The PlowBoy Interview Rolling Thunder

Article Tools

Image Gallery

Print

E-mail

Comments

RSS

Rolling Thunder also has much to say to practitioners of the various wholistic healing therapies. Since he's an inheritor and protector of ancient tribal secrets, the medicine man is naturally somewhat reserved when speaking with outsiders about such subjects . . . but he willingly shares much of his knowl edge with anyone who is seriously interested in his work.

To find out more about surviving native American medicinal traditions—and about the people whose culture developed and protects such rituals—MOTHER sent staffer Richard Colgan to visit Rolling Thunder at Meta Tantay, the community where the healer and 35 others live in a traditional native camp on the high plains of northeastern Nevada. During several hours of conversation (which have been edited to produce the following transcript), the two also discussed the past sufferings of native Americans, their present problems, and the future of this "n a tion within a nation".

PLOWBOY: You have said, "I was born to be a medicine man." How did you discover the nature of your calling?

ROLLING THUNDER: It's true that being a medicine man is a role one is destined for from birth. You don't simply read a few textbooks or go to a special school and then start hiring out your services . . . it doesn't happen that way. You just know it's meant to be, at least you do if you're an Indian. Many people have asked me—as you do now—how one knows that. Well, it's partly instinct . . . and partly the result of a deliberate search. Usually, a young Indian finds out his or her purpose in life at about 12 or 13 years of age. At that time, the youngster climbs to the top of a high mountain—or another similarly remote site—in some sacred area, and stays alone there for as long as three days while an older person waits at a distance.

The searcher carries no food or clothes—just a blanket—and spends the time fasting and praying. Eventually, a vision comes, revealing what he or she is supposed to do in life. Upon returning from the vigil, the young person describes the revelation to the wise elder . . . and then the two go together to the medicine man so he can interpret its meaning for them. Finally, the tribe has a big ceremony to formally name the young person and reveal his or her life's mission.

I learned my destiny through the events of my early years. You see, I was raised in eastern Oklahoma, in a range of the Ozarks called the Kiamichi Mountains. I've been told that before I was born-during my father's youth-those hills had all been Indian territory . . . but the land was gradually taken away from our tribe, and we retreated to the wooded areas to live. The Depression was on when I was a youngster, so we had to make a living practically with our bare hands, just as Our ancestors had done. At about the age of 15, I built my first house . . . a log cabin with a separate smokehouse and a corral for goats and hogs. I lived alone there for quite a while, and worked about an acre of land with a hoe and a shovel.

RSS | Comments | E-mail | Print