Rolling Thunder aka John Pope, 1916–1997) was a hippie spiritual leader who self-identified as a Native American medicine man. He was raised in Oklahoma and later moved to Nevada. He has been considered an example of a plastic medicine man, with little or no genuine connection to the culture or religion he claimed to represent or study.

Controversy

Rolling Thunder worked for most of his life as a brakeman under the name John Pope. Going by his chosen name, Rolling Thunder, he appears in taped interviews with Native American author and activist John Trudell, and Michael Chosa in which he discusses the contemporary treatment of Native Americans. At times he claimed to be part Hopi, at times Cherokee, and at other times Shoshone and that he could represent the Western Shoshone Nation. His status remains in doubt, because he never provided proof of any Native heritage, nor have any Native American group claimed him. He has been cited as an example of a plastic medicine man. Rolling Thunder is mentioned in a number of books on the New Age, 1960s counterculture, cultural appropriation, cultural imperialism, and neoshamanism.

Death

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

Legacy

In 1975 he and his wife Spotted Fawn founded a non-profit community on 262 acre of land in north-eastern Nevada (just east of the town of Carlin) that they named Meta Tantay. It operated until 1985; visitors over the years included Mickey Hart, a drummer with the Grateful Dead.

Discography

Filmography