Winona LaDuke (born August 18, 1959) is an American economist, environmentalist, writer and industrial

hemp Hemp, or industrial hemp, is a botanical class of ''Cannabis sativa'' cultivars grown specifically for industrial or medicinal use. It can be used to make a wide range of products. Along with bamboo, hemp is among the fastest growing plants o ...

grower, known for her work on tribal land claims and preservation, as well as sustainable development. In

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

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 party, Green state political parties in the United States. The party promotes green politics, specifically environmentalism; nonviolence; social justice; participatory democra ...

, 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 Un ...

. She is the executive director and a co-founder (along with the

Indigo Girls Indigo Girls are an American folk rock music duo from Atlanta, Georgia, United States, consisting of Amy Ray and Emily Saliers. The two met in elementary school and began performing together as high school students in Decatur, Georgia, part o ...

) of

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, and after cons ...

, a Native environmental advocacy organization that played an active role in the

Dakota Access Pipeline protests The Dakota Access Pipeline Protests, also called by the hashtag #NoDAPL, began in April 2016 as a grassroots opposition to the construction of Energy Transfer Partners' Dakota Access Pipeline in the northern United States and ended on Febru ...

. In

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

, 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 foundation ...

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 weighing ...

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 The White Earth Indian Reservation ( oj, Gaa-waabaabiganikaag, "Where there is an abundance of white clay") is the home to the White Earth Band, located in northwestern Minnesota. It is the largest Indian reservation in the state by land area. ...

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 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

, and her mother of Jewish European ancestry from

The Bronx, New York The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New York ...

. LaDuke spent some of her childhood in Los Angeles, but was primarily raised in

Ashland, Oregon Ashland is a city in Jackson County, Oregon, United States. It lies along Interstate 5 approximately 16 miles (26 km) north of the California border and near the south end of the Rogue Valley. The city's population was 21,360 at the 2020 cen ...

. 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 movie The Western is a genre set in the American frontier and commonly associated with folk tales of the Western United States, particularly the Southwestern United States, as well as Northern Mexico and Western Canada. It is commonly referred ...

s, 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 Southern Oregon University (SOU) is a public university in Ashland, Oregon. It was founded in 1872 as the Ashland Academy, has been in its current location since 1926, and was known by nine other names before assuming its current name in 1997.Kre ...

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 conside ...

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 higher le ...

, 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 lan ...

, 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 Antioch University is a private university with multiple campuses in the United States and online programs. Founded in 1852 as Antioch College, its first president was politician, abolitionist, and education reformer Horace Mann. It changed its n ...

'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 The Indigenous Women's Network (IWN) is a nonprofit organization that provides a platform for Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous women in the Western Hemisphere. The organization was founded in 1985. IWN focuses on Native women, their f ...

. She worked with

Women of All Red Nations Women of All Red Nations (WARN) was a Native American women's organization. It was established in 1974 by Lorelei DeCora Means, Madonna Thunderhawk, Phyllis Young, Janet McCloud, Marie Sanchez and others. WARN included more than 300 women from ...

to publicize American

forced sterilization Compulsory sterilization, also known as forced or coerced sterilization, is a government-mandated program to Involuntary treatment, involuntarily Sterilization (medicine), sterilize a specific group of people. Sterilization removes a person's ca ...

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, Potawatomi, ...

. 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 act for the relief and civilization of the Chippewa Indians in the State of Minnesota (51st-1st-Ex.Doc.247; ), commonly known as the Nelson Act of 1889, was a United States federal law intended to relocate all the Anishinaabe people in Minnesot ...

, 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 (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

, an organization she co-founded with the non-Native folk-rock duo the

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 The Evergreen State College is a public liberal arts college in Olympia, Washington. Founded in 1967, it offers a non-traditional undergraduate curriculum in which students have the option to design their own study towards a degree or follow a p ...

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

, 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 protector 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 dur ...

s and stand up for their rights. In 2020 and 2021, she was a leader of the protests against the

Line 3 pipeline The Line 3 pipeline is an oil pipeline owned by the Canadian multinational Enbridge. Operating since 1968, it runs from Hardisty, Alberta, Canada to Superior, Wisconsin, United States. Concerns about the safety of the pipeline led Enbridge ...

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. Robert Satiacum Jr. (born February 5, 1960) is an American political and environmental activist and member of the Puyallup tribe of Washington. He served as a Democratic presidential elector for the 2016 election. By voting for Faith Spotted Ea ...

, 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 Faith Spotted Eagle ( Dakota: or "Standing Stone"; born 1948) is an American activist and politician. She is a member of the Yankton Sioux Nation who attempted to block development of the Keystone XL pipeline and the Dakota Access Pipeline. ...

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 other n ...

.'' 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 E ...

renewable energy Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...

sustainable development Sustainable development is an organizing principle for meeting human development goals while also sustaining the ability of natural systems to provide the natural resources and ecosystem services on which the economy and society depend. The des ...

, 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 Justic ...

. Members of Honor the Earth were active in the

Hemp activism

LaDuke operates a 40-acre (16 ha) industrial

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 Kristin Hahn (born 1969) is an American film and television producer, writer and director. Hahn is the founder and president of production company, Hahnscape Entertainment, and the co-founder of production company Echo Films, alongside Jennifer ...

. *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 ''The Colbert Report'' ( ) is an American late-night talk and news satire television program hosted by Stephen Colbert that aired four days a week on Comedy Central from October 17, 2005, to December 18, 2014, for 1,447 episodes. The show focuse ...

'' 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 Enbridge Inc. is a multinational pipeline and energy company headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Enbridge owns and operates pipelines throughout Canada and the United States, transporting crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids. ...

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 Mar ...

'' 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 The Reebok Human Rights Award honoured activists under the age of thirty who fought for human rights through non-violent means. Each year, the award was given to four or five individuals. Each received a grant of US $50,000 that was to be used to ...

. * 1998, ''

Ms. Magazine ''Ms.'' is an American feminist magazine co-founded in 1971 by journalist and social/political activist Gloria Steinem. It was the first national American feminist magazine. The original editors were Letty Cottin Pogrebin, Mary Thom, Patricia Ca ...

'' 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 The National Women's Hall of Fame (NWHF) is an American institution incorporated in 1969 by a group of men and women in Seneca Falls, New York, although it did not induct its first enshrinees until 1973. As of 2021, it had 303 inductees. Induc ...

. * 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 u ...

. * 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. Established ...

Marriage and family

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.

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 ''Salon'' is an American politically progressive/ liberal news and opinion website created in 1995. It publishes articles on U.S. politics, culture, and current events. Content and coverage ''Salon'' covers a variety of topics, including re ...

'' (July 13, 2000)
Winona LaDuke interview
with

Majora Carter Majora Carter (born October 27, 1966) is an American urban revitalization strategist and public radio host from the South Bronx area of New York City. Carter founded and led the non-profit environmental justice solutions corporation Sustainable ...

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