As Colorado brings plant medicine above ground, Indigenous healers want more representation

Thousands of people attended the MAPS Psychedelic Science Conference in Denver this summer. It was a fitting location for the conference. Just months earlier, Coloradoans approved the legalization of plant medicines like psilocybin mushrooms and mescaline, paving the way for so-called healing centers where people will be able to legally obtain these substances in the coming years.

The massive conference attendance and growing promise of psychedelic therapy grabbed plenty of national headlines. But most of that media coverage missed an Indigenous-led protest that took place during the closing remarks by conference director Rick Doblin.

As protesters neared the stage that day, Doblin ultimately acquiesced and invited them to speak.

“Listen, there are a lot of people who have been harmed by this movement, and I understand you all want to hear what Rick has to say, but we have been marginalized and kept out,” protester Dr. Angela Beers, a Boulder-based Indigenous therapist who presented at the conference, said.

Boulder counselor Kuthoomi Castro, an Indigenous Mestizos Kichwa Two Spirits born and raised in Ecuador, was also part of the protest. Similar to Beers, Castro’s work as a counselor focuses on decolonization, “repairing intergenerational colonial harm that impacts everyone in different forms,” as they describe it.

Castro, who leads ceremonies with plant medicines, said the protest was unplanned but that the concerns of Indigenous peoples around a wider use of plant medicines have been simmering for a long time. They worry about the exploitation of these traditional Indigenous medicines and urge the rollout in Colorado to be one where Indigenous healers lead the way.

“Plant medicine is the medicine of Indigenous people. It’s kind of like when they took these lands, right? These lands still belong to Indigenous people, but they completely wiped us out,” Castro said.

In the NoCo caught up with Castro at their home in Boulder as a booming thunderstorm rolled in. They discussed the power of plant medicines, the practice of decolonizing the mind and body, and the need for greater Indigenous representation on Colorado's Natural Medicine Advisory Board — which formed to help implement the new law that legalizes these medicines.

This is an edited version of that conversation.