Winona LaDuke
Author, Environmental Activist, Economist, VP Political Candidate, Community Developer
Born: 1959
Birthplace: Los Angeles, California
“There is no social-change fairy. There is only change made by the hands of individuals.”
Winona LaDuke, is the daughter of Anishinabeg (Ojibwa) Vincent LaDuke (SunBear) and Russian Betty Bernstein. A member of the Ashland Oregon high school debate team, She determined to attend Harvard. While earning a degree in economic development from Harvard, she met and was influenced by Jimmy Durham, a well-known Cherokee activist. When she was 18, she addressed the United Nations on Native American issues.
After graduation, LaDuke moved to Minnesota’s White Earth reservation, a place she had never lived despite it being her tribal home. Immediately she was engaged in a land recovery lawsuit battle, with sitting tribal leaders, who were ultimately indicted of election fraud, mail fraud, embezzlement and bribery. LaDuke founded the White Earth Land Recovery Project, (WELRP) which works to buy back tribal lands to be held in trust and eventually ceded back to the tribe.
The White earth Reservation originally covered 1300 sq. miles, but like other reservations, much was lost in the great grab that was the Dawes Act of 1887 and later, the Nelson Act of 1889.Currently only 10% of the original land is thought to be retained by tribal members. So far WELRP has succeeded in re-acquiring around 1200 acres.
In 1985 LaDuke established the Indigenous Women’s Network, (IWN) with a view toward increasing women’s visibility and empowerment. She is Executive director of the Honor the Earth, an organization partnering, both the IWN and the Indigenous Environmental Network, (IEN) meeting just last month with the IIPFCC, a subsidiary of the UN on climate change.
LaDuke received the national spotlight as VPOTUS running mate to Ralph Nader on the 1996 and 2000 Green Party tickets. As his running mate in 2000, she, like Sarah Palin since, ran her campaign with a baby at her breast, and is the mother of five children. (Normally not an issue for comment, it appears our society has regressed since.)
Her current tribal projects include expanding energy self-sufficiency, improving education, food programs, land improvement and women’s empowerment. She is on the Board of Directors for Greenpeace. On November 17th, 2008 her home was destroyed in a fire. Though all the occupants survived, the contents were destroyed, including her records, research and library, and personal items. At this time she is looking for help in donations back to family pictures, books music, signs, and shirts.
LaDuke’s mailing address is Winona LaDuke, c/o White Earth Land Recovery Project, 607 Main Avenue, Callaway, Minnesota 56521.
Honors and Notations
Harvard University, Antioch University
Honor the Earth, White Earth Land Recovery Project
1994 Time Magazine One of 50 Most Promising Leaders under 40
1996 Thomas Merton Award
The Ann Bancroft Award
The Global Green Award
1998 Reebok Human Rights Award winner and Grantee
1997 Ms. Magazine woman of the year
1996, 2000 United States Vice Presidential Candidate, Green Party
2007 Women’s Hall of Fame
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, In the Sugarbush (Children’s, and, the Winona LaDuke Reader.
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White Earth Land Recovery Project
Women of the Hall: Winona LaDuke
Celebrating Hellraisers: Winona LaDuke
Native American leader Winona LaDuke to discuss environmental justice
I Own My Vote, PUMA, The Denver Group, Just Say No Deal
Grab and Keel 
[…] Winona LaDuke As Ralph Nader’s running mate in 2000, she, like Sarah Palin since, ran her campaign with a baby at her breast, and is the mother of five children. Her current tribal projects include expanding energy self-sufficiency, … […]
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