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Winona LaDuke
LaDuke in 2021
Born	(1959-08-18) August 18, 1959 (age 65) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Education	Harvard University (BA) Antioch University (MA)
Political party	Green
Parent(s)	Betty LaDuke, Sun Bear

Winona LaDuke (born August 18, 1959) is an American environmentalist, writer, and industrial hemp grower, known for her work on tribal land claims and preservation, as well as sustainable development.

In 1996 and 2000, she ran for vice president of the United States as the nominee of the Green Party of the United States, on a ticket headed by Ralph Nader. Until 2023 she was the executive director and a co-founder (along with the Indigo Girls) of Honor the Earth, a Native environmental advocacy organization that played an active role in the Dakota Access Pipeline protests.

In 2016, she received an electoral vote for vice president. In doing so, she became the first Green Party member to receive an electoral vote.

Early life and education

Winona (meaning "first daughter" in Dakota language) LaDuke was born in 1959 in Los Angeles, California, to Betty Bernstein and Vincent LaDuke (later known as Sun Bear). Her father was from the Ojibwe White Earth Reservation in Minnesota, and her mother of Jewish European ancestry from The Bronx, New York. LaDuke spent some of her childhood in Los Angeles, but was primarily raised in Ashland, Oregon. Due to her father's heritage, she was enrolled at birth with the White Earth Nation, but did not live at White Earth, or any other reservation, until 1982. She started work at White Earth after graduating from college when she got a job there as principal of the high school.

After her parents married, Vincent LaDuke worked as an actor in Hollywood in supporting roles in Western movies, while Betty LaDuke completed her academic studies. The couple separated when Winona was five, and her mother took a position as an art instructor at Southern Oregon College, now Southern Oregon University at Ashland, then a small logging and college town near the California border. In the 1980s, Vincent reinvented himself as a New Age spiritual leader by the name Sun Bear.

While growing up in Ashland, LaDuke attended public school and was on the debate team in high school. She attended Harvard University, where she joined a group of Indigenous activists, and graduated in 1982 with a Bachelor of Arts in economics (rural economic development). When she moved to White Earth, she did not know the Ojibwe language, or many people, and was not quickly accepted. While working as the principal of the local Minnesota reservation high school she completed research for her master's thesis on the reservation's subsistence economy and became involved in local issues. She completed an M.A. in community economic development through Antioch University's distance-learning program.

Career and activism

While attending Harvard, LaDuke heard a presentation by Jimmie Durham that she said "shook something loose" in her and changed her life. She worked for Durham, investigating the effects of uranium mining in Navajo reservations. After graduating, she moved to her father's community at White Earth, where she found work as the high school principal. In 1985 she helped found the Indigenous Women's Network. She worked with Women of All Red Nations to publicize American forced sterilization of Native American women.

Next she became involved in the struggle to recover lands for the Anishinaabe. An 1867 treaty with the United States provided a territory of more than 860,000 acres for the White Earth Indian Reservation. Under the Nelson Act of 1889, an attempt to have the Anishinaabe assimilate by adopting a European-American model of subsistence farming, communal tribal land was allotted to individual households. The US classified any excess land as surplus, allowing it to be sold to non-natives. In addition, many Anishinaabe sold their land individually over the years; these factors caused the tribe to lose control of most of its land. By the mid-20th century, the tribe held only one-tenth of the land in its reservation.

White Earth Land Recovery Project

In 1989, LaDuke founded the White Earth Land Recovery Project (WELRP) in Minnesota with the proceeds of a human rights award from Reebok. Its goal is to buy back land in the reservation that non-Natives bought and to create enterprises that provide work to Anishinaabe. By 2000, the foundation had bought 1,200 acres, which it held in a conservation trust for eventual cession to the tribe. WELRP also works to reforest the land and revive cultivation of wild rice, long a traditional Ojibwe food. It markets that and other traditional products, including hominy, jam, buffalo sausage, and other products. It has started an Ojibwe language program, a herd of buffalo, and a wind-energy project. It produces and sells traditional foods and crafts through its label, Native Harvest. The Evergreen State College class of 2014 chose LaDuke as its commencement speaker. She delivered her address at the school on June 13, 2014.

Honor the Earth, 1993-2023

LaDuke was also the executive director of Honor the Earth, an organization she co-founded with the non-Native folk-rock duo the Indigo Girls in 1993. Honor the Earth is a national advocacy group encouraging public support and funding for Native environmental groups. It works nationally and internationally on issues of climate change, renewable energy, sustainable development, food systems and environmental justice. Members of Honor the Earth were active in the Dakota Access Pipeline protests. As of 2016, the organization's mission was:

to create awareness and support for Native environmental issues and to develop needed financial and political resources for the survival of sustainable Native communities. Honor the Earth develops these resources by using music, the arts, the media, and Indigenous wisdom to ask people to recognize our joint dependency on the Earth and be a voice for those not heard.

On March 30, 2023, the Becker County, Minnesota, District Court ordered Honor the Earth and LaDuke to pay a former employee $750,000 in damages in a sexual harassment and abuse complaint, based on actions from 2015. LaDuke resigned from the organization on April 5, 2023, acknowledging her failure to protect victims of sexual harassment.

Political career, 1996-2016

In 1996 and 2000, LaDuke ran as the vice-presidential candidate with Ralph Nader on the Green Party ticket. She was not endorsed by any tribal council or other tribal government. LaDuke endorsed the Democratic Party ticket for president and vice-president in 2004, 2008, and 2012.

In 2016, Robert Satiacum, Jr., a faithless elector from Washington, cast his presidential vote for Native American activist Faith Spotted Eagle and his vice-presidential vote for LaDuke, making her the first Green Party member and the first Native American woman to receive an Electoral College vote for vice president.

In 2016, LaDuke was involved in the Dakota Access Pipeline protests, participating at the resistance camps in North Dakota and speaking to the media on the issue.

At the July 2019 National Audubon Convention in Milwaukee, LaDuke gave the keynote address with updates on efforts to stop the Sandpiper pipeline, other pipelines, and other projects near Ojibwe waters and through the Leech Lake Reservation. She urged everyone to be water protectors and stand up for their rights.

In 2020 and 2021, she was a leader of the protests against the Line 3 pipeline.

Hemp activism

As of 2018, LaDuke operated a 40-acre (16 ha) industrial hemp farm on the White Earth Indian Reservation, growing hemp varieties from different regions of the world, vegetables and tobacco. She has said that she turned to industrial hemp farming after being urged to investigate the practice for several years and advocates its potential to turn the American economy away from fossil fuels. LaDuke has promoted the growth of both marijuana and industrial hemp on Indigenous tribal lands for financial profit and the localization of the economy. Her position can be considered controversial given experiences of other reservations, such as the Oglala Sioux Tribe, who were raided by the DEA in relation to hemp farming.

Personal life

In 1988, LaDuke married Cree Randy Kapashesit of Moose Factory, Ontario, Canada. They separated in 1992.

On November 9, 2008, LaDuke's house in Ponsford, Minnesota, burned down while she was in Boston. No one was injured, but all her personal property burned, including her extensive library and Indigenous art and artifact collection. As of 2020, she had one son and six grandchildren.

Selected publications

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Books

• Last Standing Woman (1997), novel.
• All our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life (1999), about the drive to reclaim tribal land for ownership
• The Sugar Bush (1999)
• The Winona LaDuke Reader: A Collection of Essential Writings (2002)
• Recovering the Sacred: the Power of Naming and Claiming (2005), a book about traditional beliefs and practices.
• The Militarization of Indian Country (2013)
• All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life (2016)
• To Be A Water Protector: The Rise of the Wiindigoo Slayers (2020)

As co-author

• Conquest: Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide
• Grassroots: A Field Guide for Feminist Activism
• Sister Nations: Native American Women Writers on Community
• Struggle for the Land: Native North American Resistance to Genocide, Ecocide, and Colonization
• Cutting Corporate Welfare
• Ojibwe Waasa Inaabidaa: We Look in All Directions
• New Perspectives on Environmental Justice: Gender, Sexuality, and Activism
• Make a Beautiful Way: The Wisdom of Native American Women
• How to Say I Love You in Indian
• Earth Meets Spirit: A Photographic Journey Through the Sacred Landscape
• Otter Tail Review: Stories, Essays and Poems from Minnesota's Heartland
• Daughters of Mother Earth: The Wisdom of Native American Women

Her editorials and essays have been published in national and international media.

Filmography

Television and film appearances:

• Appearance in the 1997 documentary film Anthem, directed by Shainee Gabel and Kristin Hahn.
• Appearance in the 1990 Canadian documentary film Uranium, directed by Magnus Isacsson.
• Appearance in the TV documentary The Main Stream.
• Appearance on The Colbert Report on June 12, 2008.
• Featured in 2017 full-length documentary First Daughter and the Black Snake, directed by Keri Pickett. Chronicles LaDuke's opposition against the Canadian-owned Enbridge plans to route a pipeline through land granted to her tribe in an 1855 Treaty.

Legacy and honors

• 1994, LaDuke was nominated by Time magazine as one of America's fifty most promising leaders under forty years of age.
• 1996, she was given the Thomas Merton Award
• 1997, she was granted the BIHA Community Service Award
• 1998, she won the Reebok Human Rights Award.
• 1998, Ms. Magazine named her Woman of the Year for her work with Honor the Earth.
• Ann Bancroft Award for Women's Leadership Fellowship.
• 2007, she was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.
• 2015, she received an honorary doctorate degree from Augsburg College.
• 2017, she received the Alice and Clifford Spendlove Prize in Social Justice, Diplomacy and Tolerance, at the University of California, Merced.
• 2020, she was a keynote speaker at Verdical Group's annual Net Zero Conference

Electoral history

1996 election

2000 election

2016 election

Electoral vote for vice president

See also

• List of Indigenous writers of the Americas

References

1. Amy Goodman, Winona LaDuke (December 7, 2018). Interview with Winona LaDuke. Democracy Now!. Event occurs at 15:20. Retrieved March 3, 2021.
2. ^ LaDuke, Winona (August 25, 2016). "What Would Sitting Bull Do?". La Progressive. Archived from the original on December 4, 2019. Retrieved November 17, 2016.
3. ^ "Peter Ritter, "The Party Crasher"". Minneapolis News. October 11, 2000.
4. "Willamette Week | "Winona Laduke" | July 19th, 2006". Archived from the original on August 27, 2006.
5. ^ Contemporary Authors (PDF) (Volume 100 ed.). Gale Group: Thomson Learning. 2002. pp. 256–258.
6. "Ricing Time: Harvesting on the Lakes of White Earth". National Public Radio. November 12, 2004.Archived July 6, 2022, at the Wayback Machine
7. Pemberton, Lisa. "The Evergreen State College graduates nearly 1,300 students". theolympian. Archived from the original on July 6, 2022. Retrieved April 19, 2019.
8. "About Us". Honor The Earth. Archived from the original on April 16, 2017. Retrieved April 15, 2017.
9. Bowe, Nathan. Honor the Earth ordered to pay $750,000 in civil suit, Forum Communications Company: Detroit Lakes Tribune, April 3, 2023.
10. "Winona LaDuke endorsement of John Kerry for president". October 20, 2004. Archived from the original on December 24, 2013. Retrieved October 22, 2012.
11. "LaDuke and the lessons she learned with Nader". Minnesota Post. May 22, 2008. Archived from the original on October 16, 2014. Retrieved October 22, 2012.
12. Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: "Winona LaDuke on Presidential Politics (7:41)". YouTube. September 27, 2012. Retrieved October 22, 2012.
13. "How Faith Spotted Eagle became the first Native American to win an electoral vote for president". LA Times. Archived from the original on December 21, 2016. Retrieved December 21, 2016.
14. Amy Goodman, Winona LaDuke (September 4, 2016). Dakota Access Pipeline Company Attacks Native American Protesters with Dogs and Pepper Spray. Democracy Now!. Archived from the original on September 24, 2018. Retrieved September 4, 2016.
15. Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: "Audubon Convention 2019: Opening Address. Winona LaDuke". August 8, 2019 – via www.youtube.com.
16. "'They're Shoving A Pipe Down Our Throat': Inside Winona LaDuke's Fight Against Line 3". May 31, 2021. Archived from the original on June 11, 2021. Retrieved June 11, 2021.
17. Murphy, Hannah; Dunlea, Reed (April 23, 2020). "The Fight Against Minnesota's Line 3 Pipeline: Bill McKibben and Winona LaDuke in Conversation". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on June 11, 2021. Retrieved June 11, 2021.
18. Fish, Robin D. (December 19, 2020). "LaDuke, Line 3 opponents stage first of 'weekly' protests at Enbridge office in Park Rapids". Duluth News Tribune. Archived from the original on June 11, 2021. Retrieved June 11, 2021.
19. ""Not Having It": Winona LaDuke on Mass Protest by Water Protectors to Halt Line 3 Pipeline in Minnesota". Democracy Now!. Archived from the original on June 11, 2021. Retrieved June 11, 2021.
20. "In These Times- The Renaissance of Tribal Hemp". April 21, 2018. Archived from the original on July 6, 2022. Retrieved October 19, 2018.
21. "Winona LaDuke announces her Hemp and Heritage Farm is coming alive - IndianCountryToday.com". IndianCountryToday.com. July 14, 2018. Archived from the original on April 13, 2019. Retrieved October 19, 2018.
22. ^ "Intelligent and idealistic, Winona LaDuke turns to hemp farming, solar power to jump-start the 'next economy'". Star Tribune. June 22, 2020. Archived from the original on October 21, 2020. Retrieved October 17, 2020.
23. "Hess Scholar in Residence Winona LaDuke Says We Must Take the "Green Path" to Restore Our Environment and Economy". CUNY Newswire. Archived from the original on July 6, 2022. Retrieved October 17, 2020.
24. "Winona LaDuke: Consider marijuana and hemp in Indian Country". Indianz. Archived from the original on April 19, 2021. Retrieved October 17, 2020.
25. "Winona LaDuke: Consider Marijuana and Hemp for Indian Country". Indianz. March 5, 2015. Archived from the original on October 20, 2018. Retrieved October 19, 2018.
26. "Winona LaDuke to rebuild home destroyed by fire". News from Indian Country. November 17, 2008. Archived from the original on August 28, 2018. Retrieved November 17, 2008.
27. Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics (2017). "Winona LaDuke". Iowa State University Archives of Women's Political Communication. Archived from the original on February 1, 2017. Retrieved January 20, 2017.
28. "Anthem". IMDb.
29. Canada, National Film Board of, Uranium, archived from the original on January 14, 2020, retrieved January 5, 2020
30. globalreach.com, Global Reach Internet Productions, LLC – Ames, IA -. "Winona LaDuke – Women's Political Communication Archives". www.womenspeecharchive.org. Archived from the original on February 1, 2017. Retrieved January 20, 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
31. "LaDuke on The Colbert Report". colbertnation.com.Archived July 4, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
32. "Urgent Cinema: Winona LaDuke and the Enbridge Pipeline". Walker Art Center. Archived from the original on February 23, 2017. Retrieved February 22, 2017.
33. "LaDuke, Winona". National Women's Hall of Fame. Archived February 1, 2021, at the Wayback Machine
34. "Day Undergraduate Ceremony – Commencement". Archived from the original on June 30, 2016. Retrieved January 5, 2018.
35. "Indigenous Activist Winona LaDuke Wins Spendlove Prize – UC Merced". www.ucmerced.edu. Archived from the original on March 9, 2018. Retrieved January 5, 2018.
36. hello@verdicalgroup.com (September 29, 2023). "Honoring Past Keynote Speakers and Trailblazer Award Winners". Net Zero Conference. Retrieved September 6, 2024.

Further reading

• Andrews, Max (Ed.), Land, Art: A Cultural Ecology Handbook. London, Royal Society of Arts, 2006, ISBN 978-0-901469-57-1. Interview with Winona LaDuke

External links

• Honor the Earth, Official Website
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Winona LaDuke at nativeharvest.com
• Winona LaDuke, Voices from the Gap, University of Minnesota
• Cedar-Face, Mary Jane. "Winona LaDuke (1959–)". The Oregon Encyclopedia.
• VP Acceptance Speech, 1996 Green Party Convention
• "Nader's No. 2" at Salon.com (July 13, 2000)
• Winona LaDuke interview with Majora Carter of The Promised Land radio show (2000)
• Winona LaDuke at IMDb
• Winona LaDuke papers at University of Oregon Libraries Special Collections and University Archives

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