Sun. 12/5: Winona LaDuke sums up the dichotomy: "Native peoples are the poorest population in North America, yet our lands are home to a wealth of resources."
For decades, this Ojibwe activist, National Women's Hall of Fame inductee, and two-time Green Party vice presidential candidate has devoted her time to working on issues of renewable energy, health, and environmental justice on northern Minnesota's White Earth Reservation and beyond.
LaDuke is founding director of White Earth Land Recovery Project, a nonprofit organization created in 1989 in order to recover land for the Anishinaabeg (Ojibwe) people. She is also program director of Honor the Earth, a national advocacy group encouraging public support and funding for native environmental groups. Outspoken, engaging, and unflaggingly dedicated to matters of ecological sustainability, LaDuke introduces host Majora to the pine forests, lakes, and windswept plains of the White Earth Reservation; and she talks about harnessing wind power, nutrition and diabetes, preserving heritage crops, and a mandate to protect the land inherited from her ancestors.