Winona LaDuke
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Winona LaDuke | |
 Winona LaDuke at the Green for All Dream Reborn Conference in 2008
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| Born | 1959 Los Angeles, California |
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| Nationality | United States |
| Education | Harvard University |
| Occupation | Author, Environmental Activist, Political Candidate |
| Known for | 1998 Reebok Human Rights Award winner 1997 Ms. Magazine woman of the year 1996, 2004 United States Vice Presidential Candidate, Green Party |
Winona LaDuke (b. 1959) is a Native American activist, environmentalist, economist, and writer. In 1996 and 2000, she ran for election to the office of Vice President of the United States as the nominee of the United States Green Party, on the ticket headed by Ralph Nader. In 2004, however, she opposed Nader's candidacy, and endorsed John Kerry in the general election.[1]
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[edit] Biography
LaDuke was born in Los Angeles, California to Vincent and Betty LaDuke. Her father was part Anishinaabe (Ojibwe or "Chippewa") from an Indian reservation of 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.[2] Her mother was a Jewish artist, employed as an art professor at Southern Oregon University in Ashland, Oregon. LaDuke is the mother of five.
LaDuke was raised in Ashland,[3] but after graduating from Harvard in 1982 with a degree in rural economic development, she accepted a job as principal of the high school on the Ojibwe White Earth Indian Reservation in Minnesota. She soon became an activist, involved in the struggle to recover lands promised to the Ojibwe by an 1867 treaty. She helped the Ojibwe buy back thousands of acres of ancestral land.
She worked with Women of All Red Nations to publicize the alarmingly high level of forced sterilization among Native American women.
LaDuke was named Woman of the Year by Ms. Magazine in 1997 and won the Reebok Human Rights Award in 1998. 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. 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."
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 first 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. The film was directed by Roger Weisberg who is better known for winning the 2002 Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject as director of Why Can't We Be a Family Again?.
In the 2004 primary elections, LaDuke endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich. She later endorsed John Kerry for president in the general election.
In Sept 2007, LaDuke was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.[4]
[edit] Quotations
| “ | There is no social-change fairy. There is only change made by the hands of individuals. | ” |
| “ | We don't want a bigger piece of the pie. We want a different pie. | ” |
| “ | The only compensation for land is land. | ” |
| “ | I would like to see as many people patriotic to a land as I have seen patriotic to a flag. | ” |
[edit] Resources
- Montgomery, Alicia. "Nader's No. 2" (July 13, 2000). Salon.com.
- Walljasper, Jay. "Celebrating Hellraisers: Winona LaDuke" (January/February 1996). Mother Jones magazine.
- Andrews, Max (Ed.), Land, Art: A Cultural Ecology Handbook. London, Royal Society of Arts, 2006 ISBN 9780901469571 Interview with Winona LaDuke
[edit] See also
- Fair trade
- List of writers from peoples indigenous to the Americas
- Local food
- Native American Studies
- Renewable energy
- Honor the Earth
[edit] External links
- Winona LaDuke's biography at the White Earth Land Recovery Project official web site
- Winona LaDuke at the Internet Movie Database
- Winona LaDuke from Voices from the Gap
[edit] References
- ^ Seelye, Katharine Q. (October 15, 2004), “Nader Emerging as the Threat Democrats Feared”, The New York Times, <http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/15/politics/campaign/15nader.html?pagewanted=print&position=>
- ^ City Pages - The Party Crasher
- ^ Willamette Week | “Winona Laduke” | July 19th, 2006
- ^ National Women's Hall of Fame - News & Events
| Preceded by (none) |
Green Party Vice Presidential candidate 1996 (lost), 2000 (lost) |
Succeeded by Pat LaMarche |
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | LaDuke, Winona |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Author and activist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1959 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Los Angeles, California |
| DATE OF DEATH | living |
| PLACE OF DEATH | |
