Activist Urges Audience to “Do Something of Consequence”

Winona LaDuke (photo by Fred LeBlanc)

“The American relationship
to land is largely based on conquest; redefining our relationship to land is essential,” renowned Native American rights activist, author, and environmental scholar Winona LaDuke told an Mount Holyoke College audience December 8.

LaDuke is an enrolled member of the Mississippi Band of Anishinaabeg, the program director of Honor the Earth, and the founding director of the White Earth Land Recovery Project. She began her talk, “Environmental Justice from a Native Perspective: Building a Multicultural Democracy,” by addressing the audience in Ojibwe. LaDuke explained why she has become a student of the language of her ancestors: “I believe that cultural diversity is as important as biological diversity. What we don’t want to do in North America is to create a cultural monocrop, where we’re all the same, where we buy our way of life in a mall, where we become a kind of purée. Our humanity is tied to our diversity.”

Hosted by the Center for the Environment, the event was particularly gratifying for professor of geology and the center’s new director, Lauret Savoy, and new staff member Melanie DeSilva. “It’s important for our students to see the strength of women and in this case a woman who knows the meaning of respect and responsibility,” Savoy said. “Here at Mount Holyoke, we are engaging in a dialogue about how to create a path toward ecological and cultural integrity, and she is trying to do that in this country.”

A resident of the White Earth Reservation in northwestern Minnesota, LaDuke began her life as an activist more than 25 years ago when, as an undergraduate at Radcliffe College, she was invited to testify before the United Nations in Geneva detailing her research on the effects of uranium mining, nuclear testing, and U.S. military operations on the lives and lands of Native Americans. Since then, she has continued to work locally and globally to spread the word about native peoples’ struggles and triumphs.

LaDuke laced her talk with stories and descriptions of places in North America where indigenous people have fought hard battles to recover and protect sacred sites. Spirit Mountain may not be a familiar name to New Englanders, but LaDuke’s story is familiar to environmentalists everywhere. This mountain near Duluth, Minnesota, is central to the tribe’s history and oral tradition. The tribe, with LaDuke on the frontline, recently fought, and won, a battle to prevent the construction of a golf course on the mountain. “My feeling is,” LaDuke said, “we probably have more than enough golf courses and not enough sacred sites.”

LaDuke also detailed the many community projects she is involved in: the White Earth Land Recovery Project, which is working to regain the original land base of the White Earth Indian Reservation; a battle to save native wild rice from genetic engineering; Native Harvest, which produces and sells traditional foods and crafts; and the White Earth National Wind Project, providing a source of alternative energy.

LaDuke ended the evening with a message for the audience: “I could complain a lot and wait for the next bad thing to arrive. But I feel a lot better if I try to make a difference. You can do something, too. It is a question of having a commitment. How you make this future is up to you. Do something of consequence.”

Giovanna DiChiro, visiting assistant professor of earth and environment, who was responsible for inviting LaDuke to campus and who hosted a seminar discussion for students with LaDuke earlier in the day, was thrilled at the large turnout for the event. “I think she is someone whose words and actions bring us a sense of hopefulness—although in her talk we heard about the painful injustices committed against the native peoples of this land, we also heard stories of resistance, survival, and creativity against enormous odds.”

The event was sponsored by the Center for the Environment, the Department of Earth and Environment, the Office of the President, the Office of the Dean of the College, and the Office of the Dean of Faculty.

Winona LaDuke is the author of Recovering the Sacred: The Power of Naming and Claiming, All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life, Last Standing Woman, In the Sugarbush, and the Winona LaDuke Reader.

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