Spokane7
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September 5, 2010 in City
For Rainbow Family, forest gathering is foretaste of 2011 festival
During cool nights in the Colville National Forest, many Rainbow Family followers sleep around campfires. About 300 Rainbows are attending this regional gathering, but a national gathering next year could attract thousands to a Washington state forest.
(Full-size photo)(All photos)
COLVILLE NATIONAL FOREST – A U.S. Forest Service ranger sat cross-legged on the dusty ground, holding a wildflower as a symbol of his right to speak to the circle of hippies gathered around him in the woods.
Newport District Ranger John Buehler’s mission – to get a signature on a special-use permit for a group of 75 or more campers – would be a simple task were it not that these campers were Rainbow Family.
“We are a holy nation and a royal priesthood,” said a longtime participant in the non-hierarchical group. She explained that no one may presume to speak for the Family as a whole, much less sign a permit.
As many as 300 Rainbow Family, other wanderers and their dogs arrived in late August in an area of the Colville forest called Bartlett Meadows in Pend Oreille County. Most will be gone by the end of this week, leaving a small group behind to clean up.
The regional gathering is the vanguard of the thousands of people who are expected to inundate a Washington forest next summer.
According to welcomehere.org, an unofficial website of the Rainbow Family of Living Light, one of the state’s six national forests will be chosen as the site of the 2011 Annual Rainbow Gathering July 1-7.
The specific location will not be decided until mid-June, according to the website, but veterans of several annuals, who were gathered at the regional, said Rainbow “focalizers” were out scouting nearby sites in the Colville National Forest for the big one to come.
Rainbows in the woods
The Rainbow Family has been meeting in U.S. national forests since 1972. Its annual gathering, which attracts from 10,000 to 30,000 people, occurred once before in Washington – in the Colville National Forest in 1981.
This year’s annual gathering in the Allegheny National Forest of Pennsylvania attracted about 12,000 people.
“The regional does not determine the annual site; it provides the opportunity to familiarize us with the area,” said a young man who calls himself Useless, but proved himself to be anything but.
Remarkably, Buehler finally obtained a signature on a permit for the regional gathering last week. The egalitarian Rainbow Family, which has neither leaders nor formal membership, rarely signs, and several federal court battles have been waged over the issue.
The Forest Service said the permit was signed by Henry Valder, a Spokane civic gadfly who was present at the Rainbow council attended by Buehler. It could not be determined what, if any, connection Valder has with the Rainbow Family. Buehler’s signature also was on the permit, according to Forest Service spokesman Glen Sachet in Portland.
Barb Severson, the Forest Service’s special agent in charge for the Pacific Northwest region, said the authority of the agency to require permits for large groups has been upheld in federal court.
In the event the national gathering is in Washington state next year, Severson said, her office will coordinate with local organizations, including law enforcement and health care agencies, to prepare for it. The Rainbow Family typically gives short notice of their impending arrival at a site – if there is any notice at all.
The Forest Service assembles incident command teams to manage large gatherings, including Rainbow events, at a cost of $700,000 per year, not including law enforcement costs, according to the service’s website.
Rainbow cleanup teams remain behind after gatherings to minimize environmental impact. Sachet said the effectiveness of these efforts has been “varied.”
Making it happen
Useless, 37, is someone a Rainbow would call “a manifester,” a person who makes things happen for the good of the gathering. Food, water, firewood and fuel are all made manifest by people like Useless.
A veteran of numerous annual gatherings who travels “where the weather suits my clothes,” he came to the Colville to set up the Montana Mud kitchen, one of six large communal campsites responsible for feeding the “brothers and sisters” attending the regional event.
Rainbow gatherings are cashless societies where necessities such as food and water are free, and luxuries like flashlights, tools and smoking pipes are bartered.
“Food shouldn’t cost money,” Useless said.
With “hippie engineering,” he and his fellow Montana Mud cohorts built an oven out of a 55-gallon barrel, stone and mud under a 20-by-40-foot tarp that also covers a makeshift stage where a sonata for saxophone and djembe could be heard late into the night.
They arrived with two sacks of groceries and have been feeding “the multitudes” ever since with donations from local folks and by passing “the magic hat” among the Family.
The kitchen also is staffed by a registered nurse named Dragonfly who said she is from Denver. The crew maintains a trench latrine, which they cover with dirt and fire-pit ash.
Dragonfly advised new arrivals about an outbreak of head lice, which was believed to have been brought in by people who attended the annual gathering in Pennsylvania. An inspection and delousing station appeared to quash the infestation.
Down a dusty road from Montana Mud is the CALM Camp, or the Center for Alternative Living Medicine, which is typically staffed by naturopaths, holistic healers, herbalists and an EMT named John from Bonners Ferry, Idaho.
A new generation
It was at CALM, in the diffused light of a diaphanous canopy, that Gaia, a veteran of 15 annual gatherings, told the parable of the Rainbow Gathering at the mountain.
The Family climbed the circular path up the mountain, she said, but along the way believers grew tired and strayed off the path to perfect harmony. Only a few made it to the top meadow where they prayed for peace.
Those who strayed off the path presumably now reside in A Camp, where alcohol is permitted near the front gate of the Rainbow Gathering.
“They attract negative attention to the Rainbows,” Gaia said, “but at least this negative energy is kept out of the inner meadow.”
To pass into the center of a gathering is to enter an alternate universe where marijuana is taken openly and alcohol use is frowned upon.
“Now,” says Gaia, who is old enough to remember the Beat Generation, “a new generation is bringing its own morality to the gatherings, and though the ways of the young might not be in harmony with the old ways, this is the natural evolution.”
Kids will be kids, even among Rainbows.
Many of the participants at the regional gathering appeared to be in their teens or 20s, dreadlocked street kids from urban areas, typically traveling in pairs with bedrolls and dogs.
A shirtless young man from the East Coast currently residing at a Rainbow kitchen called Fat Kids asked why the media “is all interested in us when we are out here, but when we’re in town, we’re treated (badly).”
Another young man named Pat, who travels with a resonator guitar and a German shepherd named Sunhouse, said he has been on the road for eight years.
He worked at a coffee shop and a café in Los Angeles until the beater Chevy his dad gave him got impounded for a parking violation. He said he got fired from one meaningless job and quit the other, then hopped a freight train out of town.
Now he’s 27 and “trying to find a niche.”
Rainbows are not his niche, Pat said, but they are close. He is skeptical of the Rainbow traditions, but he still has respect and reverence for the land and what it means to be here.
“It’s not a rave,” he said of the gathering. “It’s about learning how to be self-reliant. There’s more to it than a festival.”
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SK on September 05 at 12:22 a.m.
Take a drive up there and visit the gathering. Not to be a total downer, but it’s disgusting the sofas, garbage, and debris they leave scattered around. They are not respecting the National Forest. I’d be impressed if there was no trace of their gathering…instead they’ve congregated in a lovely area and they’ve impacted it in not so positive a way.
I feel the photographer and reporter have attempted to be respectful, and have portrayed this gathering in a mostly flattering light. I hope that this group is as respectful of the forest, and leaves it the way they found it.
lewis8457 on September 05 at 7:42 a.m.
Exactly take the Usk road from newport highway as you come down the hill past Davis lake the property to the left right before the county road station take a gander that is where the meeting was a couple years ago what a mess.
there just hippies that want to buck society, to each his own.
graman on September 05 at 8:32 a.m.
In all fairness, the mess described by SK was left by a barter fair, not the Rainbow Family, and it’s on private property, according to the Forest Service.
JetBlack on September 05 at 8:45 a.m.
It’s not that everyone with dreadlocks are filthy and disgustingly unwashed… it’s just that all people who are filthy and disgustingly unwashed have dreadlocks. I’d prefer the person who makes and prepares my food to be somewhat cleaner. Yes, you can live in the stone age. I just can’t think why I’d want to do that.
kimmiethekid on September 05 at 9:49 a.m.
Having come full circle in life and reflecting back to the 60’s I vote for a simper life. Rainbow people have decided that life is more about appreciating what God gave them to enjoy and that is each other, the beauty around them and to live with very little. Our generation is so full of anger and so materealistic living in a Walmart world that no one will be able to survive when we have a crisis in America and it is coming. Pioneer people started with a piece of land and made something out of nothing, They grew their own food, made their clothes, build a home with their own hands and had a family bond of which Americans have lost. Growing up in L.A. I came to the Northwest to get back to nature. I had the fancy houses and cars and found it to be a headache. I lived in an army tent for 2 years on Ruby Ridge in Bonners Ferry, Idaho and found out what it was like to survive.I challange you to try it and then you will earn the right to be judgemental towards people that have chosen a different path like these gentle souls. People are loosing their homes everyday and where are they living? A lot of them are living in a glorified school buses called a campers and learning to survive. I’ve worked my whole life and due to government cutacks I ‘ve lost my ParkRanger position and still am without work. Thank God the home sold just before the real estate failure or there would have a been a foreclosure sign out front. I may be joining the Rainbow people and probably find it more enjoyable than this crazy roller coaster ride in America. Hard times are coming and where will you be when it all comes crumbling down?
Rainbow people, lets make sure we leave the land better than when we arrived to show good stewardship of our surroundings.
soccermomsusie on September 05 at 10:28 a.m.
This is the kind of world Barry O’Kenyan OBamatron is hoping we will all live in some day. A bunch of us sitting around on old couches, eating oil drum pizzas, smoking OBamacare OBamarijuana, watching Jon Stewart and dissing Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck, picking through each others dreadlocks and braided body hair for vermin.
No thanks “Man.”
I think we ought to bring some tea to their party, some Bibles and clippers. I bet once they heard what today’s prophets have to say - Sarah and Glenn, they would line up for haircuts and showers.
We could ship the old hair off to communist countries to show them we mean business.
HEAR OUR VOICE!!!
Gato on September 05 at 10:42 a.m.
Yup, we’ll all listen to Glenn and form a line. First we’ll get fleeced, then we’ll get hosed.
As for “Obamacare”? Most of those ideas were floated 15 years ago. By Bob Dole.
Scoutster on September 05 at 11:36 a.m.
How’s that log in your eye doin’?
eagleproducer on September 05 at 11:40 a.m.
Gato: The entire health care reform bill is almost exactly like the counter-proposal offered by the GOP when Clinton tried to address the problem.
I attended the Rainbow national gathering in 1981. After looking at the photographs that were published in this paper yesterday of this gathering of Rainbows, it appears they have trended towards a younger demographic. Or maybe they are mostly comprised of the children I saw running around naked and filthy back then?
My parents were livid, of course. They knew I was young, impressionable, and couldn’t figure out for the life of them why I’d want to explore the lifestyle of the Rainbows. The gathering was all very Romantic and egalitarian but left me feeling there was a lot of potential that was being wasted. As I’ve grown older, I ask myself: “Wasted on what?”
Marksman on September 05 at 11:41 a.m.
“Listen, you can hear the Flower children!” -Eric Cartman
Go look at the “Celebration of Earth” site after the Rainbow/LIFERS leave. Marvel at the trashed out area left behind after the Earth worshippers pack up and drive away in their micro busses!
spokanecougar on September 05 at 12:08 p.m.
Love how people are trashing these rainbow people for thinking they are destroying the earth and leaving a huge mess wherever they go. These are ignorant people who obviously know nothing about the culture or that lifestyle. You might not like it, but that give you no reason to trash there the way they choose to live. Remember you people do more damage to the earth and the environment in one day with driving your car running anything electrical in your house.
Also, soccermomsusie, you are a pathetic and disgusting person who needs to stop trying to think everyone that you doesn’t agree with your views in your sad, hate filled racist life is the government or Obama trying to take your rights away. Nobody wants to hear your voice because you are a crazy, racist drunk who hates anyone who is not a white, religious conservative who follows Glenn Beck like you.
colinm on September 05 at 12:27 p.m.
The one thing I found interesting at this gathering was the lack of trash. Everyone carried a metal cup and bowl. There was very little paper trash anywhere to be found. Contrast that with the average weekend camper like myself who fills a trash bag full of garbage.
As a non-hippie photojournalist, I felt I was treated warmly by everyone I encountered. What makes our country great is that we are free to believe what we want and live the lifestyle we choose.
empyrius on September 05 at 12:55 p.m.
Obama does not have the guts to decriminalize marijuana sms; nor would your “prophets” Beck or Palin.
Beck and Palin are your “prophets” eh? Wow; that is really, really, scary. You better think again when you start revering other humans as “prophets”; especially other humans with great political power . . .
I would think true teapartiers would celebrate the Rainbow Family instead of setting them up as yet more enemies; and I am sure they have as many Bibles as you do.
And to what “communist” countries would you send that old hair to; Sweden, Canada, Great Britain?!?
Har har har har
gypsytraveling on September 05 at 1:20 p.m.
The rainbow family of living light cares not only for the mother earth and all living beings but for every member of the human race… their motto; if you have a bellybutton, you belong. They do not judge. That alone, when placed next to the above comments, says VOLUMES!
force_vector on September 05 at 2:15 p.m.
Someone should let Peter Jackson know about this for casting of the Hobbit movie.
Shadedmuse on September 05 at 4:56 p.m.
Soccer susie their you go again, you really need to tell your nurse to up your medication.
Albert on September 05 at 6:55 p.m.
Perhaps Chief Anne could finally find a home with the Rainbow folks? Just think…no more resumes, interviews, and hopes of getting out of the trough of SlowCan. She could be known as “Chief”, but of course this might not work. Perhaps you folks could think of some alternatives for the newly arrived “Rainbow Chief”??
Ozzie could also join Anne and he could be known as “No Opinion”, or “Let’s Wait”?
Finally the City Council and Mayor could join up and we all could shout for joy! If fact, we could see them all change their names to “Useless 1, Useless 2,” etc, which of course would be very appropriate - and accurate.
Scottcycle on September 06 at 10:19 a.m.
By far the best passage I’ve read in the last few days is this one:
“Useless, 37, is someone a Rainbow would call “a manifester,” a person who makes things happen for the good of the gathering. Food, water, firewood and fuel are all made manifest by people like Useless.”
I gotta hire that guy! :D
brentandrews on September 07 at 8:53 p.m.
Very interesting story. Power to the (Rainbow) People!
sarahm74 on September 10 at 2:23 p.m.
July 9, 1994 in Eugene, Oregon my fiance and father to my unborn son (I was 7 months pregnant at the time) was assaulted and subsequently died less than 24 hours later because of one of these rainbow people.
If anyone thinks that this group of people is peaceful, and harmless is just as insane as the people that the group is harboring.
The fugative responsible for the death of my son’s father is knows as “bear”, and had a fetish for his chocolate lab. While my fiancee, James Robert Day, Jr. (aka. “Rob”) attempted to befriend this person and help him, he assaulted Rob and then pulled a knife on the respondants. Instead of the other rainbow people cooperating and assisting law enforcement in this matter, they assisted the jerk in getting away. This is an unsolved mystery, the individual is still at large, and my 15 year old son will never get to meet is wonderful father, who was only 23 years when his life was taken.
There is nothing good about this group! Nothing!!
If you, or anyone you may know has information regarding Todd Blair Kountz (aka “Bear”), please contact Detective Dennis Ross of the Lane County Sheriff’s Office in Eugene, Oregon and reference the unsolved mystery murder of James Robert Day Jr. (aka “Rob”) at the Eugene Country Fair July 9, 1994.
And please, of God’s sake, do not support these disgusting, mislead, crazy people who harbor fugatives responsible for murder and ruining people’s lives!!!
arroyoribera on September 12 at 11:26 a.m.
Of course, I am very sorry for the loss sarahm74 and her son experienced with the murder she described which occurred 16 years ago at the Eugene Country Fair. I am interested in the crime she describes and would ask her for more information as I have found nothing by searching on line. However, the people in the Colville National Forest did not kill him. I am sorry for your pain.
Like Spoketucky, I also went up to the Rainbow Gathering north of here 29 years ago. Just counter-culture humans communing in nature under the freedom of nature’s sun. We are all children of the sun or of god or of God, however one wants to view it.
I would encourage those who are biased against those who live and travel and survive differently to think of the refugees, the homeless, the traveler, the wayfarer, the orphan, the outcast that no doubt their holy books describe and the way in which their Gods would have them treat these “others”. I say that because I assume — presumptuous I know but most likely true — that those who are the most critical are some brand of so-called “follower of Christ”.
I would also suggest that these same folks go back and read the comments above by Keven Graman, the author of the article, and Colin Mulvany, the photographer. Both make it clear that some of the fundamental accusations and biases expressed in comments here against this group of people in 2010 are inaccuate.
Two Saturday’s ago, my son — who is on his way to Evergreen State College to continue to learn to view the world and life in an alternative way — and I just outside of Chewelah picked up two hitchhikers, a young man and young woman, who had just left the Rainbow Gathering. He is an artist and student in Bend, Oregon. She is an explorer. These are just human beings on the great and varied path of life. Just like you and me.
For some of the writers here, I suggest you go for a walk. In a place and with people you are unfamiliar with. With your heart and mind open.
“Caminante, no hay camino. Se hace camino al andar.”
“Wayfarer, there is no way. You make the way by walking it.”
— Antonio Machado
David Brookbank
rainbowman2 on September 13 at 4:51 p.m.
Rainbow Gatherings doesn’t discriminate. I attended my first gathering in NM last year. One may never find that many over educated people in one place than maybe a college graduation. I met retired military, of which I am one, retire teachers, medical professionals etc. The cooperation of the Forest Service and law enforcement was commendable. Clip a cup on your belt and every camp will serve you food, for free, and it is healthier than any fast food restaurant in America.
We stayed in Kiddie Village and one never heard kids complaining “they have nothing to do.” There are activities and music and drumming 24/7. The burning of firewood to keep the pots cooking helps reduce the fuel that feeds forest fires, and this service the group does for free without charge to the government, not to mention how they naturally widen fire breaks from foot traffic.
To those who bad mouth these fellow family members, look next door…they live right next to you…only you may be the one who doesn’t know their name because you are too busy calling code enforcement to complain about their grass or wood smoke from their chimneys rather than grab your lawn mower and be a neighbor.
The Rainbow Family is about family and showing an appreciation for the earth. One is not judged about who you are or what you are. When was the last time you were ever greeted with “Welcome Home” by hundreds of complete strangers as you enter a camp. People help you with your camping gear, carry your bags and greet you warmly for no other reason than to be neighborly. And ask nothing in return.
We picked up hitchhikiers last week on I-90, invited them to our home, fed them, let them wash their clothes and gave them food to be on their way. And, in return they left us trinkets of charms they had carried on their way. And, yes, we fed and watered their two dogs.
The energy you put out to the universe comes back to you…if someone has experienced trauma as indicated on one of the letters then, you or they invited this into their being. What one focuses on and attracts is given to you by the universe….watch the movie “The Secret” if one needs to be enlighted.
Over 50% of people who attend gatherings are first timers…because their real families lack the understanding on how to deal with loved ones who are considered “black sheep.”
I encourage anyone thinking about attending next year to GO, and see for yourself. See how well preserved the atmosphere is so everyone can just “be” and be given the space to heal and recharge.
I am glad they will be in Washington State next year and the retailers and farmers in that area will see a real boost in selling their vegetables to them.
Lastly, the rainbow family is about healing, for those who think
othewise, are simply misinformed.
Thank You and
WELCOME HOME!!!!!!
jonah2 on September 17 at 1:01 p.m.
to soccer mom susie you call yourself a christian ? bibles ? have you even read the bible cuz in it it says judge not lest ye be judged ! i see this all the time and you should be ashamed of your post to all others read this cuz you need to givethese people a chance all the trash ? my neice and nephew go to those gathetrings are you calling them trash too ?? its a right to believe in what you want to and you people are trying to take that away from them you dont have to like them BUT YOU HAVE TO RESPECT THIER RIGHTS !!!!!!~
jonah2 on September 17 at 1:11 p.m.
sarah im very sorry for you and your sons loss there is nothin more devestating than having the loss of a loved one leave you but the thing that you do not realize is that it was one bad man that did this you cannot judge the whole group and cannot try to punish the group for one persons actions. saying a prayer for your husband and you and your son
countrypagan on November 01 at 4:43 p.m.
I’d like to say that of those who I’ve met in the Rainbow family, I love them. There are some who don’t act true to our nature, but want us to think they are. I don’t believe the negativity mentioned about Rainbows. There could be those whose only purpose is to do things like throw around trash for a photo op or say things that aren’t true of the Rainbow but it’s up to each to go to the forests and see for yourself to decide for yourself. Otherwise you become more problem then solution..