Theses and Dissertations Collection

The Peyote cactus is the sacred Sacrament of the Native American Church (NAC) and peyotists and they use it in their ceremonies to commune with God. The intricacies of the procurement of Peyote by tribes is not without issue and includes a complex of state and federal regulation, economic factors based on supply and demand of Peyote, and the most important issue of the ability to access the cactus for commercial harvest by a select few DEA licensed Peyote distributors (peyoteros) whom obtain it from private land in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas known as the Peyote Gardens. Nearly the entire commercially available supply of Peyote for the NAC and peyotists exists on private property in Star, Webb, Jim Hogg, and Zapata counties. The Shoshone-Paiute Tribes of the Duck Valley Indian Reservation have practiced Peyote ceremonies since at least 1934 along with other forms of spirituality including the Sundance and traditional Paiute spirituality. This thesis research will address how these economic, regulatory, and relationship-based access obstacles are experienced by Paiute Peyote roadmen, brothers Reggie and Murray Sope, using excerpts from semi-structured ethnographic interviews with them and critical analysis of federal and state regulations governing the Peyote economy.