Gatherings and a poor reception from community members and business owners in nearby towns. Cultural appropriation and misrepresentation of Native American traditions and beliefs have also given the Gathering a poor reception from nearby reservations. In the U.S., these issues are also contributing factors to the decline in attendance at regional and national Gatherings. Background Rainbow Gatherings and the Rainbow Family of Living Light (usually abbreviated to "Rainbow Family") claim to express utopian impulses, bohemianism, hipster and hippie culture. The gatherings have roots clearly traceable to the counterculture of the 1960s. Rainbow Gatherings have their own jargon, which helps to create a sense of community and express their thoughts on society and social justice. In particular, mainstream society is commonly referred to and viewed as "Babylon", a term from the Christian New Testament connoting the participants' widely held belief that modern lifestyles and systems of government are unhealthy, unsustainable, exploitative and out of harmony with the natural systems of the planet. History The original Rainbow Gathering was in 1972, and since then gatherings have been held annually in the United States from July 1 through 7 every year on National Forest land. Throughout the year, regional and international gatherings are held in the United States and in many other places around the world. The first Rainbow Gathering of the Tribes, a four-day event in Colorado in the United States in July 1972, was organized by youth counterculture "tribes" based in Northern California and the Pacific Northwest. Twenty thousand people faced police roadblocks, threatened civil disobedience, and were allowed onto National Forest land. This was intended to be a one-time event; however, a second gathering in Wyoming the following year materialized, at which point an annual event was declared. The length of the gatherings has since expanded beyond the original four-day span, as have the number and frequency of the gatherings. Although groups from California and the Northwest region of the U.S. were heavily involved in the first Rainbow Gathering, the U.S. Southeast was strongly represented as well. At least 2,600 people from throughout that region attended and provided support for the 1972 Rainbow Gathering of the Tribes on Strawberry Lake, above Granby, Colorado. There was also strong representation from other regions of the U.S. In 2017, the United States gathering was held near the Malheur National Forest in eastern Oregon. Between 10,000 and 18,000 attended the multi-day event, near Flagtail