The Wixárika (Huichol pronunciation: [wiˈraɾika]) or Huichol (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈwit͡ʃo̞l]) are an Indigenous people of Mexico living in the Sierra Madre Occidental range in the states of Nayarit, Jalisco, Zacatecas, and Durango, with considerable communities in the United States, in the states of California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. They are best known to the larger world as the Huichol, although they refer to themselves as Wixáritari ("the people") in their Huichol language. The adjectival form of Wixáritari and name for their own language is Wixárika.

The Wixárika speak a language of the Wixarikan group that is closely related to the Nahuatl group. Furthermore, they have received Mesoamerican influences, which is reflected by the fact that Wixarika has features typical to the Mesoamerican language area.

Their spirituality traditionally involves collecting and consuming peyote (Lophophora williamsii), a cactus that possesses hallucinogenic effects due to its psychoactive alkaloids, such as mescaline.

The Wixárika say that, for the most part, they originated in the state of San Luis Potosí, as well as in other parts of Mexico and the United States^{[citation needed]}. Once yearly, some Wixárika journey back to San Luís, their ancestral homeland, to perform Mitote Peyote (Hikuri, in Wixarika) ceremonies.

The three main Wixárika communities belong to the municipality of Mezquitic, Jalisco and are called San Sebastián Teponohuastlan (Wautüa in Huichol), Santa María Cuexcomatitlán (Tuapuri in Huichol) and San Andrés Cohamiata (Tatei Kié in Huichol). Other Wixarika communities include Guadalupe Ocotán (in Nayarit), and Santa Catarina and Tuxpán de Bolaños (Kuruxi Manúwe in Huichol) in Jalisco. Some 13,000 live in other places within Mexico and the United States (California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas). Still others live in La Sierra de La Yesca.

The Wixárika arrived in the Bolaños Canyon region after the arrival of the Tepehuanes. There are numerous theories among anthropologists and historians about the timing of the arrival of this ethnic group in the region, but according to Wixárika oral history, when they arrived in the region they currently consider home, the region was already inhabited by another ethnic group. Tepecano oral history also confirms that villages currently inhabited by Wixárika, such as Santa Catarina, were Tepecano villages in the past. In addition, there exists no story of conquest or domination of the Wixárika by the Tepecanos regarding the origin of Wixárika. All that is known currently is that they come from the region of San Luis Potosí and that before their migration to the Bolaños Canyon region, they considered themselves part of the Guachichil ethnic group. Central to the traditional religion of the Wixárika is the gathering of hikuri (a hallucinogenic cactus) in the place that they call Wirikuta, located in the region of Real de Catorce in the state of San Luis Potosí. Hikuri does not grow in the region of Wixárika, but it is abundant in San Luis Potosí territory, which was at the center of the dominion of the Guachichiles before the arrival of the Spaniards. The Guachichiles were known to be bellicose and fiercely defensive of their territory. It is unlikely that the Guachichiles would have let the Wixárika pass peacefully through their territory to gather peyote unless they recognized them as part of their own ethnic group. This is confirmed by oral history of Wixárika, as well as the similarity between the language of Wixárika and the extinct language of the Guachichiles compared to their present neighbors, the Cora.

Historical documents indicate that during the 16th century, the Wixárika had already arrived in the region that is today northern Jalisco. The writings of Alonso Ponce, which date from the year 1587, indicate that the province of Tepeque was inhabited by an ethnic group who used to unite with the Guachichiles to carry out attacks and incursions on Spanish settlements and caravans. The Spaniards who explored the region that later became Jerez wrote that there were groups of Guachichiles in the region that had pushed out the Zacatecas that had previously resided there. Through this historical evidence one can postulate that the Wixárika arrived in the Bolaños Canyon region around the same time as the Spaniards. The arrival of the Spaniards in territories of the Guachichiles in Zacatecas and San Luis Potosí had certainly brought epidemics to the Indigenous communities whose members had no resistance to the diseases of Europe. In addition, those Natives who survived the epidemics suffered due to the concentrations and encomiendas carried out by the Spaniards in order to work the recently discovered mines of the region. These experiences are also documented in the oral history of Wixáritari.

The Wixárika arrived in the Bolaños Canyon region looking for refuge and settled among the established Tepecano settlements there. Some likely intermarried with the Tepecano and shared cultural practices, such as using chimales, or woods of oration, and the use of peyote as a sacrament. The two nations jointly defended themselves against Spanish incursions and rebelled against the Spanish colonial government. There is historical evidence of a rebellion mounted jointly by the Wixárika and Tepecano in El Teúl in 1592 and another one in Nostic in 1702.