The Indigenous Peyote Conservation Initiative (IPCI) was created in 2017 out of an understanding that spiritual reconnection and the therapeutic engagement in ceremony and culture is essential to restoring Indigenous community health.
History – NACNA / NARF efforts to protect Peyote and the formation of IPC
In October of 2017 – The National Council of Native American Churches gathered in Laredo, Texas and with support from the Riverstyx Foundation, purchased 605 acres in the medicine gardens to establish a Peyote preserve and spiritual homesite. In June of 2018 – The Indigenous Peyote Conservation Initiative officially became a 501c(3) organization in Texas, serving all native Peyote lands and peoples, from Mexico, the U.S., and Canada.
IPCI hosted two pilgrimages and ceremonies on the spiritual homesite land. Many NAC members were able to reconnect with the medicine as it grew in the earth, many for the first time.
In order to protect their sacramental use of Peyote, Native American tribal groups began incorporating as individual Native American Churches in 1918. In the following decades the religion grew significantly, however the legal rights of Indian people to use Peyote were plagued by non-native misunderstanding and a patchwork of inconsistent laws and court cases. Finally, in 1994, Congress enacted the American Indian Religious Freedom Act Amendments of 1994 which clearly and specifically protect the rights of members of federally recognized tribes to use, possess, and transport Peyote for their traditional religious purposes throughout the US.
Access the Website
