the [ Rainbow ] experience. Various agencies were on the site, either walking or on horseback and they had dogs sniffing around for weed. Some people had their car searched on the road into the site.
The Forest Service allocated $ 400,000 for law enforcement at the Rainbow Gathering. It charged the Rainbows $ 7,500 for road maintenance after the last gathering at the Big Hole in 2000. That bill was never paid because“ the Rainbow Family has no leaders, no structure, no official spokespersons, no official documents, and no membership”, according to Wikipedia.
Beaverhead County passed an emergency two-mill levy tax totaling $ 26,789 and budgeted $ 123,000 to manage the Rainbow gathering, but it expected the actual costs to exceed that. The Montana Standard said,“ Montana Governor Steve Bullock signed a state of emergency executive order for the county, allowing Beaverhead access to state emergency money and services to cover the cost of the Rainbow gathering. The county will have to spend the levy amount and an extra $ 3,100 in reserves before it taps into the state money.” In 2000, then Governor Marc Racicot declared a state of emergency in case he needed to deploy the National Guard.
As of July 16, the Barrett Hospital and Health Care in the county seat of Dillon, reported 102 people admitted for injuries. Hospital director of Human Services, Geoff Roach, attributed the high number to a lack of preparation for wilderness living exacerbated by a drug-fueled environment. The hospital rendered $ 199,199 in unpaid services treating patients from the gathering, The Missoula Independent reported.“ Golly, we ' ve had some assaults, dog bites, sunburns, broken bones, lacerations," Roach said. The hospital will have access to state emergency money to help cover those costs. The Rainbows set up a medic tent manned by Rainbow volunteers, including an ER doctor and a midwife. The county jail saw its population double during the gathering, causing some part-time employees to work full-time.
The first Rainbow Gathering of the Tribes, a four-day event in Colorado in July 1972, was organized by youth counterculture " tribes " based in Northern California and the Pacific Northwest. Twenty thousand people faced police roadblocks, threatened civil disobedience, and were allowed onto National Forest land. This was intended to be a onetime event; however, a second gathering in Wyoming the following year materialized, at which point an annual event was declared. The length of the gatherings has since expanded beyond the original four-day span, as have the number and frequency of the gatherings. The Rainbow Family has no leaders, no structure, no official spokespersons, no official documents, and no membership. Documents are produced as needed and maintained by various groups. Using money to buy or sell anything at Rainbow Gatherings is taboo. There are no paid organizers, although there are volunteers(" focalizers ") who are crucial to setting up the gathering site. Participants are expected to contribute money, labor, and / or material. All labor is voluntary and never formally compensated. One of the central features of the annual United States gathering is silent meditation the morning of the Fourth of July, with attendees gathering in a circle in the Main Meadow. At approximately noon the entire assembly begins a collective " Om " which is ended with whooping and a celebration. A parade of children comes from the Kiddie Village, singing and dancing into the middle of the circle. Many spiritual traditions are represented, often with their own kitchen, from Hare Krishnas to Orthodox Jews to several varieties of Christianity and many others. Spiritually, there is a very strong influence from Native American Shamanism, Neo-Paganism, and Eastern traditions, often aligned with free-thought. Shamanism and New Age aspects are apparent in a large portion of the culture, tradition, and every day life for the participants. Sanitation has historically been a major concern at Rainbow Gatherings. Human waste is deposited in latrine trenches( typically referred to as ' shitters ') and treated with lime and ash from campfires. New latrines are dug and filled in daily. The 1987 gathering in North Carolina experienced an outbreak of highly contagious shigellosis( a. k. a. dysentery)( known at the gathering as Beaver Fever) causing diarrhea attributed to filth and squalor in the camp. In 2011, three unrelated fatalities occurred at Rainbow Gatherings, including two fatalities at the 2011 Washington State national Rainbow Gathering. The Washington State deaths were those of Amber Kellar, a 28-year-old Californian who died of a preexisting medical condition, and Steve Pierce, a 50-year-old Californian who died of a fatal heart attack. In February 2011, a man drowned in a Farles Prairie pond during a regional Rainbow Gathering in Ocala National Forest, Florida. In July 2011, a woman named Marie Hanson, from South Lake Tahoe, California went missing in Skookum Meadow, Washington State while attending the 2011 Rainbow Gathering at Gifford Pinchot National Forest. In October 2011, human remains and jewelry were found near the woman ' s campsite. It was later confirmed that the remains were those of Marie Hanson.
The photograph to the left shows police and medics near " trading circle " at the annual U. S. national Rainbow Gathering in West Virginia, 2005.
To the right a photograph shows a Rainbow ' brother ' waiting in line to fill his water containers at the 2002 Family Gathering in Michigan
The West Old & New Page 14