Native American Church

Religious cult of Navaho and others, blending Christian fundamentalism with peyotism, a Native American religion that began (c.1890) among Kiowa and honored Peyote as a sacramental food. Peyotists of many tribes founded the Native American Church in 1918. The Navaho Tribal Council banned it in 1940 as a threat to both native Navaho culture and Christianized Navahos, but the cult flourished covertly until the council relented in 1967. Up to 80% of the Navahos in the SW are now practicing members. By the 1970s some states had changed their laws to allow the religious use of peyote.

Source:

The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia
by Columbia University Press

File last modified: June 16, 2003
URI: http://deoxy.org/def/native_american_church.htm

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