Huichol

Huichol
(Wixárika)

Huichol women and children
Regions with significant populations
Mexico (Sierra of Nayarit, Jalisco, Durango, and the desert of Zacatecas and San Luis Potosi), United States (California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas)
Languages
Huichol, Spanish, English
Religion
Shamanism, Animism, Peyotism, Jehovah Witness, Roman Catholicism
Related ethnic groups
Cora, Tepehuán, Tarahumara, Hopi, other Uto-Aztecan-speaking peoples

The Huichol (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈwit͡ʃo̞l]) or Wixárika (Huichol pronunciation: [wiˈraɾika])^[1] are an indigenous people of Mexico and the United States living in the Sierra Madre Occidental range in the states of Nayarit, Jalisco, Zacatecas, and Durango, as well as in the United States in the states of California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. They are best known to the larger world as the Huichol, although they refer to themselves as Wixáritari ("the people") in their native Huichol language. The adjectival form of Wixáritari and name for their own language is Wixárika.

The Wixáricas speak a language of the Wixarikan group that is closely related to the Nahuatl group. Furthermore, they have received Mesoamerican influences, which is reflected by the fact that Wixarika has features typical to the Mesoamerican language area.

Their spirituality traditionally involves collecting and consuming peyote (Lophophora williamsii), a cactus that possesses hallucinogenic effects due to its psychoactive alkaloids, such as mescaline.