Appendix E: Eyes of the Fire’s prophecy

IN A CHAPTER titled “Return of the Rainbow Warriors” from his 1991 book, Rainbow Nation Without Borders: Toward an Ecotopian Millennium, Alberto Ruz Buenfil quotes at length from a Native American tale told by a wise grandmother named Eyes of the Fire. Her twelve-year-old grandson ]im had posed her a simple question:

“Why did the Spirit of the Earth let the white men take the land of the red people?”

Eyes of the Fire laughed, and she said: “In their dreams, our elders saw that our people would have to go through the worst of times, that they would lose their spirit and be split into many parts by many different religions of the white men, and that they would also try to achieve what the white men call success.

But the elders also saw that one day the red people would start to wake up. They would see that the white people who chased only after personal pleasure were leaving behind all the things that are truly important in life. And in this moment the indigenous people would understand that their ancestors lived in harmony with something that is much more important and wonderful: the Spirit of Life itself.

"And these were not the only things our wise elders saw in their dreams. They also saw that just when the red people began acting as crazy as the white men, and just when everyone thought that the old ways were forgotten, in that moment a great light would come again from the east. This light would enter the hearts of some native people, and they would become like the prairie fire, spreading love and understanding, not only among different nations, but among different religions.

“The rainbow is a sign of the unity among all people into one big family. Go to the mountaintop, son of my flesh and blood, and learn to become a Warrior of the Rainbow, for it is only by spreading love and joy among the people that we will be able to transform all the hate that exists in this world. Only through great understanding and goodness will we be able to stop all these wars and destruction.”