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Boise Weekly
July 11, 2001
COVER STORY
Beyond the rainbow
Family members fight for their First Amendment rights

By Mindy Kay Bricker
Photos By Brad Talbutt
Twenty thousand hippies traveling to Idaho can produce a lot of excuses from locals as to why they aren’t welcome—endangered salmon, wolves, money, nudity and the list goes on. But in these arguments one reason why they are welcome seems to be forgotten.
The First Amendment.
Whereas 30 years ago the Rainbow Gathering started as a way to celebrate human beings living together—to celebrate life and nature on public lands while living a purely democratic lifestyle without the tainting of money during such a gathering—today, the Rainbow Gathering has become a constant battle with the Forest Service. And ironically, the element of simplicity that sustains the Rainbow Family—a leaderless, yet environmentally responsible group—is the linchpin that continues taking them to court, possibly to the highest court in the country, to fight for their individual freedoms.
Joanee Kalb Freedom and Garrick Beck were among those praying for peace during the Rainbow Gathering this year. Their campsite, however, was 40 miles away from the gathering in Bear Valley.
This is the exile camp.
In 1999, Freedom and Beck were ticketed for gathering without a permit and sentenced to three months in federal prison. Beck, Freedom and Steven Sedlacko were the first people in United States history to be sentenced to a federal prison for being in a national forest without a permit. Beck and Freedom were pegged by law enforcement as Rainbow leaders.
Freedom and Beck’s request for the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case is pending. When, and if, the Supreme Court hears their case will determine if Freedom and Beck have to serve their sentences and if they can attend future Rainbow Gatherings.
An estimated 19,500 hippies met on the Fourth of July in the Boise National Forest to continue the Rainbow tradition. Rainbows simply want to escape telephones, e-mail messages, traffic—they want to escape “Babylon.” The gathering is a place where religious, cultural, socio-economic differences are not an issue of judgment.
“If you have a bellybutton, you’re a Rainbow,” laughs Rainbow John Wirth.
Technically, the hippies were breaking the law by attending the gathering. The Forest Service requires any group of over 75 people to have a permit.
The group applied for a permit this year, but was denied. The area, the Forest Service reasoned, is too environmentally sensitive to have thousands of people traipsing through.
The Rainbows, however, believe that it is their First Amendment right to pray for peace in a national forest. They have done it for 30 years, and they will continue to gather every year. They argue that this is not a group coming together—these are individuals coming together.
As of July 8, Boise County and Idaho State law enforcement officers made seven felony arrests, 35 misdemeanor arrests, served 29 warrants, issued 1,108 citations and 1,337 warnings at the gathering. The number of citations given for illegally meeting without a permit has not yet been released.
Reed Lee, a First Amendment rights attorney from Chicago who is representing Freedom and Beck, says that these permits are reviewed individually, and the Forest Service can list any reason for denying a permit.
“So anytime there is a request of permission on the case-by-case basis,” Lee says, “there is a chance of censorship.”
Lee also adds that the Rainbows view themselves as individuals and without an official leader—so to require that there is a group liability for assembly of free expression hazards others from attending a Rainbow Gathering.
“The government is imposing a chilling effect by talking about a group liability that they leave undefined and that they can adjust on a case-by-case basis,” Lee says.


Each year the Rainbow Gathering gives people a chance to let their inhibitions go and celebrate nature and their fellow humans
In 1995, the Forest Service made it mandatory that any group of more than 75 people had to apply for a non-commercial group use permit to meet in any national forest. The Forest Service’s first attempt at requiring a permit was in 1988, but was held unconstitutional by a district court judge in Texas. In an Arizona case in 1998, a district court ruled that the regulation that the Forest Service uses to accept or deny special use permits “affords the Forest Service too much discretion to impose onerous terms and conditions and violates the Rainbow Family’s First Amendment right to gather on National Forests.”


Drom ta Om (as when talking to rap singers or motorcycle gangsters, it’s very difficult to get a given name at the Rainbow Gathering), also known as “Rainbow Turtle” because children like to ride on his back, prays at the epicenter of the Big Om. Mr. Om, who says he was at the Rainbow Gathering in Katmandu in 1972, is an alderman in New Berlin, Wisconsin. BW verified that Om is indeed on that City’s council.
 The people who are being ticketed, says Beck, are the ones who are making an effort to have a dialogue with the Forest Service. But once communication begins, the Rainbow is deemed a leader and cited.
Currently, the permit required is applicable to, for example, a couple who wants to hold a wedding, a Boy Scout retreat and the Rainbow Gathering. But unlike the wedding party or the Boy Scouts, a National Incident Management Team oversees all the Rainbow Gatherings.
According to Sharon Sweeney, the incident team’s media spokesperson, the group of seven was established to develop a constant approach to manage the Rainbow Gatherings for the sake of resources, as well as to identify the leaders.
Before the regional gatherings, the team surfs the Rainbow Web site, reading chat room discussions, waiting for the official announcement of the destination for the Independence Day celebration so they can prepare and protect the area’s resources.
Typically, the gathering is announced in June, but this is “on Rainbow time” as the family calls it, so there is no guarantee or deadline when the announcement will come, except by the Fourth of July.
“The gathering begins when you get there,” says Rainbow member Marken, “and ends when you leave.”
Last year at the Dillon, Montana, gathering, three people were ticketed and convicted for gathering without permits. The year before, in Pennsylvania, it was Beck, Freedom and Sedlacko.
“In the last three years, lots of those people have been cited with mandatory court appearances and ended up with hefty fines and jail time,” Sweeney says. “So that certainly has deterred those people from active participation.”
“The goal,” she says, “is to bring the Rainbow Family into compliance and get a permit. That (the citations) is one tool. But the real overall goal is to turn this into a permitted event so that we don’t plop on top of somebody who is having their wedding there, or who knows what.”
This can be done, she says.
“They obviously do (have leaders) because this doesn’t just fall out of the sky and happen because of the Webmaster. And the Webmaster pretty much has to be a leader … and the guy that brings the water pipe every year, he brings it every single year. It’s not like he gets a note from the heavens that says, ‘Take the water pipe,’ ” Sweeney says. “They are organized. And they do have leaders.”
But to the Rainbows, the word gathering is meant as a verb, rather than a noun.
There are no bona fide leaders, they say.
In 1997 Beck met with people in Oregon to discuss the event—what it is, what it’s about, and he wanted to dispel myths by the media and the Forest Service about the Rainbow Gathering and the crowd that it draws. Beck’s first gathering was in 1972. Because of his outreach, the National Forest Service personnel relied on Beck to discuss the Rainbow Gathering in the Allegheny National Forest in Pennsylvania in 1999. Similarly, Freedom did informational outreach. She had time off from work, so she helped set up for the national gathering. Part of what she did was work with the National Forest Service regarding an operating plan of sorts for the gathering.
“They tagged me as a leader even though I said I was a volunteer,” says Freedom, a New York City desktop publishing consultant whose first Rainbow Gathering was in 1975.
A law enforcement officer asked Beck to go into the camp and find Freedom.
“Not my job, not my job,” Beck says and waves his hand as Freedom recounts the story.
The officer had considered her part of the “A Team,” she says. And to Beck, the officer said, “In that case, we’re going to ticket our B Team.”
“Who’s that,” she says Beck asked.
It was Beck and Sedlacko.
“They said they had my file open,” says Freedom and shrugs. “I didn’t know I had a file.”
“The problem with the regulation is the people who come forward and make themselves known to the Forest Service for the benefit of the people and the benefit of the environment—these are the people who they ticket,” Beck says.


Face painting, body painting and henna tattoos were among the popular forms of expression at the gathering. Several professional tattooists lamented the lack of electricity amidst ample opportunity for their own craft.
According to Lee, their case went to conference three weeks before the Supreme Court adjourned. Lee says the court receives about 6,000 petitions a year and about 200 are accepted. Lee didn’t receive a rejection letter for three conferences, but will find out whether the case is accepted when the court convenes on Oct. 1.
Until a decision is made, the exile camp will remain for Freedom and Beck during Rainbow Gatherings.
“It’s not just about the right of the Rainbow to hold its gathering in the woods, it’s about all Americans in the future to hold their gatherings in the woods,” Beck says.
“In a volunteer society, there are going to be many, many people executing the qualities of leadership,” Beck says, “… no one can command the follower.”


For many the gathering is an energy-intensive event involving dancing and drumming all day and night.
 “There are no leaders, but lots of leadership,” he says. “That is a good thing for neighborhoods and cities and communities and even countries. We shouldn’t be faulted by the government for having this quality.”
Throughout the year, family members meet in councils—all voluntarily—to discuss the location of the regional event on Independence Day. Prior to 1998, the family would select an area for the campsite and submit to the Forest Service an “operating plan,” which detailed, for example, concerns A-F: A. Traffic, B. Parking, C. Water Use and Land Use, etc. These plans were designed to be as environmentally conscious and responsible as possible and to glean concerns from the Forest Service.
“We were using an operating plan, voluntarily, and it was working,” says Beck.
According to letters written to the Rainbow Family from District Rangers of national forests of past gatherings, the ratings were positive.
“Your cleanup and rehabilitation efforts following the 1993 National Rainbow Gathering on the Shoal Creek District has met or exceeded our expectation. We commend those Rainbow family members who have stayed these past weeks to work with us, in a spirit of cooperation, to return the site to as close a natural condition as before the gathering,” reads a letter from District Ranger, Emanuel Hudson.
“We are very pleased with the overall cleanup effort. All of us on the Forest and the District enjoyed working with both the advance Rainbow Family members and those who remained to clean up. Thanks again,” reads a letter from Big Piney District Forest Ranger Greg Clark.
“Those of us on the Big Summit Ranger (State) District appreciated your excellent cooperation on resource issues before, during and after your gathering. Thanks again for your commitment to cleanup and restoration of Indian Prairie,” reads a letter signed by District Ranger, Susan Skalski.
Currently, family members continue the dialogue with the Forest Service so they are aware and educated of environmental concerns like endangered species—Chinook salmon, wolves, etc.
At the gathering this year, Rainbows made wooden bridges for the streams, as well as stone walkways to prevent soil erosion in moist areas. Idaho Rivers United posted warning signs along the streams to heed people from going into the streams, and family members also made warning signs along trails, educating people to keep themselves and dogs out of the streams. All of this effort seemed a little curious when, everyday, law enforcement officers traipsed across the streams on horseback.
Even Sen. Larry Craig voiced his concerns, asking the Forest Service to deny the Rainbows a permit. In an article in The Idaho Statesman, Sarah Berk, Craig’s spokesperson said, “This is a group that is an enemy of our environment. They litter, they abuse drugs, engage in illegal activities.” If you’re a little confused as to where Craig stands on environmental issues, with hippies aside, Craig scored a zero in the 2000 League of Conservation Voters National Environmental Scorecard.


Theaters and stages are erected in camps around the meadow. Music, performance art and ad-lib dramas are performed. Here a group calling itself Arcana performs a free-form, un-rehearsed piece involving justice, love and the universe.
“What’s been really encouraging to us,” says Carl Pence, information officer for the Forest Service, “has been the efforts the family has put on to try to honor those sensitive areas. That’s been encouraging to us.”
“Gatherings of this number are going to have impacts no matter where it’s at,” he says.
But it’s not just an issue of the environment the team’s members say, it’s the fact that, without a permit, this event is illegal.
“The Rainbows come in just because there’s 20,000 of them,” Sweeney says. “It’s not just the resources. It’s just not right.”


Eugene, Oregon, multimedia artist “Oceana” wears the twin wings of peace and freedom while dancing to the drums.
What Beck and Freedom would argue is that it’s not right that they are camping in exile because they have been warned if they are seen at the gathering that they will be ticketed again. And what Rainbows don’t think is right is that they have to sign a permit for what they consider to be a gathering of individuals, rather than a group gathering.
“I like the idea of working with them,” says Rainbow John Wirth. But his concern is that the more they know in advance, the more they will amp up security and the like.
“They want to take control of our gathering,” he says, “and if we let go of that then there goes the Constitution.”

On Saturday, Freedom and Beck sat with friends in a blue Eureka tent at the exile camp, getting some shelter from the rain. To pass time, Beck laid out hundreds of different stones on a cloth, and instructed each person to choose four, only four, and guess what kind of stones they were. Beck is the owner of Natural Stones, a shop in Santa Fe that provides stones for jewelers, designers and artisans. This was a way to creatively pass time until the rain let up, and wait for friends from the Rainbow Gathering to come over for the evening. Meanwhile, at the Rainbow campsite, about 50 people sat in a circle in the meadow and passed a feather, which officially gives someone the right to speak. The group discussed the potential region for next year’s gathering.
In exile or not, Freedom and Beck will return to their Rainbow Family.
For a gathering that is advertised through word of mouth and was started 30 years ago by silk-screened advertisements sewn onto jackets, the gathering will persevere. It will happen with, or without, a permit. And the gathering will happen with, or without, the supposed leaders.
“Little by little, they’re (Forest Service) going to try to break down the structure,” Freedom says. “But it’s not a structure. It’s a process.”

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