Rain Ceremony

As you may know the Southwestern part of the U.S. has been experiencing drought for the last several years. In one small community things were becoming quite desperate as water resources fell to dangerously low levels. The City Council met and discussed the situation. One council person suggested that they might call on a famous medicine man, Shawani-tanta, living on the adjacent reservation. Not having any better suggestions, the Mayor drove out and spoke with the medicine man about the possibility of conducting some sort of rain dance, or ceremony to break the dry spell and bring rain.

Shawani-tanta agreed and the two men went over to the Chapter House and had an Indian lawyer (trained at Harvard) draw up a contract. The Town was to pay the tribe $50,000 dollars if the rain ceremony was successful in producing significant rainfall. In addition the town obligated itself to strictly follow every direction given by the medicine man in setting up the ceremony.

On the appointed day the medicine man had every automobile in the town lined up around the town plaza. Buckets of soapy water were drawn and placed in between the parked cars. The skies were clear and cloudless, as they had been every day for the past 36 months. The medicine man gathered his drummers, who began a slow rhythmic beat. The medicine man raised his arms to the heavens and began to sing. On cue, long lines of young Indian men danced their way onto the plaza. Each waved a bit of torn blanket over their heads as they wound their way around the parked vehicles. Then the drums stopped. The crowd of on-lookers and tourists held their breath in anticipation. The Indians dipped their towels into the soapy water and began to wash the cars closest to them.

The townspeople were amazed, for they expected the Indians to chew on live rattlesnakes and wave feathers in the air. For twenty minutes the cars were soaped and rinsed and finally buffed to a sparkling sheen. Then as the line of dancers began to dance their way out of the plaza, a great line of dark thunderheads appeared. The medicine man smiled as the first fat drops fell. By the time the medicine man arrived at the Mayor's reviewing stand to collect the tribe's $50,000 the whole town was under a foot of water.

"How did you do that Shawani-tanta", the Mayor asked. "Just applying appropriate modern methods", the medicine man replied.