Johnny Flynn: Why a so-called 'rain dance' won't end the drought

Monday, July 23, 2012  

"As of the middle of July, more than half the country is in the grips of one of the worst droughts in decades. 1300 counties across the United States are already declared disaster areas and water rationing of some kind is in effect in cities from Indianapolis to the far west.

The biggest fire in Arizona history is slowly burning itself out and Colorado has seen fires devastate the fringes of urban areas south of Denver.

The American consumer is looking at higher prices as corn crops across the Midwest are dying in the fields. This is the context in which Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack recently said: “I get on my knees every day... and I’m saying an extra prayer now. If I had a rain prayer or a rain dance I could do, I would do it.”

As an American Indian all my life I have been cursed with the myth of the “Indian rain dance.” I am here to say there is no such thing. Not in my Potawatomi tribe or in any other tribe across the Americas."

Get the Story:
Johnny P. Flynn: Know Why a Rain Dance Won't End The Drought (Religion Dispatches 7/22)