Rolling Thunder was a Native American

Native Americans in the United States

Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...

 medicine man

Medicine man

"Medicine man" or "Medicine woman" are English terms used to describe traditional healers and spiritual leaders among Native American and other indigenous or aboriginal peoples...

. He was born into the Cherokee nation

Cherokee Nation

The Cherokee Nation is the largest of three Cherokee federally recognized tribes in the United States. It was established in the 20th century, and includes people descended from members of the old Cherokee Nation who relocated voluntarily from the Southeast to Indian Territory and Cherokees who...

 and later moved to Nevada and lived with the Western Shoshone

Shoshone

The Shoshone or Shoshoni are a Native American tribe in the United States with three large divisions: the Northern, the Western and the Eastern....

. He essentially married into the Shoshone tribe when he united with his first wife, Spotted Fawn, who preceded him in death.

In print

John Pope is the subject of Rolling Thunder (1976), a book by the American journalist and author Doug Boyd, and Rolling Thunder Speaks A Message for Turtle Island (1998), a narrative edited by his second wife, Carmen Sun Rising Pope. Rolling Thunder also figures prominently in Mad Bear (1994), Boyd's follow-up book to Rolling Thunder, which chronicles the life of Tuscarora medicine man Mad Bear Anderson, a peer and mentor to Rolling Thunder.

In film

Rolling Thunder is credited in the 1971 film Billy Jack

Billy Jack

Billy Jack is a 1971 action film. It is the second, and highest grossing, in a series of motion pictures centering on a character of the same name, played by Tom Laughlin who also directed and co-wrote the script. Filming began in Prescott, Arizona, in fall 1969, but the movie was not completed...

, starring Tom Laughlin

Tom Laughlin (actor)

Tom Laughlin is an American actor, director, screenwriter, author, educator and political activist. Laughlin is best known for his series of Billy Jack films. He has been married to Delores Taylor since 1954. Taylor has also co-produced and acted in all four of the Billy Jack films...

. In the film, Rolling Thunder leads the snake dance that serves as Billy Jack's rite of passage, via an encounter with a Western diamondback rattlesnake.. He later portrayed himself in the film's sequel, The Trial of Billy Jack

The Trial of Billy Jack

The Trial of Billy Jack is a 1974 film starring Delores Taylor and Tom Laughlin. It is the sequel to the 1971 film Billy Jack and the third film overall in the series. Although commercially successful, it was panned by critics.-Plot:...

, and in Billy Jack Goes to Washington

Billy Jack Goes to Washington

Billy Jack Goes to Washington is a 1977 film starring Tom Laughlin, the fourth film in the Billy Jack series, and although the earlier films saw enormous success, this film did not. The film only had limited screenings upon its release and never saw a general theatrical release, but has since...

.

In music

Rolling Thunder appears on Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart

Mickey Hart

Mickey Hart is an American percussionist and musicologist. He is best known as one of the two drummers of the rock band the Grateful Dead. He was a member of the Grateful Dead from September 1967 to February 1971, and from October 1974 to August 1995...

's album Rolling Thunder

Rolling Thunder (album)

Rolling Thunder is the first solo album by Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart.Although Hart had temporarily left the Grateful Dead at the time he made Rolling Thunder, members of the Dead play on the album, along with a number of other well-known musicians from the San Francisco Bay Area music scene...

, a 1972 release. In 1975/76, Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...

 organized and headlined the Rolling Thunder Revue

Rolling Thunder Revue

The Rolling Thunder Revue was a famed U.S. concert tour consisting of a traveling caravan of musicians, headed by Bob Dylan, that took place in late 1975 and early 1976; the prevailing theory was that the tour was named after the Native American shaman Rolling Thunder. Others maintained that tour...

, a nationwide series of concerts. Rolling Thunder himself was said to have appeared at some of the shows.

Life and legacy

Rolling Thunder was a lifelong proponent of women's rights (although not, by current definition, a feminist

Feminism

Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...

), care for the environment, and Native American rights. His message, as related through the books about his life, is one of togetherness and inclusiveness. In 1975 he and his wife Spotted Fawn founded an inter-tribal, inter-racial, non-profit community on 262 acres (1.1 km²) of land in north-eastern Nevada (just east of the town of Carlin

Carlin, Nevada

Carlin is a city located near the western border of Elko County in northeast Nevada, west of the city of Elko. It is part of the Elko Micropolitan Statistical Area. Carlin sits along Interstate 80 at an elevation of approximately . As of the 2000 census, its population was 2,161...

) called Meta Tantay (Chumash for "Walk in Peace"). There he served as leader and healer. Meta Tantay operated until 1985, and included both Native and non-Native members; visitors over the years included Buckminster Fuller

Buckminster Fuller

Richard Buckminster “Bucky” Fuller was an American systems theorist, author, designer, inventor, futurist and second president of Mensa International, the high IQ society....

, Mickey Hart and The Grateful Dead, and Tibet

Tibet

Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...

an monk

Monk

A monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, living either alone or with any number of monks, while always maintaining some degree of physical separation from those not sharing the same purpose...

s.

Death

Rolling Thunder died in 1997 from complications associated with diabetes. He also suffered from emphysema in the later years of his life.

Discography

• A Case History of a Shamanic Healing Performed by Rolling Thunder – Jim Swan (Audio Cassette)
• Rolling Thunder – Mickey Hart (1972)

Filmography

• Rolling Thunder: Healer of Meta Tantay – UFO TV – DVD Release Date: February 22, 2005
• Billy Jack (1971)
• The Trial of Billy Jack (1974)
• Billy Jack Goes to Washington (1977)

External links

• http://www.wovoca.com/thunderpeople/
• http://www.unexplainedstuff.com/Mediums-and-Mystics/Rolling-Thunder.html