Rainbow Gathering 2008: Beauty, Bliss, and LEO Bullies

I had a wonderful time at the Rainbow Family Gathering this year near the Wind River Mountains in Wyoming. The site was the most beautiful I've seen so far and a great place for the family to gather. I met some wonderful family, was fed delicious food, and helped whenever I could during the week we were there. Memorable moments include seeing Grandpa Woodstock at main circle being his silly self, making some great trades at the trade circle, creative and delicious meals at several kitchens, meeting the Crucial Kitchen crew, chocolate chip cookies from Welcome Home on our way out, and seeing some of my favorite local musicians (from The Human Revolution) play for hours by the fire at Lovin' Ovens while eating delicious pizza.

The Wind River Mountains peeking over the forest above Main Meadow was a wonderful sight and we got to camp in a gorgeous aspen grove filled with wild flowers. The peace prayer was once again a powerful experience (I couldn't believe how big that circle of family got!) and the party afterwards was so much fun (and complete with watermelon for everyone!). But of course, along with the good comes the bad.

The Law Enforcement at this year's gathering was especially unfriendly, hostile, and even violent. Luckily I didn't have any bad encounters with them personally (other than being really confused by them when they told us to evacuate), many family members were hurt and traumatized by a hostile encounter with the LEOs on July 3 in Kid Village. I heard from people that were there that the cops had come in after an undercover saw someone smoking a certain substance. This led them to come into Kid Village, armed and pointing weapons at everyone. Several rounds of paintballs containing pepper powder were fired at the crowd, burning several people's eyes. The cops eventually left, escorted by an unarmed crowd yelling things like "Shame on You" and "No Violence." You can see videos taken by witnesses here, and read more about the Forest Service's mishandling of Rainbow Gatherings here. If you witnessed this event on July 3, please see this thread on tribe.net and see if your testimony could help.

On July 7th, a forest fire somehow started in the middle of the afternoon and the LEOs used this as an excuse to issue a "mandatory evacuation." They drove through the gathering in trucks and first told everyone with a car at Front Gate to go move it, then they wouldn't let us go to Front Gate and turned us around. I met a few brothers with shovels who said they had tried to go help fight the fire, but once they started fighting it the LEOs threatened to taze them if they didn't leave. The fire only burned one acre and was quickly put under control. It was outside of the Gathering area but they tried to evacuate us even after it was out and safe. We ended up leaving the next day, a bit earlier than expected, because so many people had left during the evacuation and it was pretty cleared out. Many were saying that the LEOs probably started the fire as a tactic to get everyone to leave, but I know that clean-up crews were not deterred and are still there. We love you, clean up!

I love my Rainbow Family, and I love going home, but it really worries me that the government treats a bunch of peaceful citizens gathering on public land like less than human criminals. It is a sad world indeed when the peaceful and non-violent people that we should be looking up to are targeted like terrorists by the officials that are supposed to "protect and serve." The Forest Service should be very ashamed at how they treat their fellow human beings at the Rainbow Gathering, especially this year in Wyoming. I am proud of the family for remaining non-violent and for keeping the rainbow spirit alive despite it all.

I'm looking forward to the 2009 Gathering, which I hear will be in New Mexico. Loving you, family!