Rolling Thunder claimed that his duty was to preserve
harmony. But one day (according to Gary Sandman) there was a disagreement with
some feminists. They complained “why do the women prepare breakfast while the
men do the farming, building, and taking care of animals?” Now what did the
Native American women have to say? They were happy with it! In Rolling
Thunder’s words, “these women are not happy that our women do not agree.”
But wait, all was not lost, RT was a teacher of harmony, so
he took them into the woods for a “real life” lesson, which went as follows:
Our ways were here long before anyone else came along, and
we never had jails or nursing homes. The men make the decisions but the women
can veto them. Yet the women know that if they stall the work, we will all suffer.
The feminists still wouldn’t budge. So he explained their
tradition regarding menstruation:
The woman goes into a teepee by herself for three days, to
do as she pleases. No cooking, cleaning, or preparing food for men. That’s
three days of vacation.
The feminists’ response: she’s isolated from her children
for three days!
Harmony is at the root of this book. These feminists had
come to Rolling Thunder’s commune out of their own free will, yet they were
resistant to learning. The tradition was all that kept the people going, and
the idea that you mustn’t stall the work can be compared to the 2013 government
shutdown; when both sides wouldn’t budge, paychecks couldn’t go out, and
Federal land had to be closed. Reminds you a little of the Zax from Dr. Seuss’
story, only the Zax didn’t block traffic for a month!
There’s a funny part where he goes to Marin college to do a
lecture, and there’s lots of drumming, chanting, weird tee shirts, and Rolling
Thunder goes on stage, and what does he do? He farts. He just lets out a big
fart. The students don’t laugh, they all sit there solemnly, respecting this
guru and waiting for him to drop the bomb and tell them the great significance
of that huge fart. But no, he doesn’t say. Finally, fed up, they say “what was
that fart meant to show?” and he replied “there isn’t any, if you hold it in
too long you’ll get sick.”
He lectured in Cologne, Germany, in the 1980’s, and
criticized the German inquisitions against witches. He criticized the Puritans
for killing people and burning books on Sundays, whipping children for kissing,
branding Quakers for heresy. He said “I’m not a Christian, but I have greater
respect for your teacher than your ancestors.”
Rolling Thunder (or John Pope, I don’t know what it said on
his ID card) wasn’t without controversy. His background wasn’t clear, so nobody
was sure what tribe he was from. He claimed to be Cherokee when other said he
was Shoshone. He was widely criticized for cashing in on the hippy fascination
with traditional philosophies, and other Native American groups thought he was
creating a mockery of it. The same thing happened in the 60’s, when the
American and British became fascinated with Indian philosophy. Somehow I doubt
Hindu traditionalists were pleased with the way the Maharishi became a guru to
the Beatles, the same way most Jewish Americans find the Kabbalah craze
annoying. In Thailand there are Buddhist monks who perform magic tricks for
tourists and tell them it’s holy. They’re not popular with the other monks, I
promise.
I have some criticisms of my own for this book. First, it’s
epistolary, with each chapter written by someone who knew Rolling Thunder. I
would prefer to read his own words, and learn a little more about his
background. Did anything happen to him in his youth that would influence his
later outlook? Was he brought up in the traditional way, or was he educated in
the White man’s schools? Perhaps Rolling Thunder was trying to make himself
appear mysterious.
To sum up, I’ll say this; if a Native American youth
murdered someone, he wasn’t punished for being bad, but exiled as a danger to
the people. He was sent to live on his own. They had no jails and they didn’t
execute or flog people. It makes you think.
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