Abstract
The plant Peyote (Lophophora williamsii) is used as a revered medicinal sacrament in the practice of the Native American Church, a pan-Indian religion recognized under the American Indian Religious Freedom Act Amendments of 1994. This dissertation discusses new, local, and outside threats to a species already recognized as vulnerable throughout its range. Due to these emerging threats and the deep complexity at varying scales there is an urgent need for population and landscape level conservation that is inclusive of a multitude of stakeholders such as, members of the Native American Church who are enrolled with a federally recognized Tribe and Texas landowners. Geographic information systems were employed to evaluate and delineate the exterior range of Peyote and to evaluate changes that are occurring at the landscape level. Through spatial analysis, substantial habitat loss is occurring through the conversion of Tamaulipan brushlands into pasture, development of wind energy, and other disturbances. Using geographic information systems, preferred vegetation and soil types of Peyote were also used to delineate potential habitat within the exterior range. Combined the exterior range and potential habitat maps can be powerful tools to inform landscape level conservation and restoration. The use of the Native American perspective known as “Two-Eyed Seeing”, knowledge systems inclusive of both Indigenous ways of knowing and western ways of knowing, deploys a unique research opportunity shared from an emic perspective, as both participant and observer. Storytelling is used as a tool for the dissemination of knowledge, practices, life stories, and human and non-human relationships to share the complex and profound issues that surround the endangerment of Peyote and a path forward with conservation strategies.