Silencing indigenous pasts: critical Indigenous theory and the history of psychedelics

Abstract

In this manuscript, I reflect on how Critical Indigenous theory offers white historians like myself powerful conceptual tools to combat the underlying, historically-rooted colonial assumptions prevalent in their work, specifically within the subfield of psychedelic history. Histories of compounds like lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), psilocybin, ayahuasca, and mescaline often center themselves on the experiences of white male researchers, clinicians, politicians, and countercultural leaders. These colonizing narratives exoticize, marginalize, and/or misinterpret Indigenous histories of these substances. While important work is being done to address this academic inequity, Critical Indigenous Theoretical perspectives and approaches could help historians reframe their characterizations of Indigenous communities’ relationships with psychedelics. I explore these ideas through a critical examination of my own previous writing and current projects. This section identifies how I intend to carry the lessons of Critical Indigenous Theories forward in my present and future scholarly work.

Keywords:

• Critical Indigenous theory
• history
• psychedelics
• theory and methodology
• North America

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 ‘Psychedelics’ as a broad category refers to a class of drugs which cause altered states of consciousness and, often, auditory and visual hallucinations. Some examples include DMT, MDMA (a.k.a. ‘Ecstasy’), and LSD.

2 Osmund introduced the word to Huxley in the following couplet included at the beginning of a letter written between March 30, 1956 and April 9–10, 1956: ‘To fathom Hell or go angelic / Just take a pinch of PSYCHEDELIC.’

3 Oram, however, argues against this interpretation of LSD’s legal history, instead positing that ‘the federal government never significantly restricted psychedelic research’ (4) but instead supported it well into the mid-1970s.

4 Ayahuasca refers to either a hallucinogenic drink prepared from the Amazon basin’s ayahuasca vine or the vine itself. Mescaline is a similarly hallucinogenic compound derived from the peyote cactus. This plant grows in the southern United States and Mexico. Psilocybin, like mescaline, is the chemical name for the psychedelic molecular compounds derived from various species of mushrooms.

5 For examples of histories highlighting women’s roles in psychedelic culture, see Davidson (2017); Palmer & Horowitz (2000); Cook (2014).

6 This idea is also explored in Jay (2019, pp. 9–10).

7 Wasson specifically draws comparisons between Mexican mushroom consumption and the classical Greek ‘Eleusinian Mysteries.’

8 Wasson, 1959–1962, pp. 143–145, 147–148. The ‘cult of the divine mushroom’ quote appears both on pages 143 and 144, whereas his methodological description on how to gain information on these mushrooms from Indigenous peoples occurs on pages 147–148.

9 For examples of historical scholarship exploring whether historical objectivity is possible or desirable, see Novick (1989) and White (1973).

10 Riggs (2004). Riggs notes that historians’ claims to objectivity ultimately serve three purposes: they ‘(a) manage opponents’ truth claims, (b) legitimate white ways of knowing, and thus (c) represent particular individual truth claims as more valid than others’ (p. 37).

11 Helen Raptis with Members of the Tsimshian Nation (2016); Labelle (2021).