Wixárika

Wixárika (Huichol, autonymously Wixárika niukieya) is a Uto-Aztecan language of the Corachol sub-branch, spoken by around 50,000 people in the Sierra Madre Occidental highlands of western Mexico (Jalisco, Nayarit, Durango, Zacatecas). The Wixárika are famous for their elaborately preserved indigenous religion centered on peyote pilgrimages to the sacred site of Wirikuta in San Luis Potosí — one of the most well-documented surviving non-Christian indigenous religious traditions of Mesoamerica. Linguistically, Wixárika is most closely related to Cora (crn) — its sister Corachol language — but quite distinct from the Nahuan languages (Nahuatl varieties nci, nch, nhe, etc.) and the Numic languages (Comanche, Shoshone, Paiute) that occupy the northern arms of Uto-Aztecan. The language is unusually vibrant for an indigenous language of Mexico, with intact transmission to children and active community use in markets, ceremonies, and pilgrimages.