibition and punishment, which goes against the cultural, economic and political dynamics of peyote – prioritizing indigenous people’s rights and, at the same time, harmonizing a legal architecture that is in line with human rights and sustainable development.

To summarize, we offer some thoughts on the current legal status of peyote in Mexico: 1) It is not appropriate nor is it adapted to internal dynamics, much less to cultural and economic processes (external demand) or a bilateral agenda, as of yet.

2) The restrictive and prohibitive spirit in the different laws that govern the peyote plant is the main obstacle for conservation and to the establishment of clear rules in terms of public health, sustainable management, and interdisciplinary research.

3) It is necessary to recognize contemporary uses by non – indigenous people in Mexico, to move to a full recognition of human rights and religious freedom. The State should regulate or intervene based on the recognition of religious practices and rituals that do not threaten social peace, facilitating intercultural scenarios based on traditional knowledge.

How peyote has been adopted and how it is used by the Mestizos We resort to a false dilemma for dividing Mexican society between Indians and mestizos (mixedbloods). The latter is a derivative category, now diluted and conceived as the nectar of a new collective identity known as “Mexicanidad� (mexicaness). The term mestizos identify people that resulted from a mix of indigenous, European, blacks and people of all casts and privileges and exist only in anthropological terms. The history of peyote, which is not yet written, should recognize that mestizos, the non-Indians that once were Indians, did everything to not reduce the peyote to the figure of a fetish, a commercial product. This cultural disposition of the Mexican has provided a vessel to understand and act accordingly. And within this, the peyote has persisted in activating the memories: identity and territory; the person, self-development and realization as approximations to the rediscovered sense of family that unifies transcending borders.

Here, we dig deep to rediscover and integrate the myths, traditions, gestures and ritual practices of the indigenous ancestors. We have been delighted by Huichol cosmology for its openness to contemporary processes, and its unusual dialogic capacity with modernity. Non-indigenous people assist themselves in the peyote by relying on the elders or grandparents of this territory, those who have managed to bring the vessel of their people’s culture and traditions to the present day.

Mixbreeding or Mesitizaje is conceived from the Peyote experience, as a reconnection focused on basic, intuitive meanings of health, territory, culture and being. Hybridity, syncretism, heterogeneity that characterizes the peyote mestizo uses, can be seen as extraneous dispositions seeking to adapt practices, and convey the messages that have been passed down for generations. Mestizos have adapted gestures and ritual ways to experience the contemporary condition of a plant, which manifests itself in the context of mining conflicts, land use change, new technologies, and the emerging agentive properties of nonhumans. The master plant metaphor is appropriate in a postmodern condition defined by acceleration, transience, and shallowness of experiences. The expansion of consciousness and similes caused by peyote does not represent a flight from the world, but a propping and a vindication of the Self in the long term of its biography and its horizons.

Peyote Horizon We clearly see the profile for a horizon in terms of peyote conservation of sustained in the ritual uses, and in the recognition of its therapeutic properties. In this perspective, a concerted involvenment of various actors is required, making up the hitherto diffuse field of peyote: 1) local communities (ejidos, commoners and private owners) where this cactus grows wild; 2) Government institutions: a) Environmental as the Department of Ecology (SEMARNAT); Environmental Protection Agency (PROFEPA); National Institute of Ecology (INE); National Commission for the Use and Conservation of Biodiversity (CONABIO) and the various State agencies in the environmental field; b) Health Sector, as in the Department of Health (SSA); Commission for Sanitary Regulation (COFEPRIS) etc.; 3) academic institutions in different areas: chemical, biological, ecological, anthropological, epidemiological, psychiatric, psychological, legal, and so on; 4) non - governmental organizations focused on the defense and promotion of indigenous and human rights, nature conservancy and the different religious and spiritual expressions that surround peyote.

This horizon reflects the projection on the future based on strategies and actions with the main objective to stimulate the radical change of the

status of peyote as a drug, to a new perception and institutional-social treatment of peyote as a sacrament; food for the spirit; valuable ecological resource; potential agent for the treatment of different pathologies -as several different types of addictions. In an economic sense, the horizon refers to the reclassification of peyote that would legally support its high therapeutic value and biocultural importance from a patrimonial perspective, that is recognizing the root in the traditional uses maintained by indigenous groups, but which is linked also with contemporary uses among non - indigenous groups in Mexico.

From a practical perspective we refer to the necessary changes in judicial, environmental, and health laws, that would enable the implementation, testing and ultimately, consolidating the Environmental Management Units (UMAS) for the conservation and sustainable use of peyote. These UMAS must, though not exclusively, constitute an axis for the implementation of management plans that allow fundamental objectives: 1) Development of comprehensive studies to determine the actual degree of conservation of peyote, threats and risks, and to determine protection actions, demarcation and establishment of closed zones in areas that have been intensively exploited. 2) Strengthen measures to protect wild populations through reintroduction programs or reforestation on degraded areas, or by growing peyote in greenhouses, as well; 3) Orientate the conservation

of peyote, according to the two main identified needs: a) scientific research (ecological, neurochemical, neuropsychiatric and psychosocial), and b) the productive trade need linked to the rising domestic and external demand of peyote and the many benefits that local communities can access through the operation of community nurseries and provision of ecotourism services.

In this perspective we recognize the risks posed by any institutional order, that in the way of its implementation, rather deviates and ends up backfiring the same conservation objectives or the exercise of human rights, including religious freedom. Such is the case in Mexico. But we insist on the benefits associated to a new scheme of use and exploitation based on clear rules within a non - punitive legal framework,

but characterized by responsibility, co-operation and responsible participation of the different actors involved in the Peyote field.

We conceive the horizon of peyote as part of the wider horizon of conservation of biotic resources of arid and semiarid systems in our country, of the valorization of biocultural heritage, understood as the ecological practices and knowledge of the inhabitants of these regions, and within a new generation of scientific studies and research to address and mitigate climate change and to make a proper and effective use of the assets of biodiversity within a sustainable development agenda that includes cultural and spiritual sustainability.

Strategic Action Circles (SAC) We present the above synthesis of the current situation of Peyote, to note the complex reality that contextualizes the inclusion of this intervention project. The definition of the strategic lines and categorization of the problem has only been possible due to the response by Nierika, AC to the needs of the different groups of actors in the field of peyote use at a national and international level.

It is from this categorization of actions and processes, which Nierika has implemented to date, and from which the following strategies that mark the central pattern of actions for the project were derived from.

Project schedule Based on the dynamics of the peyote field we propose circular strategic categorization to meet the objectives of this project (SAC), that, unlike a linear approach, which may tend to limit implementation of required actions; the circle invites us to simultaneously integrate the strategies of the different fields. That is, the rhythm and fluidity to obtain our goals are more dependent on the particular movement of external reality, and the dynamics between social actors involved in it; nevertheless, the results in the short, medium and long term between this 2016 and 2019 will be delivered.

Conclusion The ideas, structure and organization of this conservation project have been possible, only, as the result of the integration of a collective vision that permeates the daily lives of the many actors in the Nierika peyote relations across borders, and of the Nierika Peyote Conservation Project team.

We believe that we are just travelers who journeyed through this world taking responsibility for our positioning in the circle of life, giving back only what has been passed on to us, at service to the 7 generations to come. Children, everywhere, deserve a legacy of clean water and functional rituals that enable them to lead balanced, healthy and joyful lives. Peyote is a bio-cultural patrimony of indigenous peoples of North America with an immense spiritual value as a patrimony of Humanity.

Peyote is an important tool – a psycho-spiritual vitamin for the sustainable development of culture and spirituality on the planet. Our horizon includes this initiative as a pillar in the architecture of a system that supports the bio-socio-cultural and spiritual evolution of humanity.

NIERIKA

A.C.

MULTIDISCIPLINARY ASSOCIATION FOR THE PRESERVATION OF THE INDIGENOUS TRADITIONS OF SACRED PLANTS Nierika AC relies on private funding for its sustainability and development of its projects. We thank you for your support.

More information at nierika52@gmail.com | nierika@gmx.net T. 52-714-1910014 www.nierika.info

www.nie rika.info