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Sacred Medicine: Use of Psychogenic Peyote within Ho-Chunk Healing

Michael Sersch

JORMA International Journal of Health and Social Sciences October 12, 2026 DOI: 10.64074/4c3h8f90 (opens in new tab)

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Study at a glance

AI-extracted from the abstract
Characteristics Historical analysis Peer reviewed
Population Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) people and Native American Church members
Intervention Peyote
Topics Mescaline
Key points Argues that the Native American Church's century-long ceremonial use of peyote has served as a form of religious expression and healing for cultural trauma and individual conditions such as PTSD, substance use, and depression. Contends that some Ho-Chunk people's adoption of the rite at the turn of the 20th century functioned as both cultural resistance to settler colonial hegemony and a process of personal trauma recovery.

Abstract

Current interest in the effectiveness of psychedelic-assisted recovery from trauma and other mental health conditions has been increasing. The Native American Church’s (NAC) use of the psychoactive plant peyote for over 100 years within sacred ritual has been a unique approach to religious expression and individual as well as collective healing, especially when addressing cultural trauma as well as individual experiences of PTSD, substance use, depression, and illness. Acceptance of the rite by some Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) at the turn of the 20th century is shown to be a form of both cultural resistance to settler colonial hegemony and a process of personal recovery from trauma.

In the evidence

This study is part of the evidence base for a synthesis in the library. Here is how each one recorded it.

  • State of the evidence: Mescaline Supports

    Argues that a century of Native American Church peyote ceremony has served as religious expression and healing for cultural trauma and individual conditions such as PTSD, substance use, and depression.

    Synthesized

Comparable studies

Other theoretical and historical papers on mescaline, most cited first.

Study Year Design Participants
Schizophrenia: A New Approach. II. Result of a Year's Research 1954 Theoretical or philosophical paper
Thought insertion as a self-disturbance: An integration of predictive coding and phenomenological approaches 2016 Theoretical or philosophical paper
Entactogens: How the Name for a Novel Class of Psychoactive Agents Originated 2022 Theoretical or philosophical paper
Steric and Electronic Relationships among Some Hallucinogenic Compounds 1970 Theoretical or philosophical paper
EFFECT OF DRUGS One individual 1952 Theoretical or philosophical paper n = 1

Citations in the library

Cites 3

Related reading

Explore topics

Mescaline Depression PTSD Psychedelic-assisted therapy