The PlowBoy Interview Rolling Thunder

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Anyway, until about 20 years ago, I didn't know any white people who were really interested in the Indians and who would want to share with us as brothers and sisters. At that time, though, the young people started to come to us, just as the Hopi prediction said they would. And since then I've met hundreds of thousands of white people—both young and old—who are friendly toward us and tolerant of our ways. So I'd say that the process has just started. At least I hope it's started, because we're all going to have to work together to clean up this world and make it livable before it's too late.

PLOWBOY: It must be painful for Indians—who, in most cases, have traditionally tried to live in harmony with nature—to see the large-scale devastation of the earth by careless people who pollute the air, water, and soil around us. Do you think it's too late for the planet to recover?

ROLLING THUNDER: It won't be easy. This land was all pure at one time. The whole country was clean: the air, the water, everything. Now there's hardly a safe place to swim-much less any water fit to drink—and the air is filthy, too. What puzzles me about pollution is this: I can understand why—in the early days-white people felt they had to exterminate the Indians, because they wanted to own the land . . . but I can't understand why white men and women continue to harm their own people by dumping harmful chemicals in the water and spraying deadly poisons in the air. It just doesn't seem to make sense that they would want to kill themselves.

Furthermore, it's my belief that most of this pollution comes right from people's minds. If someone invents a machine, for example, and has bad thoughts and filth in his or her mind, then the machine will reflect that condition. It will be imperfect, it will smoke, it will pollute, it won't be in harmony with the earth. And when you start pollution in one place, it spreads all over . . . in the same way that an illness—such as arthritis or cancer—spreads through the body. As I said before, Indians believe that the planet is a living organism. . . that it's really a higher individual who wants to be well, just as humans do. The earth is sick now because it has been mistreated . . . and some of the problems that may occursome of the disasters that have been predicted for the near future—are only natural readjustments that will have to take place to throw off the planet's illness. Just as we drive germs or poisons from our bodies by fever or by vomiting, the earth has to get rid of this sickness that envelops it by resorting to its own physiological adjustment process.

So people have got to begin practicing a greater respect for the planet, and for the Great Spirit that is in all things . . . all the creatures and the plants and even the rocks and the minerals. Respect is snore than just a feeling or an attitude, however: It's a way of life. We should never forget our obligation to ourselves and our environment, and never neglect to carry out that responsibility. We've all got to overcome our egotistical belief that humans are somehow better than the animals and other forms of life. Our race is just one more element in nature . . . we have no right to dirty up the planet with our trash. Therefore, the cleansing of the earth, as you can see, starts with the cleansing of our minds. We'll have to clean up our own spirits before we can start cleaning up this land.

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