Native American Church
indigenous religion in the USA
The Native American Church (NAC), also known as Peyotism and Peyote Religion, is a syncretic Native American religion that teaches a combination of traditional Native American beliefs and elements of Christianity, especially pertaining to some of the Ten Commandments, with sacramental use of the entheogen peyote. The religion originated in the Oklahoma Territory (1890–1907) in the late nineteenth century, after peyote was introduced to the southern Great Plains from Mexico. Today, it is the most widespread indigenous religion among Native Americans in the United States (except Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians), Canada (specifically First Nations people in Saskatchewan and Alberta), and Mexico, with an estimated 300,000 adherents.
History
Historically, many denominations of mainstream Christianity attempted to convert Native Americans to Christianity in the Western Hemisphere. These efforts were partially successful, because the religious practices, including those of the Native American Church, of many Native American tribes reflect Christian creeds. Although conversion to Christianity was a slow process, the tenets of the Native American Church were more readily accepted.
Originally formed in the Oklahoma Territory, the Native American Church is monotheistic, believing in a supreme being called the Great Spirit. It was officially created in 1918. The tenets of the Native American Church regard peyote as a sacred and holy sacrament and use it as a means to communicate with the Great Spirit (God), also referred to as the Creator.
Beliefs of the church
Disease and death are believed to be a result of an imbalance in the individual.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Native American Church” as indigenous religion in the USA. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q920084. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1890, 1907 and 1918.
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This entry incorporates text from “Native American Church” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.