= Rainbow_Family =

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= Rainbow_Family =
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Introduction
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The Rainbow Family of Living Light is a counter-culture, in existence
since approximately 1970. It is a loose affiliation of individuals,
some nomadic, generally asserting that it has no leader. They put on
yearly, primitive camping events on public land known as Rainbow
Gatherings.

Origins
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The Rainbow Family was created out of the Vortex I gathering at Milo
McIver State Park in Estacada, Oregon (30 miles south of Portland,
Oregon), from August 28 to September 3, 1970. Inspired in large part
by the first Woodstock Festival, two attendees at Vortex, Barry
"Plunker" Adams and Garrick Beck, are both considered among the
founders of the Rainbow Family. Adams emerged from the Haight-Ashbury
scene in San Francisco and is the author of 'Where Have All the Flower
Children Gone?' Beck is the son of Julian Beck, founder of The Living
Theatre, known for their production 'Paradise Now!'

The first official Rainbow Family Gathering was held at the Strawberry
Lake, Colorado, on the Continental Divide, in 1972. A week before the
festival was to begin, local authorities banned the event and state
police blocked the road to the lake. A film of the 1972 Gathering
states that Paul Geisendorfer, a local landowner, offered his land as
a temporary site as over 10,000 attendees gathered behind police
barriers. While there were hundreds of arrests, the huge number of
attendees caused authorities to stand down and let them pass through
the barriers.

Practices
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Regional Rainbow Gatherings are held throughout the year in the United
States, as are annual and regional gatherings in dozens of other
countries. These Gatherings are non-commercial, and all who wish to
attend peacefully are welcome to participate. There are no leaders,
and traditionally the Gatherings last for a week, with the primary
focus being on gathering on public land on the Fourth of July in the
U.S., when attendees pray, meditate, and/or observe silence in a group
effort to focus on world peace. Most gatherings elsewhere in the world
last a month from new moon to new moon, with the full moon being the
peak celebration. Rainbow Gatherings emphasize a spiritual focus
towards peace, love, and unity.

Those who attend Rainbow Gatherings usually share an interest in
intentional communities, ecology, spirituality, and entheogens.
Attendees refer to one another as "brother", "sister", or the gender
neutral term, "sibling". Attendance is open to all interested
parties, and decisions are reached through group meetings leading to
some form of group consensus. Adherents call the camp "Rainbowland"
and refer to the world outside of gatherings as "Babylon". The
exchange of money is frowned upon, and barter is stressed as an
alternative.

Goals
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The organization is a loose, international affiliation of individuals
who have a stated goal of trying to achieve peace and love on Earth.
Participants make the claim that they are the "largest
non-organization of non-members in the world." In addition to
referring to itself as a non-organization, the group's "non-members"
also even playfully call the group a "disorganization."

There are no official leaders or structure, no official spokespersons,
and no formalized membership. Strictly speaking, the only goals are
set by each individual, as no individual can claim to represent all
Rainbows in word or deed. Also contained within the philosophy are the
ideals of creating an intentional community, embodying spirituality
and conscious evolution, and practicing non-commercialism.

Gatherings
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The Rainbow Family is best known for its large annual American
Gatherings (i.e., U.S. "Nationals" or "Annuals") which are held on
U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management (or B.L.M.) land.
These U.S. Annual Gatherings usually attract between 8,000 and 20,000
participants.

In addition to these larger U.S. Annuals, individuals practice this
throughout the year in dozens of other countries. "World Gatherings"
are also held from time to time in various countries. Other activities
include regional Gatherings (or Regionals) and retreats. There are
also small, local activities such as local drum circles, potlucks,
music related events, and campouts.

The first European Rainbow gathering took place in 1983. In 1992,
American immigrants organized the first Rainbow gathering in Israel,
which was extended to six weeks.

Money is not used (or not encouraged), camps set up kitchens to share
food, and there is a circle on the Fourth of July to pray for peace.

Colorado law enforcement agencies and the U.S. Forest Service
indicated they expected a month-long gathering in 2022 for the 50th
anniversary of the first official Gathering.

Controversy
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An outbreak of shigellosis (bloody diarrhoea) occurred at the 1987
gathering in Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest in Graham County, North
Carolina, in the remote southwestern NC Great Smoky Mountains.
Hundreds of participants were sickened, overwhelming area hospitals
and EMS agencies. Graham County had no hospital. As Graham County's
small EMS and five ambulances were overwhelmed, dozens of ambulances
from as far away as Jackson County and the Eastern Band Cherokee
reserve were dispatched. The outbreak was attributed to poor hygiene.
The county sheriff requested outside law enforcement assistance. NC
Governor Jim Martin ordered deployment of 50 NC state troopers, 25
state game wardens, and additional SBI agents. Dozens of deputies and
police officers from surrounding jurisdictions, and over 75 US Forest
Service law enforcement officers and agents responded from as far away
as Alabama. State and federal criminal charges included hundreds of
traffic and alcohol citations, with impoundment of dozens of vehicles.
Hundreds of criminal charges included disorderly conduct, indecent
exposure, DWI, alcohol violations, revoked licenses, stolen tags,
stolen vehicles, drug charges, child neglect, weapons violations,
assault, interfering with peace officers and at least one kidnapping.
A prison department bus was called to handle the volume of arrestees.
County jails in all of the southwestern NC counties were filled on
July 4 weekend. Federal, state and local officers eventually charged a
remaining group that refused to leave with trespassing on federal
land, to bring the event to a close.

A parvovirus outbreak among the dogs at a 2006 Rainbow Gathering in
Big Red Park required 200 doses of vaccine and cost the Routt County
Humane Society $800. Although Rainbow Family spokespeople have stated
that the group removes its trash after gatherings, the Forest Service
has criticized their cleanup efforts as being only "cosmetic" and "not
rehabilitation by any stretch of the imagination."

In Montana in 2000, then-governor Marc Racicot declared a "state of
emergency" because of fears of the coming environmental destruction of
the Rainbows on the National Forest. A year later, Dennis Havig, the
District ranger from the nearby town of Wisdom, commented that "There
were 23,000 people here and you can find virtually no trash. There's
an aspect of diminished vegetation, but you'd have to look hard to see
the damage. The untrained eye isn't going to see it."

Summit County health officials also had a positive assessment of the
site, said Bob Swensen, environmental director for the agency: "My
opinion is, it looks as if no one had been there," Swensen concluded.
"I'd have to give them an 'A' for their cleanup."

At the California National Gathering in 2004, in Modoc County, after
public health officials reported speaking with their counterparts in
Utah, opted to take preventive measures apart from law enforcement,
which the Utah individuals found to be the source of many of the
problems encountered at their event. The Public Health Department
reported that the Forest Service officers were observed being
confrontational and antagonistic toward the Rainbows at the Gathering
site, which "did not facilitate a cooperative response from the
Rainbows," the report states. "The explanation that was given is that
this was an illegal gathering because no permit had been signed.
However, even after the permit had been signed, this attitude was
unchanged."

After the 2005 Rainbow Gathering in the National Forest near Richwood,
West Virginia, Mayor Bob Henry Baber stated: "I never saw one bit of
any activity that required any Forest Service legal intervention." He
calls the Incident Management Team "bizarre and unnecessary," and adds
that he was not put off by the Rainbows or their behavior.

In an effort at self-policing and conflict resolution, Rainbow
attendees have created a method they call "Shanti Sena," that involve
peaceful nonviolent community response to issues. It is used in
emergencies or serious conflict, as a call for help, and responders
with a variety of skills show up to help facilitate a solution to the
problem.

In 1980, two young women were shot to death in late June while
hitchhiking to the Rainbow Gathering at Monongahela National Forest in
West Virginia, and members were questioned about possible involvement.
There had been tension between local residents and the "hippies", and
police concluded local men led by Greenbrier County resident Jacob
Beard were responsible. Beard was convicted in 1999, but exonerated on
appeal in 2000 and received a $2 million settlement for wrongful
conviction. White supremacist Joseph Paul Franklin confessed to the
murders but later revealed he had just read about them. The killers
remain at large and filmmaker Julia Huffman is working on a
documentary, 'The Rainbow Murders', hoping to bring more facts to
light.

There were three non-fatal stabbings at a gathering in Colorado in
2014. The same year, a woman was found dead at a Rainbow Gathering in
Utah. In early 2015, there was a fatal shooting at a gathering in
Florida.

In 2015, a group of Native American academics and writers issued a
statement against the Rainbow Family members who are "appropriating
and practicing faux Native ceremonies and beliefs. These actions,
although Rainbows may not realize, dehumanize us as an indigenous
Nation because they imply our culture and humanity, like our land, is
anyone's for the taking." The signatories specifically named this
misappropriation as "cultural exploitation." On July 4 of the same
year, the Winnemem Wintu issued a cease and desist letter, on behalf
of itself and the Pit River and Modoc tribes, ordering the Rainbow
Family off of sacred and sensitive lands in Shasta-Trinity National
Forest.

Confusion over Hopi legend
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There has been a long-standing Rainbow rumor that the Gathering is
recognized by the elders of the Hopi people as the fulfillment of an
ancient Hopi prophecy (some versions substitute Hopi with the Ojibwe
people). Sometimes referred to as the Legend of the Rainbow Warriors,
it was debunked as fakelore by writer Michael Niman in the 1997 book
'People of the Rainbow: A Nomadic Utopia'. While researching the
legend, Niman interviewed Thomas Banyaca, a Hopi selected by elders in
the 1950s to interpret and pass on Hopi prophecies. According to
Niman, Banyaca was "puzzled about the supposed Hopi prophecy" and
said, "It's not right...We hope they will stop it".

Although Banyaca was unfamiliar with the Rainbow Family, he was aware
of the Rainbow Warrior myth and said it was invented by two
non-Native, Evangelical Christians, William Willoya and Vinson Brown.
Willoya and Brown had briefly met with Banyaca before publishing
'Warriors of the Rainbow' in 1962, a Christian tract in which they
fabricated the Rainbow Warrior concept, claiming it was an ancient
Native American legend and a prophecy about the Second Coming of
Christ. According to Niman, the rainbow in Willoya and Brown's version
was a reference to the rainbow in the Book of Genesis. Niman said
Rainbows who likely don't recognize the Biblical overtones continue to
cite 'Warriors of the Rainbow' and mischaracterize it as containing a
message that aligns with the Rainbow ideology, often inventing
entirely new versions of the myth that they still attribute to Willoya
and Brown's 1962 tract. He said, "I think that Rainbows need to shed
that because there's so much associated with the Rainbow Gathering
that is real, that is legitimate. You don't need to say that it's an
Indian prophecy. And Rainbows are picking up on this and are sensitive
to it and I don't really see much fakelore compared to a few years
back, which is impressive. This is an ongoing, evolving culture and it
can adapt and clean itself up".

See also
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* Eco-communalism

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Original Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_Family