Our Relationship with between Rainbow and the Lakota and other First Nations peoples around the world

Over the years I have been able in my travels to meet and discuss indigenous peoples rights across the globe. In Morocco I was invited to address the World Amazigh Congress held in Marrakesh in 2016. I have also supported the Lakota claims as per the orginal treaty given by the United States Government at Fort Laremie in 1851 and in 1868. The Sioux nation still claim this treaty as binding and still wait for justice to this day regaridng their land claims. In Africa we have similar issues with the first nations San or Khoisan peoples. I have been fortunate enough to live with many native peoles throughout Africa including the Mucabal of Southern Angola, The Zande of South Sudan, the Sahawari people of the Sahara region of Southern Morocco, the Bedoin of the Sinai, Petra and Wadi Rum and the Hopi of Northeast Arizona. At my first gatheirng in Missouri the Rainbow received a letter from Leonard Peltier thanking us for our support of their cause. When we gathered in the Black Hills in 2015 I was targetted and smeared by a self proclaimed apache professor called Dr. Alton Carroll and his henchman James Swan. I was even threatened by him physically. But the gathering went ahead. And the majority of the Lakota people there were happy to see the rainbow in the black hills... which was afterwards cleaned and restored with utmost respect...more so than the thousands of bikers and others who camp there leaving their trash behind. Iron Eagle a Lakota campaigner declare dafterwards ..a " RAINBOW ALLIANCE!" So despite all the threats, slander and lies from a small minority of haters... we managed to create a peace between our two tribes. The rainbow is anyway a loose group of people who believe in the ethos of healing the planet and its peoples WITH LOVE, RESPECT AND UNDERSTANDING. That is our way. Since 1972. And everyone is welcome to attend. We are fully transparent and we do not have a hierachy of leaders claiming authority over the other.

So the gathering went ahead ,but I did not attend and decided to travel to South Dakota during the Standing Rock protest to meet with Cheif Arvol Looking Horse to hear from his mouth what he thought about land issues and first nations rights and world peace in general.I also met with elder robinson from Canada and others at standing rock. I have published that interview online and I am publishing my email with Garrick regarding this affair. I would also like to mention here that I organised a protest outside the United Nations in Geneva in support of the Standing Rock action. Many locals and internationals attended this action.

I have also run with Dennis Banks on his sacred run through Sweden in 1990. My personal record of standing up for the first nations is decades old. In Brazil I managed to get the rainbow family to be invited to the climatelive.org event which is highlighting the plight of the first nations in Brazil and the cutting down of AND BURNING OF the rainforests( the LUNGS of the planet)... and the destruction of the pantanal wetlands as well as the Atlantic rainforest. There are currently over 50 uncontacted tribes still living in the Amazon. They are connected to their habitat and the rainbow family has always stood for peace and harmony with nature and its first nations people. It is a symbiotic relationship. In Switzerland I co founded a thinktank and permaculture village in 2014 and a radio station called solidarity.fm wwhich has a big focus on not only environmental justice but also human justice for those who are voiceless... the first nations. We have worked with indians also in Equador and Peru and Mexico. But these activities come at a cost. Change comes at both a cost and sometimes a sacrifice. Misguided individuals often have seen the rainbow as a movemnet that wants to appropriate indigenous culture for gain. Nothing could be further from the truth. Firstly, all our gatherings are free of charge.Nobody earns a penny off them. Not a dime. We do what we do because we believe in building a better planet for our children...and that in essence is the essence of the native american indian prophecies of the Hopi and the Lakota and others.

We are a rainbow nation, a rainbow tribe of many colours and creeds who bring healing to the world through our words and our deeds... we have so much to learn from each other and we do that in the cathedral of nature.

GARRICKS MESSAGE TO ME Garrick Beck 5 Jun 2015, 19:25 to Robinrainbowheart Everyone's got to get over the nonsense about "opposition" between the Native Tribes and the Rainbow Family. For the greatest part there have been alliances for valued ecological activities and shared political & human rights causes stretching thru the decades. Yes, there have been some problems, it's true. but the GREAT part of the Gathering's and the Tribes' relations have been mutually supportive and mutually beneficial. Yes, we owe the Tribes much for having preserved practices that we have tried to adopt and use. Yes, we have enormous respect for the Tribes standing up to genocidal actions by National governments. Yes, we have learned much from the visits to our Gatherings over four decades from dozens of elders from dozens of Tribes who have taught us, lectured us, criticized us, tried to offer us guidance, pushed us to be our best, teased us sometimes and given us so much wisdom that has helped us survive and grow. This is a letter political prisoner Leonard Peltier wrote us. I think it deserves being seen here because it indicates that our affiliation and closeness with indigenous tribal peoples is often of the most excellent and sisterly/brotherly type, where our mutual support for each other - and our struggles for people's rights everywhere is openly recognized. Peltier mentions Grandfather David briefly on the second page of the letter, again in a context that genuinely reflects our longstanding relations with the Native American peoples. Sorry it's not the best photographic copy. I will try to repost a clearer version. AND Garrick Beck 6 Jun 2015, 20:00 to me Paul, I think you have to go meet with Avrol Looking Horse yourself, in person. Probably the Gathering will be in South Dakota next month and doubtless there will be a number of the Oglala who we can meet with. There have been some meetings already but mostly regarding the potential Gathering this July. How to work out the differences between yourself and DCW and others is always a puzzle. I'm sure it can be done. But the relations that have been best between the Rainbows and the Tribes have been about environmental actions and political activism ---and somewhat less a spiritual connection, yet. That is going to take more time and more experiences to develop. We can't go Gather and "tell" them we are the continuation of such-or-other spiritual circle. We can go be supportive toward the water rights issue, the coal/uranium issue, the schools and roads issues, the energy issues, etc. Best regards, etc., Garrick A local news article on the black hills gathering https://www.indianz.com/News/2015/07/09/native-sun-news-rainbow-gather.asp a documentary made by the rainbow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHZvjKPLTEY