Winona Laduke, 1982 graduate of Harvard, currently lives on the White Earth Reservation in Minnesota and works on restoring the local land base and culture. LaDuke also serves as the board co-chair for the Indigenous Women's Network and works in a national capacity as Program Director for Honor the Earth Fund, providing vision and leadership for the organization's Regranting Program and its Strategic Initiatives. In 1994, she was named by Time Magazine as one of America's 50 most promising leaders under 40 years of age. She is author of several books including Last Standing Woman (1997) and All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life (1999).

• Winona LaDuke: Fighting Bad Guys
  and Trying to Do The Right Thing: A Vision For Change
  Santa Fe, New Mexico, August 28, 2000

  Fiscal year '99, $271 billion spent on the military. Over ten times that which we spend on education. Over ten times that which we spend on natural resources and the environment combined. Over ten times that which we spend on our children, on our health, on our anything. We are a country which spends so much money on the military we have become insane.
            Now, if I went over to my house and I bought a whole bunch of assault rifles and I let my kids go shoeless to a crumbling school, and my Grandma was hungry, I would be locked up as certifiably insane.
            But that is essentially what we have as a country. We have a certifiably insane country. We don't need any more F22 fighters. We have no enemies. Nobody is going to beat us. In fact, we are defending countries that already have a big military. It is not only that we must move to a peace-based economy at home. But we also must also absolutely transform our foreign policy away from the military policy. . . .

  The reality is that this is a country that has immense opportunity. It is not a country which is absent of opportunity. This is the richest country in the world. The value of the United States stock exchange is the value of all stock exchanges in the world combined. We are not absent of any resources.
  
  

• Winona LaDuke: 2000 Acceptance Statement
  for Green Party Nomination for Vice President

  [U]ntil American domestic and foreign policy addresses quality of life issues for the poorest people in the country, we cannot say that there is quality of life. Until all of us are treated as peoples -- with full human rights -- we cannot tout a human rights record. Until policy decisions are made that do not benefit solely the one percent of the population which has more wealth than the bottom 90 percent of the population, I do not think that we can collectively say that we are talking about real economic and social benefits. And finally, until we have an environmental, economic and social policy that is based on consideration of the impact on the seventh generation from now, we will still be living in a society that is based on conquest not one that is based on survival. I consider myself a patriot -- not to a flag -- to a land. And in that spirit I am pleased to join with other citizen activists, with Cam Gordon, with Lee Ann TallBear, with Ralph Nader and the Green Party to make this truly an inclusive and substantive dialogue on the future of this America.
  
  

• Winona LaDuke: 1996 Acceptance Statement
  for Green Party Nomination for Vice President

  Now a question you may ask me is: can a person who lives in the north woods of Minnesota have thoughts big enough for national policy debate or international policy? I would argue yes. In fact I would question the inverse. Can men of privilege -- who do not feel the impact of policies on forests, children or their ability to breastfeed their children -- actually have the compassion to make public policy that is reflective of the interests of others. At this point I think not.^[1]
            As a human I understand these issues and as a woman, I ask why it is that I should be more concerned about the sugar content of breakfast cereal than the amount of mercury in my son's tissue from eating fish from Minnesota lakes.
            In conclusion, until American domestic and foreign policy addresses quality of life issues for the poorest people in the country, we cannot say that there is quality of life. Until all of us are treated as peoples -- with full human rights -- we cannot tout a human rights record. Until policy decisions are made that do not benefit solely the 1 percent of the population which has more wealth than the bottom 90 percent of the population, I do not think that we can collectively say that we are talking about real economic and social benefits. And finally, until we have an environmental, economic and social policy that is based on consideration of the impact on the seventh generation from now, we will still be living in a society that is based on conquest not one that is based on survival. I consider myself a patriot -- not to a flag -- to a land. And in that spirit I am pleased to join with other citizen activists, with Cam Gordon, with Lee Ann TallBear, with Ralph Nader and the Green Party to make this truly an inclusive and substantive dialogue on the future of this America.^[2]
  
  

• Winona LaDuke: The Indigenous Women's Network
  Our Future, Our Responsibility
  Beijing, China, August 31, 1995

  The Earth is our Mother. From her we get our life, and our life, and our ability to live. It is our responsibility to care for our mother, and in caring for our Mother, we care for ourselves. Women, all females, are the manifestation of Mother Earth in human form. We are her daughters and in my cultural instructions: Minobimaatisiiwin. We are to care for her. I am taught to live in respect for Mother Earth. In Indigenous societies, we are told that Natural Law is the highest law, higher than the law made by nations, states, municipalities and the World Bank. That one would do well to live in accordance with Natural Law. With those of our Mother. And in respect for our Mother Earth of our relations -- indinawaymuguni took. . . .
            Finally, while we may, here in the commonness of this forum, speak of the common rights of all women, and those fundamental human rights of self-determination, it is incumbent upon me to point out the fundamental inequalities of this situation. So long as the predator continues, so long as the middle -- the temperate countries of the world -- continues to drive an increasing level of consumption, and, frankly continue to export both the technologies and drive for this level of consumption to other countries of the world, there will be no safety for the human rights of women, rights of Indigenous peoples, and to basic protection for the Earth, from which we get our life. Consumption causes the commodification of the sacred, the natural world, cultures, and the commodification of children, and women. . . .
            If we are to seek and struggle for common ground of all women, it is essential to struggle on this issue. It is not that the women of the dominant society in so-called first world countries should have equal pay and equal status, if that pay and status continues to be based on a consumption model which is not only unsustainable, but causes constant violation of the human rights of women and nations elsewhere in the world. It essential to collectively struggle to recover our status as Daughters of the Earth. In that is our strength and the security; not in the predator, but in the security of our Mother, for our future generations. In that we can ensure our security as the Mothers of our Nations.
  
  

• Nader's veep: running to help the poor, environment, 8/29/00

  LaDuke describes herself as a "mother-of-three, parent-of-many" and questions how "men of privilege" can be expected to rule judiciously. She argues "there is no real quality of life in America until there is quality of life in the poorest regions of America."
  
  

• Ralph Nader Speech Transcripts