The
Native American Church (
NAC), also known as
Peyotism and
Peyote Religion, is a
Native American religion characterized by mixed traditional as well as
Protestant beliefs and by sacramental use of the
entheogen peyote. The religion originated in the
U.S. state of
Oklahoma in the late nineteenth century after peyote was introduced to the southern Great Plains from Mexico. Today it is the most widespread indigenous religion among Native Americans in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, with an estimated 250,000 adherents as of the late twentieth century.