Winona LaDuke
Encyclopedia
Winona LaDuke is a Native American
activist, environmentalist
, economist
, and writer
. In 1996
and 2000
, she ran for vice president
as the nominee of the United States Green Party, on a ticket headed by Ralph Nader
. In the 2004 election
, however, she endorsed one of Nader's opponents, Democratic
candidate John Kerry
. In the 2008 presidential election, LaDuke endorsed Democrat Barack Obama
.
She is currently the executive director of both Honor the Earth
and White Earth Land Recovery Project
.
, California
, to Vincent and Betty LaDuke. Her father was part Anishinaabe
(Ojibwe or "Chippewa") from Minnesota
. He was an actor
with supporting roles in Western movies, an activist, a writer
, and at the end of his life, a spiritual guru under the name Sun Bear. Her mother was a Jewish
artist
, employed as an art
professor
at Southern Oregon University
in Ashland, Oregon
.
LaDuke was raised in Ashland, Oregon
. After graduating from Harvard
in 1982 with a degree in rural economic development, she became principal of the high school on the Anishinaabe White Earth Indian Reservation
in Minnesota
. She then graduated with an M.A. in Community Economic Development from Antioch University
. She soon became an activist, involved in the struggle to recover lands promised to the Anishinaabe by an 1867 treaty. She helped the Anishinaabe buy back thousands of acres of ancestral land.
She worked with Women of All Red Nations
to publicize the alleged high level of forced sterilization among Native American women.
LaDuke is the author of the novel Last Standing Woman (1997); the non-fiction book All our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life (1999); and Recovering the Sacred: the Power of Naming and Claiming (2005), a book about traditional beliefs and practices.
She appeared in the documentary film
Anthem
, directed by Shainee Gabel and Kristin Hahn. The film was released in the United States
on July 25, 1997. Both directors were awarded by the 1997 Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival. LaDuke also appeared in the TV documentary The Main Stream, first released on December 17, 2002.
LaDuke was named Woman of the Year by Ms. Magazine
in 1997 and won the Reebok Human Rights Award
in 1988. She is the founder of the White Earth Land Recovery Project
in Minnesota
and the Indigenous Women's Network. She is also Executive Director of Honor the Earth
, an organization she co-founded with Indigo Girls
in 1993, and later sponsored and organized by the Seventh Generation Fund, Indigenous Women's Network and the Indigenous Environmental Network. The Native-led organization's mission is "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." She was also given the Ann Bancroft Award for Women's Leadership Fellowship.
In September 2007, LaDuke was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame
.
On November 9, 2008, LaDuke's house in Ponsford, Minnesota
, burned down. LaDuke was in Boston when the fire broke out. Her four family members at home got out in time and no one was injured. However, LaDuke lost all her personal property on the site, including her extensive library and Indigenous art and artifact collection.
LaDuke is the mother of three children, and now a grandmother.
LaDuke appeared on The Colbert Report on June 12, 2008.
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
activist, environmentalist
Environmentalist
An environmentalist broadly supports the goals of the environmental movement, "a political and ethical movement that seeks to improve and protect the quality of the natural environment through changes to environmentally harmful human activities"...
, economist
Economist
An economist is a professional in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy...
, and writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
. In 1996
United States presidential election, 1996
The United States presidential election of 1996 was a contest between the Democratic national ticket of President Bill Clinton of Arkansas and Vice President Al Gore of Tennessee and the Republican national ticket of former Senator Bob Dole of Kansas for President and former Housing Secretary Jack...
and 2000
United States presidential election, 2000
The United States presidential election of 2000 was a contest between Republican candidate George W. Bush, then-governor of Texas and son of former president George H. W. Bush , and Democratic candidate Al Gore, then-Vice President....
, she ran for vice president
Vice President of the United States
The Vice President of the United States is the holder of a public office created by the United States Constitution. The Vice President, together with the President of the United States, is indirectly elected by the people, through the Electoral College, to a four-year term...
as the nominee of the United States Green Party, on a ticket headed by Ralph Nader
Ralph Nader
Ralph Nader is an American political activist, as well as an author, lecturer, and attorney. Areas of particular concern to Nader include consumer protection, humanitarianism, environmentalism, and democratic government....
. In the 2004 election
United States presidential election, 2004
The United States presidential election of 2004 was the United States' 55th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 2, 2004. Republican Party candidate and incumbent President George W. Bush defeated Democratic Party candidate John Kerry, the then-junior U.S. Senator...
, however, she endorsed one of Nader's opponents, Democratic
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
candidate John Kerry
John Kerry
John Forbes Kerry is the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts, the 10th most senior U.S. Senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2004 presidential election, but lost to former President George W...
. In the 2008 presidential election, LaDuke endorsed Democrat Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
.
She is currently the executive director of both Honor the Earth
Honor The Earth
Honor The Earth is a non-profit organization founded to raise awareness and financial support for Indigenous environmental justice. The organization was founded by Indigo Girls Amy Ray and Emily Saliers after meeting Winona LaDuke in 1991 in collaboration with Indigenous Environmental Network,...
and White Earth Land Recovery Project
White Earth Land Recovery Project
The White Earth Land Recovery Project is a nonprofit organization that seeks to recover land for the Anishinaabeg people on the White Earth Indian Reservation in Minnesota...
.
Biography
LaDuke was born in Los AngelesLos Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, to Vincent and Betty LaDuke. Her father was part Anishinaabe
Anishinaabe
Anishinaabe or Anishinabe—or more properly Anishinaabeg or Anishinabek, which is the plural form of the word—is the autonym often used by the Odawa, Ojibwe, and Algonquin peoples. They all speak closely related Anishinaabemowin/Anishinaabe languages, of the Algonquian language family.The meaning...
(Ojibwe or "Chippewa") from Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
. He was an actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
with supporting roles in Western movies, an activist, a writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
, and at the end of his life, a spiritual guru under the name Sun Bear. Her mother was a Jewish
American Jews
American Jews, also known as Jewish Americans, are American citizens of the Jewish faith or Jewish ethnicity. The Jewish community in the United States is composed predominantly of Ashkenazi Jews who emigrated from Central and Eastern Europe, and their U.S.-born descendants...
artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
, employed as an art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
at Southern Oregon University
Southern Oregon University
is a public liberal arts college located in Ashland, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1926, it was formerly known as Southern Oregon College and Southern Oregon State College . SOU offers criminology, natural sciences, including environmental science, Shakespearean studies and theatre arts programs...
in Ashland, Oregon
Ashland, Oregon
Ashland is a city in Jackson County, Oregon, United States, near Interstate 5 and the California border, and located in the south end of the Rogue Valley. It was named after Ashland County, Ohio, point of origin of Abel Helman and other founders, and secondarily for Ashland, Kentucky, where other...
.
LaDuke was raised in Ashland, Oregon
Ashland, Oregon
Ashland is a city in Jackson County, Oregon, United States, near Interstate 5 and the California border, and located in the south end of the Rogue Valley. It was named after Ashland County, Ohio, point of origin of Abel Helman and other founders, and secondarily for Ashland, Kentucky, where other...
. After graduating from Harvard
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
in 1982 with a degree in rural economic development, she became principal of the high school on the Anishinaabe White Earth Indian Reservation
White Earth Indian Reservation
The White Earth Indian Reservation is the home to the White Earth Nation, located in northwestern Minnesota. It is the largest Indian reservation in that state...
in Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
. She then graduated with an M.A. in Community Economic Development from Antioch University
Antioch University
Antioch University is an American university with five campuses located in four states. Campuses are located in Los Angeles, California; Santa Barbara, California; Keene, New Hampshire; Yellow Springs, Ohio; and Seattle, Washington. Additionally, Antioch University houses two institution-wide...
. She soon became an activist, involved in the struggle to recover lands promised to the Anishinaabe by an 1867 treaty. She helped the Anishinaabe buy back thousands of acres of ancestral land.
She worked with Women of All Red Nations
Women of All Red Nations
Women of All Red Nations was a Native American women's organization. It was established in 1974 by Lorelei DeCora Means, Madonna Thunderhawk, Phyllis Young, Janet McCloud, and others. WARN included more than 300 women from 30 different tribal communities...
to publicize the alleged high level of forced sterilization among Native American women.
LaDuke is the author of the novel Last Standing Woman (1997); the non-fiction book All our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life (1999); and Recovering the Sacred: the Power of Naming and Claiming (2005), a book about traditional beliefs and practices.
She appeared in the documentary film
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
Anthem
Anthem (film)
Anthem is a nine-minute music video released in 1991. The film was produced by Marlon T. Riggs. The film displays mixes images of mainstream African-American pride, such as traditional African tribal dances, alongside images representing gay pride, such as ACT UP’s “Silence=Death.” The film uses...
, directed by Shainee Gabel and Kristin Hahn. The film was released in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
on July 25, 1997. Both directors were awarded by the 1997 Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival. LaDuke also appeared in the TV documentary The Main Stream, first released on December 17, 2002.
LaDuke was named Woman of the Year by Ms. Magazine
Ms. magazine
Ms. is an American feminist magazine co-founded by American feminist and activist Gloria Steinem and founding editor Letty Cottin Pogrebin together with founding editors Patricia Carbine, Joanne Edgar, Nina Finkelstein, and Mary Peacock, that first appeared in 1971 as an insert in New York magazine...
in 1997 and won the Reebok Human Rights Award
Reebok Human Rights Award
The Reebok Human Rights Award honours activists under the age of 30 who fight for human rights through non-violent means. Each year, the award is given to four or five individuals. Each receives a grant of US$50,000 that must be used to support their human rights work. The awards are underwritten...
in 1988. She is the founder of the White Earth Land Recovery Project
White Earth Land Recovery Project
The White Earth Land Recovery Project is a nonprofit organization that seeks to recover land for the Anishinaabeg people on the White Earth Indian Reservation in Minnesota...
in Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
and the Indigenous Women's Network. She is also Executive Director of Honor the Earth
Honor The Earth
Honor The Earth is a non-profit organization founded to raise awareness and financial support for Indigenous environmental justice. The organization was founded by Indigo Girls Amy Ray and Emily Saliers after meeting Winona LaDuke in 1991 in collaboration with Indigenous Environmental Network,...
, an organization she co-founded with Indigo Girls
Indigo Girls
The Indigo Girls are an American folk rock music duo, consisting of Amy Ray and Emily Saliers. They met in elementary school and began performing together as high school students in Decatur, Georgia, part of the Atlanta metropolitan area...
in 1993, and later sponsored and organized by the Seventh Generation Fund, Indigenous Women's Network and the Indigenous Environmental Network. The Native-led organization's mission is "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." She was also given the Ann Bancroft Award for Women's Leadership Fellowship.
In September 2007, LaDuke was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame
National Women's Hall of Fame
The National Women's Hall of Fame is an American institution. It was created in 1969 by a group of people in Seneca Falls, New York, the location of the 1848 Women's Rights Convention...
.
On November 9, 2008, LaDuke's house in Ponsford, Minnesota
Ponsford, Minnesota
Ponsford is an unincorporated community in Becker County, Minnesota, United States.The community is located west of Park Rapids on Minnesota State Highway 225.Minnesota State Highway 34 is nearby....
, burned down. LaDuke was in Boston when the fire broke out. Her four family members at home got out in time and no one was injured. However, LaDuke lost all her personal property on the site, including her extensive library and Indigenous art and artifact collection.
LaDuke is the mother of three children, and now a grandmother.
LaDuke appeared on The Colbert Report on June 12, 2008.
See also
- List of writers from peoples indigenous to the Americas
- Native American StudiesNative American StudiesNative American Studies is an interdisciplinary academic field that examines the history, culture, politics, issues and contemporary experience of Native peoples in North America, or, taking a hemispheric approach, the Americas...
Resources
- Montgomery, Alicia. "Nader's No. 2" (July 13, 2000). Salon.comSalon.comSalon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...
. - Walljasper, Jay. "Celebrating Hellraisers: Winona LaDuke" (January/February 1996). Mother JonesMother Jones (magazine)Mother Jones is an American independent news organization, featuring investigative and breaking news reporting on politics, the environment, human rights, and culture. Mother Jones has been nominated for 23 National Magazine Awards and has won six times, including for General Excellence in 2001,...
magazine. - Andrews, Max (Ed.), Land, Art: A Cultural Ecology Handbook. London, Royal Society of Arts, 2006 ISBN 9780901469571 Interview with Winona LaDuke
- The Promised Land with Majora Carter. "Winona LaDuke." (2000).