The Overlooked Involvement of Indigenous Communities in Psychedelic Medicine

by DANIELA SANTILLAN-ENRIQUEZ

Daniela Santillan-Enriquez is a first year majoring in chemistry. In addition to writing for SISR, Daniela is a cohort member of the Computation and Engineering in the Life Sciences (CELLS) program, and the Marketing Chair for the Indigenous Student Association. When not worrying about her chemistry assignments, she loves to bead, code on calculators, and listen to Mexican mom music.

Indigenous peoples have used psychedelic substances in medical and religious contexts long before doctors and scientists in the European-centric world discovered their benefits. Although research on the medical potential of psychedelics stagnated in the United States after they became illegal in 1968, recently, the Psychedelic Renaissance brought a resurgence of interest. This movement has allowed for the slow decriminalization of psychedelic substances; for example: as explained by Kat Eschner in the New York Times, “Oregon is legalizing mushrooms” for therapeutic uses. 1 Yet despite the potential medical benefits of psychedelics, one thing is clear: the white-dominated fields of science and medicine have erased the history that links psychedelics and Indigenous peoples together, whilst silencing their voices on the matter.

Psychedelics were an integral part of many indigenous communities in America long before they gained wider popularity in the 1960s. According to the Drug Policy Alliance, “Psychoactive mushrooms have been used for thousands of years and have a long history of both medicinal and ceremonial uses”. 2 Amongst the many native groups that have historically used psychedelics, the Mazatecs commonly used psilocybin in religious rituals overseen by curanderos, “healers”, to “come closer to God, and experience the Divine”. 3

Another example is the Shipido People, who used Ayahuasca in rituals to “reveal the true patterns of reality”. The psychedelic movement was popularized in the US by Timothy Leary after he visited Zihuatanejo, Mexico Native guides “fed [him] a powerful hallucinogen every 72 hours or so, to expand [his] consciousness and strip [him] of [his] ego ‘game’”. 4 This was an idea that Leary keenly adopted and imported to the United States.

Politically, indigenous peoples have also been instrumental in ensuring the decriminalization and legalization of psychedelic substances in America. When various psychedelic substances were made illegal in 1968, indigenous communities who used them for religious rituals had two options: abstain or face legal consequences.

Fortunately, thanks to indigenous leaders and activists, in 1994 the Congress amended the American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978 (AIRFA), allowing for “the use, possession, or transportation of peyote [cacti native to Mexico and the southern U.S.A with hallucinogenic properties] by an Indian for bona fide traditional ceremonial purposes in connection with the practice of a traditional Indian religion is lawful, and shall not be prohibited by the United States”. 5

Whereas AIRFA allowed for indigenous peoples to continue their practices freely, the newfound interest in decriminalizing certain psychedelic substances has worried indigenous communities on the potential for non-natives to abuse and diminish these cultural practices. Ever since The Psychedelic Renaissance gained traction in the United States, many indigenous communities have expressed their concerns regarding the erasure of indigenous cultures. As explained by Colleen Roan, a Navajo Nation member, and peyote practitioner, “Indigenous communities have traditional peyote ceremony and ritual passed down through generations. Our people survived the campaign of genocide, the extinction of distinct groups of people Indigenous to the land, and peyote is embraced as medicine for healing and not to be used recreationally, experimentally, or as an economic resource. Decriminalizing peyote would open the doors for peyote to be subject to recreational, experimental, and economic use”. 6 However, white-dominated scientific, political, and medical communities have continued to neglect indigenous voices in favor of research, a “misrecognition or absence of the voices of indigenous people and people of color which can be a form of imprisonment and oppression”. 7

The lack of indigenous voices brings cultural appropriation and double standards: where indigenous peoples have persistently been disparaged for their drug use, white folks have used psychedelics recreationally. According to Psychedelic Support, “One review of 18 trials found that over 82% of participants were non-hispanic whites.” 8 This is ridiculous. Indigenous peoples are the pioneers of psychedelic science, yet they and not non-natives have suffered oppression and legal consequences for doing the same things non-natives have. And cultural appropriation of sacred practices diminishes the historical and cultural importance that they possess to native folks. It also downplays the matter of resilience and oppression in native communities, with white and non-native individuals engaging in these practices without the same stigmas and legal consequences that tribes would have faced over 30 years ago.

Decolonizing scientific and political perspectives is essential to respecting indigenous peoples and giving back to the communities that have allowed for the medical field to be where it is today. Indigenous voices in research are necessary to have an objective and respectful scientific environment. The scientific, political and medical community must address the long standing appropriation of practices that have been taken from indigenous peoples, as is also the case for acknowledging the damage that they have done in the past whilst upholding white supremacy in science.

Despite being pioneers of science, indigenous peoples to this day remain one of the most oppressed and silenced groups within scientific and medical communities. If we strive to have healthy and influential processes in science that truly benefit the entirety of the population, then we must give back to those who have been wronged in the process of learning. Whilst the damage has already been done, it is never too late to act ethically––especially for a field that perpetually kindles the idea of benefiting all.

References

1. Eschner, Kat. “The Promises and Perils of Psychedelic Health Care.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 5 Jan. 2022, https://www. nytimes.com/2022/01/05/well/psychedelic-drugs-mental-health-therapy.html.

2. What Is the History of Psychoactive Mushrooms?, Drug Policy Alliance, https://drugpolicy.org/drug-facts/history-psychoactivemushrooms.

3. Lewis-Healey, byEvan. “How 4 Indigenous Cultures Currently Use Psychedelics.” Psychedelic Spotlight, 15 Sep. 2021, https:// psychedelicspotlight.com/how-indigenous-cultures-currently-use-psychedelics/.

4. Burleigh, Nina. “A Return Trip to Timothy Leary’s Psychedelic, Day-Glo Mexico.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 6 May 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/06/travel/mexico-timothy-leary-psychedelics.html.

5. The American Indian Religious Freedom Act (1978). National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, https://mylearning.nps. gov/library-resources/american-indian-religious-freedom-act-1978/.

6. Weiss, Suzannah. “‘a Real Slap in the Face’: The Push to Legalize Psychedelics Has Ignored Indigenous Communities.” Mic, Mic, 1 May 2021, https://www.mic.com/life/the-push-to-legalize-Psychedelics-has-ignored-indigenous-communities-75816090.

7. George, Jamilah R., et al. “The Psychedelic Renaissance and the Limitations of a White-Dominant Medical Framework: A Call for Indigenous and Ethnic Minority Inclusion.” Journal of Psychedelic Studies, vol. 4, no. 1, 2019, pp. 4–15., https://doi.org/10.1556/2054.2019.015.

8. How Can We Pay Indigenous People the Respect They Deserve?, Psychedelic Support, 21 Sept. 2022, https://psychedelic.support/ resources/psychedelic-medicine-how-can-we-pay-indigenous-people-the-respect-they-deserve/.