The Rainbows are back.

Not in Sublette County – this time they are congregating in central New Mexico, and this time they have a permit.

Every year, members of the Rainbow Family of Living Light drive, bike, walk and hitchhike to the North American gathering during the first week of July.

Last year approximately 7,000 anarchic, nomadic family members gravitated to the southern Wind Rivers near Big Sandy for the event.

This year’s gathering is being held near the quiet ranch town of Cuba, N.M., elevation 6,906, population 800. The Forest Service (FS) estimates 600 Rainbows have already arrived in the Santa Fe National Forest.

Last year, many Sublette County residents complained when a U.S. Department of Agriculture official allowed the Rainbows to stage a gathering without a permit.

Family members claimed no Rainbow member had the official authority to take responsibility for the group because the family has no formal organization or hierarchy.

But this year things have changed, according to FS Public Information Officer Lawrence Lujan.

“We are following our Forest Service policy to require a commercial use permit for 75 participants and above,” Lujan said. “And (the Rainbows) have secured a permit.”

Lujan said his agency was informed of the site selection less than three weeks ago. The signed non-commercial permit was issued on June 13.

Lujan refused to name the permit holder, saying the information was being withheld to protect the individual’s privacy.

But California Rainbow member Karen Zirk – speaking for herself, not as a Rainbow representative – says no one Rainbow can vouch for the family.

“The group did not file for a non-commercial group-use permit,” she wrote in an email. “We have no way to engage in any legal contact as a group anymore than people attending a football game can decide to enter into a legal contract.”

She named a Rainbow who was granted a permit “over the objections of many gathering participants” as the person who signed for the permit.

Last year, Bush administration’s Department of Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey allowed the gathering with an operating plan in lieu of a permit.

But Lujan said the rules are different this year.

“The direction from former undersecretary Mark Rey regarding Rainbows … pertained to 2007 and 2008.”

In fact, since the administration change, there is no Department of Agriculture undersecretary.



A new year



Last year, FS representatives met with Sublette County residents and Rainbow Family members two weeks prior to the gathering.

Aside from the permit issue, residents were indignant to learn the Rainbows’ site interfered with a Boy Scout Order of the Arrow project in the same location. The Scouts had planned their project many months in advance while the Rainbows made their site selection in the second week of June without consulting the FS.

Ultimately, the Boy Scouts were forced to abandon their Southern Wind River project location.

This year’s pre-gathering meeting, which attracted 154 people, was less controversial.

“It turned out very, very well,” Cuba Village Clerk Vandora Casados commented.

She said the FS put on a PowerPoint presentation and the Rainbows gave a talk that “alleviated a lot of fear.”

She said some rancher permittees voluntarily moved their cattle to accommodate the Rainbows.

She also reported that FS law enforcement officers (LEOs) were present as well.

The perennial enemies of Rainbows, LEOs are typically attached to the Type 2 Incident Command Team assigned to the gatherings.

Last year, Rainbows and LEOs butted heads in an area known as the Kiddie Village during an attempted arrest of a family member suspected of carrying marijuana.

After 10 officers apprehended the suspect, a group of about 400 Rainbows began to harass the LEOs, according to FS reports. Those reports claimed Rainbows hurled rocks and sticks at the officers but a series of YouTube videos did not collaborate those reports. Instead the videos showed LEOs firing pepper-ball rounds into the angry crowd.

John Twiss, then director of Forest Service Law Enforcement and Investigations, was among those officers.

Labeled a riot, the incident gained considerable notoriety.

But FS Spokesman Lujan said that was in the past.

“This is a new year and a new event,” he said. “Our objective is to ensure a safe event for all involved.”

Regardless, not all hatchets have been buried. Rainbow rumors of law enforcement checkpoints at this year’s gathering site have already germinated.

“The LEOs have been escalating their level of violence towards us year after year,” Zirk said. “They have done this for many years running, so if past behavior is any indicator, I’ll guess they’re doing it again.”

One year later, Twiss and Rey have moved on to other endeavors, the Southern Winds are the quiet domain of critters, campers and hikers and the roads are relatively free of hitchhikers.

And the anarchic gatherings continue – just two states away.