OF ^ 1 f D I C O P I ^^ n t "^'l» IE O / i ^ OF ,, *»e 9 ll A NOMADIC UTOPIA Nichael I. Niman The University of Tennessee Press / Knoxville Copyright© 1997 by The University of Tennessee Press / Knoxville. All Rights Reserved. Manufactured in tlie United States of America. Cloth: I St printing, 1 997. Paper I st printing, 1 997; 2nd pnnting, 1 999; 3rd pnnting, 2003. Frontispiece: Rainbow Gathering, Colorado, 1 992. Photo by Gabe Kirchheimer. This book was printed on recycled, acid-free paper Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Niman, Michael I. People of : I. the rainbow a nomadic Utopia / Michael Niman. — I st ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-87049-988-2 (cl.: alk. paper). — ISBN 0-87049-989-0 (pbk.: alk. paper) I . Rainbow Family of Living Light. 2. Utopias—History—20th century. 3. Nonviolence History — —20th century. 4. Social history— 1970- I. Title. HX806.N555 1997 32l'.07—dc2l 97-4626 To the memory of Evelyn Himan Contents Preface xi Acknowledgments xiii I • Sunflower's Day: July 3 I 1* Roots, Rock, Rainbow 31 3* "The Way We Make Decisions Is More Important Than the Decisions We Make": The Rainbow Family Council 38 #• The Nuts and Bolts of Making a Rainbow: Rainbow Infrastructure 60 5» People of the Rainbow 99 6* Violence and Peace I 14 F» Fakelore 131 8* The Mediated Rainbow: The American Media Look at the Rainbow Family 148 •• Leave Only Smiles: Land Stewardship and Community Relations 170 O* The Rainbow and the U.S. Government 184 Conclusion: Endless Summer 202 Appendixes 217 Notes 229 Glossat7 239 References 249 Index 267 Illustrations Following Page 98 Rainbows Form a Bucket Brigade to Fight a Forest Fire Adjacent to the 1994 Gathering Site in Wyoming Taco Mike's Oven, 1 986 Gathering, Pennsylvania Baking Bread at the 1 989 Northeast Regional Gathering, Vermont A 3 A.M. Chess Game at "Everybody's Kitchen," 1994 Gathering, Wyoming One of Many Drum Circles at the 1992 Gathering, Colorado Serving Lunch at Kids' Village, 1990 Gathering, Minnesota Cable Car Ride at Moondancer's Meadow, 1986 Gathering, Pennsylvania New York City Rainbow Family Winter Picnic, Coney Island, 199! Wedding Ceremony, 1992 Gathering, Colorado Center for Alternative Living Medicine Apothecary, 1994 Gathering, Wyoming Welcome Center/Rumor Control, 1992 Gathering, Colorado Preparing Lunch, 1995 Gathering, New Mexico Dave (from "Sunflower's Day") Preparing Breakfast at Buffalo Camp, 1990 Gathering, Minnesota People Milling About, 1990 Gathering, Minnesota Carrying a Piano into the 1987 Gathering, North Carolina Rainbows Form a Human Conveyor Belt to Bring Hundreds of Watermelons into the 1991 Gathering, Vermont Barter Lane, 1 99 1 Gathering, Vermont Dish-washing Station, 1991 Gathering, Vermont Mudpeople on the Move, 1990 Northeast Regional Gathering, New York Chili atTaco Mike's Kitchen, 1990 Gathering, Minnesota Bicycle Bus, Bus Village, 1990 Gathering, Minnesota Learning to Drum, 1990 Gathering, Minnesota United States National Forest Service File Photo, 1978 Gathering, Washington State Preface The Rainbow Family of Living Light, also known as the Rainbow Nation and the Rainbow Family, is committed to principles of nonviolence and nonhierarchical egalitarianism. They have been holding large noncommercial Gath- erings in remote forests since 1972 to pray for world peace and to demonstrate the viability of a cooperative Utopian community living in harmony with the Earth. They govern themselves by a Council whose membership is open to all interested people. All decisions are by consensus. Money is not needed, as all necessities are free at Gatherings. Everyone is welcome. This book describes different aspects of Rainbow Family life such as how the Rainbow Family Council functions; how the physical infrastructure of the Gatherings work; how members attempt to confront problems nonviolently; who the Rainbow people are; what motivates them to work in a society with- out money; how they relate to other communities; and how they care for the land on which they gather. It also looks at internal contradictions within the Family and places them within a historical context of North American Uto- pian experiments. It examines how the mainstream world, "Babylon" to the Rainbows, relates to the Family; how the media see and report the Gatherings and how the U.S. gov- ernment treats them. It also examines the Family's relationship with Native Ameri- cans, from whom they've appropriated much of their culture and spiritual beliefs. The research methodology involves participant observation, open-ended inter- views, content analysis of media reports, and scrutiny of government documents. ILii • Preface The end result is a comprehensive ethnography. Rainbow voices, in the form of interviews and writing excerpts, are present throughout the text. As an author, I am sympathetic to the Rainbow Family, their goals, and the vi- sion they represent. I am also inspired by their ability to not only survive, but to grow and bring their vision to an ever-widening circle. The Rainbows are torch- bearers for an ideology of hope, one that is all too rare in this age of xenophobia, nationalism, and ethnic strife. I'd like to see the Family persevere; that is my bias. As a scholar, however, it is also my duty to report not only on the successes of the Family, but to examine their faults, shortcomings, and failures as well. The first chapter, Sunflower's Day, is a piece of ethnographic fiction designed to provide a slice of Rainbow life. It follows Sunflower, an amalgam character, as he navigates through a day at an annual North American Rainbow Gathering. His experiences are real, based both on my field notes and on stories Rainbows have shared with me. The topography of Sunflower's Gathering is also real; it's a com- bination of the 1990 National Gathering, which took place in Minnesota, spiced with traces of the 1 986 National, which took place in Pennsylvania. The goal of Sunflower's Day is to provide an initial description of life at a Rainbow Gathering and, through narration, to bring life to its sights, sounds, and smells. Acknowledgments I would like to offer a special note of appreciation to Laura J. McClusky for the unwavering support and inspiration, both intellectually and emotionally, which she provided during the six-year gestation of this book and which she con- tinues to provide today. I would also like to thank Dr. Robert Knox Dentan for the guidance, support, and editorial suggestions that he provided since the incep- tion of this project. A very special thanks goes to my parents. Hank and Evelyn Niman, for teach- ing me to respect and appreciate the earth's diverse cultures, for believing in me and giving me emotional support during my many funky projects, and for volun- teering for the laborious task of transcribing interviews for this book. Though my mother tragically and unexpectedly died as this book went to press, she lives on both in its pages, and in the memories and deeds of the many people whose lives she touched. My appreciation goes out to the many Rainbows without whose assistance and cooperation this project would never have gotten off the ground. Foremost among them is Joseph P. C. Wetmore, who spent coundess hours reading drafts and shar- ing his comments and opinions. Also Garrick Beck, who for years has been a Rain- bow ambassador without assuming a leadership role; Dianne, and the Ithaca crew; llah Davis and the New York squatters crew; NERF; Collector, TC, Felipe and Taco Mike, for showing me how many hours a day a person can work; the D.C. Legaliaison crew; White Raven; Grey Bear; Kaloma Becker; the CALM crew and all those folks who provided interviews, questions, answers, tea, coffee, and food. XIV • Acknowledgments I owe a special thanks to the people who made up Buffalo Camp at the 1990 and 1 99 1 Gatherings, especially the tireless cook, Dave Hetherly, Jose Rodriguez, and Field Home. A note of appreciation goes to Donna Smith and Michael Schwartz of Discount Natural Foods in Dewitt, New York, who filled my truck with food, supplied the Buffalo Camp kitchen, and fed me for the year I wrote this book. Thanks also to New York City journalist and author Bill Weinberg and to Lisa Rentschler Lavelle, formerly of the Alternative News Collective, for ideas, feed- back, and inspiration. Thanks also to Gabe Kirchheimer and Joe Levy for allowing the use of their photographs in this book. I would also like to offer my appreciation to Vicki and Shawn Perich, Holly Nelson and the friendly open-minded people of Cook County Minnesota, who made me feel welcome in their communities. I would like to thank Dr. Elwin Powell, who has encouraged me in my work for twenty years, as well as Dr. Charles Keil, Dr. Lawrence Chisolm, Dr. Michael Frisch, and Dr. John Mohawk, who helped guide me through my doctoral studies. Chapter 8, as well as some of the facts enhancing other sections of this book, would not have been possible had it not been for the authors and supporters of the Free- dom of Information Act, an invaluable resource for scholars and journalists. A special thanks also goes out to supermarket managers across the country who don't lock their dumpsters! At around 1 A.M. Sunflower looks out of his tent and examines the cold morning mist. He's on Rainbow time. He doesn't really know it's ten. He just knows it's still morning and it feels like time to get up. He knew it wasn't time to wake up a few hours ago when the mechanical thun- der of a police chopper ripped through the forest air.