Winona LaDuke

Last updated

Winona LaDuke
Winona laduke 2.jpg
Born (1959-08-18) August 18, 1959 (age 64)
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 economist, environmentalist, writer and industrial hemp grower, known for her work on tribal land claims and preservation, as well as sustainable development. [1]

Contents

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. [2]

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 LaDuke in earlier years Winona laduke.jpg
Winona LaDuke in earlier years

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 [3] ). 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. [4] 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. [3]

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. [3] In the 1980s, Vincent reinvented himself as a New Age spiritual leader by the name Sun Bear. [3]

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). [3] 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. [3]

Career and activism

LaDuke in 2009 Reception (4099192018) (cropped).jpg
LaDuke in 2009

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. [5] 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. [3]

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. [3] 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. [3] It produces and sells traditional foods and crafts through its label, Native Harvest. [6] The Evergreen State College class of 2014 chose LaDuke as its commencement speaker. She delivered her address at the school on June 13, 2014. [7]

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. [2] 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. [8]

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. [9]

Political career, 1996-2016

Winona La Duke speaking at Intellectual House, University of Washington, 2018 Winona LaDuke.png
Winona La Duke speaking at Intellectual House, University of Washington, 2018

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.[ citation needed ] LaDuke endorsed the Democratic Party ticket for president and vice-president in 2004, [10] 2008, [11] and 2012. [12]

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. [13]

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. [14]

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. [15]

In 2020 and 2021, she was a leader of the protests against the Line 3 pipeline. [16] [17] [18] [19]

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, [20] vegetables and tobacco. [21] 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. [22] LaDuke has promoted the growth of both marijuana and industrial hemp on Indigenous tribal lands for financial profit and the localization of the economy. [23] [24] 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. [25]

Personal life

In 1988, LaDuke married Cree Randy Kapashesit of Moose Factory, Ontario, Canada. They separated in 1992. [5]

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. [26] As of 2020, she had one son [3] and six grandchildren. [22]

Selected publications

Books

As co-author

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

Filmography

Television and film appearances:

Legacy and honors

Electoral history

1996 election

1996 United States presidential election
Presidential candidate
Vice presidential candidate		PartyPopular
votes		 %Electoral votes
Bill Clinton (incumbent)
Al Gore 		Democratic 47,401,18549.24%379
Bob Dole
Jack Kemp 		Republican 39,197,46940.71%159
Ross Perot
Pat Choate 		Reform 8,085,2948.40%0
Ralph Nader
Winona LaDuke		 Green 685,2970.71%0
Harry Browne
Jo Jorgensen 		Libertarian 485,7590.50%0
Others411,9930.43%0
Total96,277,634100%538

2000 election

2000 United States presidential election
Presidential candidate
Vice presidential candidate		PartyPopular
votes		 %Electoral votes
Al Gore
Joe Lieberman 		Democratic 50,999,89748.4%266
George W. Bush
Dick Cheney 		Republican 50,456,00247.87%271
Ralph Nader
Winona LaDuke		 Green 2,882,9552.74%0
Pat Buchanan
Ezola Foster 		Reform 448,8950.43%0
Harry Browne
Art Olivier 		Libertarian 384,4310.36%0
Others232,9200.22%(abstention) 1
Total105,421,423100%538

2016 election

Electoral vote for vice president

↓
22731111305
KaineWarrenCantwellLaDukeCollinsFiorinaPence

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sioux</span> Native American and First Nations ethnic groups

The Sioux or Oceti Sakowin are groups of Native American tribes and First Nations people from the Great Plains of North America. The Sioux have two major linguistic divisions: the Dakota and Lakota peoples. Collectively, they are the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ, or "Seven Council Fires". The term "Sioux", an exonym from a French transcription ("Nadouessioux") of the Ojibwe term "Nadowessi", can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or to any of the nation's many language dialects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ojibwe</span> Group of indigenous peoples in North America

The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains. They are Indigenous peoples of the Subarctic and Northeastern Woodlands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Red Lake Indian Reservation</span> Home to the federally recognized Red Lake Band of Ojibwe

The Red Lake Indian Reservation covers 1,260.3 sq mi in parts of nine counties in Minnesota, United States. It is made up of numerous holdings but the largest section is an area about Red Lake, in north-central Minnesota, the largest lake in the state. This section lies primarily in the counties of Beltrami and Clearwater. Land in seven other counties is also part of the reservation. The reservation population was 5,506 in the 2020 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anishinaabe</span> Indigenous ethnic groups of the United States and Canada

The Anishinaabe are a group of culturally related Indigenous peoples present in the Great Lakes region of Canada and the United States. They include the Ojibwe, Odawa, Potawatomi, Mississaugas, Nipissing and Algonquin peoples. The Anishinaabe speak Anishinaabemowin, or Anishinaabe languages that belong to the Algonquian language family.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indians</span> Indian tribe in Wisconsin, United States

The Bad River LaPointe Band of the Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indians or Bad River Tribe for short are a federally recognized tribe of Ojibwe people. The tribe had 6,945 members as of 2010. The Bad River Reservation is located on the south shore of Lake Superior and has a land area of about 193.11 square miles (500.15 km2) in northern Wisconsin, straddling Ashland and Iron counties. Odanah, the administrative and cultural center, is located five miles (8.0 km) east of the town of Ashland on U.S. Highway 2. The reservation population was 1,545 in 2020. Most of the reservation is managed as undeveloped forest and wetland, providing a habitat for wild rice and other natural resources.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White Earth Indian Reservation</span> Anishinaabe / Ojibwe reservation in Minnesota

The White Earth Indian Reservation is home to the White Earth Band, located in northwestern Minnesota. It is the largest Indian reservation in the state by land area. The reservation includes all of Mahnomen County, plus parts of Becker and Clearwater counties in the northwest part of the state along the Wild Rice and White Earth rivers. The reservation's land area is 1,093 square miles (2,830 km2). The population was 9,726 as of the 2020 census, including off-reservation trust land. The White Earth Indian Reservation is one of six bands that make up the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, their governing body for major administrative needs. It is about 225 miles (362 km) from Minneapolis–Saint Paul and roughly 65 miles (105 km) from Fargo–Moorhead.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White Earth Nation</span> Native American band in Minnesota, USA

The White Earth Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, also called the White Earth Nation, is a federally recognized Native American band located in northwestern Minnesota. The band's land base is the White Earth Indian Reservation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa</span>

Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa is an Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) band located near Cloquet, Minnesota. Their land base is the Fond du Lac Indian Reservation, located mainly in Carlton and Saint Louis Counties, Minnesota, 20 miles west of Duluth.

The Minnesota Indian Affairs Council (MIAC) is an intergovernmental body established by the U.S. state of Minnesota to serve as a liaison between state government and the Native American tribes residing within the state's boundaries. Created by the Minnesota Legislature, MIAC aims to improve relationships, facilitate dialogue, and address issues of mutual concern between the State of Minnesota and the tribal governments. The council plays a critical role in advising on policy, advocating for indigenous rights, and promoting cultural understanding.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians</span>

The Lac Courte Oreilles Tribe is one of six federally recognized bands of Ojibwe people located in present-day Wisconsin. It had 7,275 enrolled members as of 2010. The band is based at the Lac Courte Oreilles Indian Reservation in northwestern Wisconsin, which surrounds Lac Courte Oreilles. The main reservation's land is in west-central Sawyer County, but two small plots of off-reservation trust land are located in Rusk, Burnett, and Washburn counties. The reservation was established in 1854 by the second Treaty of La Pointe.

The Lake Superior Chippewa are a large number of Ojibwe (Anishinaabe) bands living around Lake Superior; this territory is considered part of northern Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota in the United States. They migrated into the area by the seventeenth century, encroaching on the Eastern Dakota people who had historically occupied the area. The Ojibwe defeated the Eastern Dakota, who migrated west into the Great Plains after the final battle in 1745. While they share a common culture including the Anishinaabe language, this highly decentralized group of Ojibwe includes at least twelve independent bands in the region.

Jim Northrup was an Anishinaabe newspaper columnist, poet, performer, and political commentator from the Fond du Lac Indian Reservation in Minnesota. His Anishinaabe name was "Chibenashi".

Margaret A. Noodin (née O’Donnell) is an American poet and Anishinaabemowin language teacher. She is a professor of English and American Indian studies at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and Associate Dean of the Humanities. She also directs a tribal Head Start program in Minnesota.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LaDonna Brave Bull Allard</span> Lakota historian and activist (1956–2021)

LaDonna Brave Bull Allard, known as Tamakawastewin, was a Native American Dakota and Lakota historian, genealogist, and a matriarch of the water protector movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Water protectors</span> Environmental activists from an Indigenous perspective

Water protectors are activists, organizers, and cultural workers focused on the defense of the world's water and water systems. The water protector name, analysis and style of activism arose from Indigenous communities in North America during the Dakota Access Pipeline protests at the Standing Rock Reservation, which began with an encampment on LaDonna Brave Bull Allard's land in April, 2016.

The Line 3 pipeline is an oil pipeline owned by the Canadian multinational Enbridge. Operating since 1968, it runs 1,031 miles (1,659 km) from Hardisty, Alberta, Canada to Superior, Wisconsin, United States.

<i>Dodging Bullets—Stories from Survivors of Historical Trauma</i> American film

Dodging Bullets—Stories from Survivors of Historical Trauma is a documentary film on historical trauma in Indian country, co-directed by Kathy Broere (Blackfeet), Sarah Edstrom, Jonathan Thunder, and Bob Trench, and produced by Larry Long with soundtrack by Keith Secola. The film focuses on historical events and how they inter-generationally affect the Indigenous population in North America today. It premiered at the Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Film Festival where it was awarded "Best of Fest" and was awarded The Samuel Sprynczynatyk Storyteller Award: Best Documentary Feature at the North Dakota Human Rights Film Festival. Filmed across the lands of the Plains Indians, which is now known as Wisconsin, Minnesota, the Dakotas, Nebraska, Colorado, and Montana, the film recalls first-hand storytelling that reflects how past generations were deeply impacted by mass trauma and how that trauma influences Indigenous peoples of the Americas today. The film ends on a positive path to healing through ceremony and cultural identity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stop Line 3 protests</span> Minnesota protests against expansion of oil pipeline

The Stop Line 3 protests are an ongoing series of demonstrations in the U.S. state of Minnesota against the expansion of Enbridge's Line 3 oil pipeline along a new route. The new route was completed in September 2021, and was operational on 1 October 2021. Indigenous people have led the resistance to the construction of the pipeline, which began following the project's approval in November 2020. Opponents of the pipeline expansion, called water protectors, have established ceremonial lodges and resistance camps along the route of the pipeline. Enbridge has funded an escrow account that law enforcement agencies may draw on for pipeline-related police work. Organizers have arranged marches and occupations of Enbridge construction sites. Following the blockade of an Enbridge pump station on June 7, 2021, nearly 250 people were arrested. Invoking treaty rights, organizers established an encampment at the headwaters of the Mississippi River at a site where Enbridge intends to bury the pipeline.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tara Houska</span> Tribal attorney and activist

Tara Houska Zhaabowekwe is a tribal attorney, land defender and climate justice activist.

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. 1 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. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "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. 1 2 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 . 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" – 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. 1 2 "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.

Further reading

Party political offices
First Green nominee for Vice President of the United States
1996, 2000 		Succeeded by
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.