Culture

"The Huichol Indians have maintained their cultural traditions at a level of integrity far above most pre Columbian societies still existent in Mexico. Living in the rugged and remote hightlands of Jalisco and Nayarit, they have not had to cope over time with the same kind of inroads on their belief systems and daily living as did the linguistically related Indian groups living in the less remote and rugged highlands and lowlands in the same general area."

"The Huichol are best known for their strikingly vivid, and colorful, yarn paintings and beadwork. However, few people know or understand the depth of this pre-Colombian culture. This book is just a brief overview of some answers to some of the questions I am asked of these interesting people." Peter Collings

Article written by anthropologist Jay Courtney Fikes in conversation with Wixárika mara’akame, Catarino Carrillo. "In 1996 I made my first visit to the Huichol community of Tuxpan de Bolaños. There I began developing rapport with an eighty year old shaman who we will call Catarino. Catarino has been kind enough to share many details about his life, including the explanation (below) of how he became a shaman."

After independence was achieved from Spain in 1810, the laws of the reform passed under Benito Juárez during the 1850’s, restrained the power of the Catholic Church, but they also stopped recognizing Indian colonial land rights. Soon the Huichol, Cora, Tepehuano and Mexicanero Indian groups of the Western Sierra Madre were further dispossessed of their territory by their mixed blood neighbors. They rebelled, eventually uniting under Manuel Lozada, who joined French invading forces until they were stopped at Guadalajara, Jalisco, in 1873.