Indigenous Peoples' Spiritual Rights to Medicinal Plants [Article]

Abstract

In the face of climate change, extractivism, discrimination against Indigenous peoples, and cultural appropriation, Indigenous knowledge and cultural heritage are under threat. This Note explores the status of Indigenous Peoples; rights to use their ceremonial plants by looking at the legal inequities that prevent Indigenous peoples from exercising their cultural practices and traditional ceremonies. Indigenous communities reside on territories where 80% of the world’s biodiversity is found. Indigenous peoples’ cultural and spiritual practices, traditional knowledge, and livelihoods depend on healthy biodiverse systems. This is one of many reasons why Indigenous land defenders risk their lives protecting their territories. Several factors pose challenges for Indigenous peoples seeking to protect and preserve their cultural practices, including their ceremonial plants like peyote, psilocybin, and ayahuasca. Indigenous knowledge keepers must be at the forefront of discussions involving their cultural practices and medicinal plants. Currently, United States domestic law is failing to protect Indigenous peoples’ spiritual and cultural practices even though it has stated it supports the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, recognizing Indigenous Peoples’ rights to cultural heritage and traditional knowledge. This article argues that the U.S. should implement international principles that recognize Indigenous peoples’ rights to ancestral cultural practices under the western notion of religious rights.