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. In 1996 and

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

, she ran for Vice President of the United States as the nominee of the

Green Party of the United States The Green Party of the United States (GPUS) is a federation of Green state political parties in the United States. The party promotes green politics, specifically environmentalism; nonviolence; social justice; participatory democracy, gras ...

, on a ticket headed by

Ralph Nader Ralph Nader (; born February 27, 1934) is an American political activist, author, lecturer, and attorney noted for his involvement in consumer protection, environmentalism, and government reform causes. The son of Lebanese immigrants to the U ...

. She is 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 A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundati ...

member to receive an electoral vote.

Early life and education

Winona (meaning "first daughter" in

Dakota language Dakota (''Dakhótiyapi, Dakȟótiyapi''), also referred to as Dakhota, is a Siouan language spoken by the Dakota people of the Sioux tribes. Dakota is closely related to and mutually intelligible with the Lakota language. It is critically endan ...

) LaDuke was born in 1959 in Los Angeles, California, to Betty Bernstein and Vincent LaDuke (later known as

Sun Bear The sun bear (''Helarctos malayanus'') is a species in the family Ursidae (the only species in the genus ''Helarctos'') occurring in the tropical forests of Southeast Asia. It is the smallest bear, standing nearly at the shoulder and weighin ...

Peter Ritter, "The Party Crasher"
''Minneapolis News'', October 11, 2000). Her father was from the

Ojibwe The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains. According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...

White Earth Reservation in

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the List of U.S. states and territories by population, 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minne ...

, and her mother of Jewish European ancestry from

The Bronx, New York The Bronx () is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state, state of New York (state), New York. It is south of Westchester County, New York, Westchester County; north and east of the ...

. 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 with the Ojibwe Nation at an early age, 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 New Age is a range of spiritual or religious practices and beliefs which rapidly grew in Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise definition difficult. Although many scholars consi ...

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 Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

, 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 Ojibwe , also known as Ojibwa , Ojibway, Otchipwe,R. R. Bishop Baraga, 1878''A Theoretical and Practical Grammar of the Otchipwe Language''/ref> Ojibwemowin, or Anishinaabemowin, is an indigenous language of North America of the Algonquian la ...

, 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 working as a principal at the high school, LaDuke became an activist. 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 The Anishinaabeg (adjectival: 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 (including Saulteaux and Oji-Cree), Odawa, Potawato ...

. 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. In 1989, LaDuke founded the

White Earth Land Recovery Project The White Earth Land Recovery Project (WELRP) is a nonprofit, grassroots organization that seeks to recover land for the Anishinaabeg people on the White Earth Indian Reservation in western Minnesota and develop programs to achieve sustainability a ...

(WELRP) in Minnesota with the proceeds of a human rights award from

Reebok Reebok International Limited () is an American fitness footwear and clothing manufacturer that is a part of Authentic Brands Group. It was established in England in 1958 as a companion company to J.W. Foster and Sons, a sporting goods company ...

. The 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 is also working to reforest the lands and revive cultivation of

wild rice Wild rice, also called manoomin, Canada rice, Indian rice, or water oats, is any of four species of grasses that form the genus ''Zizania'', and the grain that can be harvested from them. The grain was historically gathered and eaten in both ...

, long a traditional food. It markets that and other traditional products, including

hominy Hominy (Spanish: maíz molido; literally meaning "milled corn") is a food produced from dried maize (corn) kernels that have been treated with an alkali, in a process called nixtamalization ( is the Nahuatl word for "hominy"). "Lye hominy" is a ...

, jam, buffalo sausage, and other products. It has started an Ojibwe language program, a herd of buffalo, and a wind-energy project. LaDuke is also executive director of Honor the Earth, an organization she co-founded with the non-Native folk-rock duo the Indigo Girls in 1993. The 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.

The Evergreen State College class of 2014 chose LaDuke to be a keynote speaker. She delivered her address at the school's graduation on June 13, 2014. In 2016, LaDuke was involved in the Dakota Access Pipeline protests, participating at the

resistance camps Resistance may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Comics * Either of two similarly named but otherwise unrelated comic book series, both published by Wildstorm: ** ''Resistance'' (comics), based on the video game of the same title ** ''T ...

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.

Political career

In 1996 and 2000, LaDuke ran as the vice-presidential candidate with

on the

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 In the United States Electoral College, a faithless elector is an elector who does not vote for the candidates for U.S. President and U.S. Vice President for whom the elector had pledged to vote, and instead votes for another person for one or ...

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.

White Earth Land Recovery Project

WELRP has worked to revive cultivation and harvesting of wild rice, a traditional Ojibwe food. It produces and sells traditional foods and crafts through its label, Native Harvest."Ricing Time: Harvesting on the Lakes of White Earth"
, ''

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from othe ...

.'' November 12, 2004.

Honor the Earth

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 In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

, renewable energy, sustainable development, food systems and

environmental justice Environmental justice is a social movement to address the unfair exposure of poor and marginalized communities to harms from hazardous waste, resource extraction, and other land uses.Schlosberg, David. (2007) ''Defining Environmental Justice ...

. Members of Honor the Earth were active in the Dakota Access Pipeline protests.

Hemp activism

LaDuke operates 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.

Selected publications

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 *''Recovering the Sacred: the Power of Naming and Claiming'' (2005), a book about traditional beliefs and practices. *''The Militarization of Indian Country'' (2013) *''The Sugar Bush'' (1999) *''The Winona LaDuke Reader: A Collection of Essential Writings'' (2002) *''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 Keri Pickett (born in 1959, Charleston, S.C.) is an American photographer, author and filmmaker. Pickett's work "pulls subjects from the edges of public awareness to the center of the frame". Pickett was first exposed to photography as a child th ...

. 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 ''Time'' (stylized in all caps) is an American news magazine based in New York City. For nearly a century, it was published weekly, but starting in March 2020 it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York City on M ...

'' as one of America's fifty most promising leaders under forty years of age. * 1996, she was given the

Thomas Merton Award The Thomas Merton Award has been awarded since 1972 by the Thomas Merton Center for Peace and Social Justice in Pittsburgh, United States. It is named after Thomas Merton and is given annually to "national and international individuals struggling ...

* 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 Augsburg University is a private university in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. It was founded in 1869 as a Norwegian-American Lutheran seminary known as Augsburg Seminarium. Today, the ...

. * 2017, she received the Alice and Clifford Spendlove Prize in Social Justice, Diplomacy and Tolerance, at the

University of California, Merced The University of California, Merced (UC Merced) is a public land-grant research university and Hispanic-serving institution located in Merced, California, and is the tenth and newest of the University of California (UC) campuses. Establish ...

Marriage and family

On November 9, 2008, LaDuke's house in

Ponsford, Minnesota Ponsford ( ) is an unincorporated community in Becker County, Minnesota, United States. It is west of Park Rapids on former Minnesota State Highway 225. Minnesota State Highway 34 Minnesota State Highway 34 (MN 34) is a highway in west ...

, 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.

Electoral history

1996 election

2000 election

2016 election

Electoral vote for vice president

References

External links

Honor the Earth
Official Website *
Winona LaDuke
at nativeharvest.com
Winona LaDuke
''Voices from the Gap'',

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

*
VP Acceptance Speech
1996 Green Party Convention

at '' Salon.com'' (July 13, 2000)
Winona LaDuke interview
with Majora Carter of ''The Promised Land'' radio show (2000) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Laduke, Winona 1959 births 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American politicians 20th-century American women writers Economists from California American environmentalists American feminists American non-fiction environmental writers American people of Russian-Jewish descent American women novelists Antioch College alumni Ecofeminists Female candidates for Vice President of the United States Green Party of the United States vice presidential nominees Harvard University alumni Indigenous American philosophy Jewish American candidates for Vice President of the United States Jewish American writers Living people Minnesota Greens Native American activists Native American environmentalists American women environmentalists Native American novelists Native American candidates for Vice President of the United States Native American women in politics Native American women writers Native Americans' rights activists Ojibwe people Reproductive rights activists 1996 United States vice-presidential candidates 2000 United States vice-presidential candidates American women economists Writers from Ashland, Oregon Writers from Los Angeles Novelists from Minnesota Activists from California 20th-century American women politicians Novelists from Oregon American women non-fiction writers Economists from Oregon 20th-century American economists 21st-century American economists Novelists from California White Earth Band of Ojibwe 21st-century American women Women civil rights activists 21st-century American Jews 20th-century Native American women 20th-century Native Americans 21st-century Native American women 21st-century Native Americans