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Winona Laduke Quotes

Powerful Winona Laduke for Daily Growth

About Winona Laduke

Winona LaDuke (born December 18, 1959) is an internationally renowned Native American environmentalist, economist, author, and activist from the Ojibwe tribe of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe. She was born in New York City but grew up on the White Earth Indian Reservation in northern Minnesota. LaDuke's activism began in the late 1980s when she returned to her home reservation after studying at Harvard University and working as a consultant for Native American tribes across the United States. She co-founded the organization Honor the Earth, dedicated to promoting Native environmental awareness and sustainable development strategies. In 1996, LaDuke ran as a Green Party candidate against incumbent Vice President Al Gore in Minnesota during the presidential election. Although she did not win, her campaign brought attention to Native American issues on a national stage. LaDuke is best known for her work opposing the construction of large-scale oil pipelines and mining projects on Native lands. She has been instrumental in stopping the proposed Enbridge Line 3 pipeline project, which threatened the clean water resources of the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes. One of LaDuke's most significant works is her book "Recovering the Sacred: Indigenous Pathways to Healing and Wholeness" (2018), where she discusses her vision for sustainable economic development rooted in indigenous values and practices. Her other notable works include "All Our Relations: Native Sturggles for Land and Life" (1999) and "Last Standing Woman and the Land She Loves: A Story of the Dakota People" (1993). LaDuke's influence extends beyond her written works, as she frequently speaks at conferences, rallies, and other events about environmental justice, Native American rights, and sustainable development. Her tireless efforts have earned her numerous awards, including the Right Livelihood Award (1996) and the Sydney Peace Prize (2017).

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"We don't have to protect the environment for our children and grandchildren; we have to protect it for ourselves."

Winona LaDuke's quote emphasizes a sense of urgency and personal responsibility towards environmental preservation. It suggests that the well-being and survival of current generations are intertwined with the health of the environment, and immediate action is required to protect it. This perspective underscores the importance of prioritizing sustainable practices for our own well-being rather than just for future generations.

"If you see something that is technically wrong, say something. Don't let it go. Don't not say something."

This quote by Winona LaDuke emphasizes the importance of speaking up when one observes injustice or error, rather than remaining silent about it. It underscores the belief that each individual has a responsibility to contribute to making things right and promoting truth. By voicing concerns, we can challenge wrongdoings, create change, and strive for a more equitable and just society.

"The earth does not belong to us: we belong to the earth."

Winona LaDuke's quote emphasizes our inherent interconnectedness with nature and the planet Earth. It suggests that humans are not superior entities who own and control the Earth, but rather part of it, dependent on its resources for our survival. This perspective encourages a more responsible relationship between humanity and the environment, implying we must protect and care for the Earth in order to ensure our own well-being and sustainability.

"We are going to have to make a choice now between trying to build an economy that is based on sustainability and social justice or one that continues down the road of unsustainable consumption, unbridled capitalism, and endless growth."

Winona LaDuke's quote underscores the critical choice humanity faces regarding our economic model: either we transition to a sustainable and equitable system, or we persist on the current path of unrestrained consumption, unchecked capitalism, and limitless growth, which is unsustainable. The choice between these two paths directly impacts both our environment and social justice issues, necessitating a shift towards an economy that prioritizes sustainability, fairness, and respect for all people and the planet.

"When we save the land, we save ourselves. We must carry our responsibility as human beings and members of this earth."

Winona LaDuke's quote emphasizes the interconnectedness between humans and the Earth. She suggests that preserving the natural world is not just an environmental concern but a matter of self-preservation for humanity. The statement highlights our responsibility as human beings to care for the planet, recognizing that its health directly impacts our own survival and well-being. This quote underscores the importance of sustainable practices, respect for indigenous wisdom, and collective action in fostering a harmonious relationship between humans and the Earth.

Post office closures in the Dakotas and Minnesota will impact many communities, but the White Earth reservation villages, and other tribal towns of Squaw Lake, Ponemah, Brookston in Minnesota, and Manderson, Wounded Knee and Wakpala (South Dakota) as well as Mandaree in North Dakota will mean hardships for a largely Native community.

- Winona LaDuke

Other, North Dakota, North, South

In the time of the sacred sites and the crashing of ecosystems and worlds, it may be worth not making a commodity out of all that is revered.

- Winona LaDuke

Making, Revered, Worlds, Commodity

I'm Harvard-educated; I'm an economist by training. I'm an author, a journalist, as well as being active in community development.

- Winona LaDuke

Development, Journalist, Economist

The United States - you know, native people are large landowners, but the military has a huge chunk of our territories. And in those, there are a number of places that are our sacred sites.

- Winona LaDuke

United, United States, Large, Sites

In the end, there is no absence of irony: the integrity of what is sacred to Native Americans will be determined by the government that has been responsible for doing everything in its power to destroy Native American cultures.

- Winona LaDuke

Doing, Will, Been, Native Americans

Native people - about two-thirds of the uranium in the United States is on indigenous lands. On a worldwide scale, about 70 percent of the uranium is either in Aboriginal lands in Australia or up in the Subarctic of Canada, where native people are still fighting uranium mining.

- Winona LaDuke

United, About, Two-Thirds, Native

America is so accustomed to some depiction of native people that is entirely racist, and there's a perception that that is okay.

- Winona LaDuke

People, Some, Okay, Native

Mother Earth needs us to keep our covenant. We will do this in courts, we will do this on our radio station, and we will commit to our descendants to work hard to protect this land and water for them. Whether you have feet, wings, fins, or roots, we are all in it together.

- Winona LaDuke

Feet, Commit, Courts, Covenant

The idea that you can dress up in some kind of a fake Indian outfit and get on stage is somehow acceptable in this country. That has to do with the fact that you have the Redskins, the Braves, you have people who dress up like Indians, people dress up like Indians on Halloween. That is acceptable.

- Winona LaDuke

Dress, Some, Acceptable, Halloween

We filed a constitutional rights lawsuit on my reservation, and I had to go out and interview all these old people. And I found that many of the old people on my reservation didn't know who was president. That kind of pointed out to me the irrelevance at times of who is in Washington.

- Winona LaDuke

Out, Constitutional, Had, Lawsuit

The reality is, is that the military is full of native nomenclature. That's what we would call it. You've got Black Hawk helicopters, Apache Longbow helicopters. You've got Tomahawk missiles. The term used when you leave a military base in a foreign country is to go 'off the reservation, into Indian Country.'

- Winona LaDuke

Country, Foreign Country, Helicopters

Ojibwe prophecy speaks of a time during the seventh fire when our people will have a choice between two paths. The first path is well-worn and scorched. The second path is new and green. It is our choice as communities and as individuals how we will proceed.

- Winona LaDuke

Our Choice, Individuals, Our, Our People

Oil is drowning our oceans and drowning our boreal forests.

- Winona LaDuke

Oil, Drowning, Oceans, Forests

If we moved from industrialized agriculture to re-localized organic agriculture, we could sequester about one quarter of the carbon moving into the air and destroying our glaciers, oceans, forests and lands.

- Winona LaDuke

Glaciers, Industrialized, Forests

What we all need to do is find the wellspring that keeps us going, that gives us the strength and patience to keep up this struggle for a long time.

- Winona LaDuke

Strength, Need, Going, Wellspring

Food for us comes from our relatives, whether they have wings or fins or roots. That is how we consider food. Food has a culture. It has a history. It has a story. It has relationships.

- Winona LaDuke

History, Roots, Our, Relatives

The first thing I am is a person. I am a woman. And I am part of a nation, the Indian nation. But people either relate to you as an Indian or as a woman. They relate to you as a category. A lot of people don't realize that I am not that different from everyone else.

- Winona LaDuke

Woman, Nation, Part, Indian

If you're going to spend most of your time in your democracy figuring out how to get oil by intervening into other people's countries and insuring that you follow it with military might, we think there's an alternative. Which would be renewable energy.

- Winona LaDuke

Other, Out, Your, Intervening

Now that I think about it, I was arrested in 1992. Some people may think of that as a bad thing, but I feel good about it. I chained myself to the gate of a phone book factory, a GTE factory in Los Angeles. They were using thousand-year-old trees to make phone books. I think that's a total waste of a tree.

- Winona LaDuke

Some, I Think, Arrested, Gate

I wanted to get out of Ashland, and I thought it would be pretty cool to go to school in the East. So I asked my guidance counselor what Ivy League schools were. And I applied to Harvard, Yale and Dartmouth - that was it. My guidance counselor told me I wouldn't get into an Ivy League school. So as my act of resistance, that's all I applied to.

- Winona LaDuke

Thought, Out, Applied, Yale

Tribes have the potential to provide almost 15 percent of the country's electricity with wind power, and have 4.5 times the solar resources to power the entire U.S.

- Winona LaDuke

Solar, Country, Almost, Tribes

We are launching a campaign called Wind, Not War, which is about the alternatives to a fossil-fuels-based economy and looking at wind, an alternative energy, as key to that in terms of issues of global climate change as well as issues of democracy.

- Winona LaDuke

Change, About, Which, Wind

I think of some of my friends who have passed to the spirit world but are who here with me when I go to events and when I walk in my own community. My sisters, Ingred, my sister Marsha, and my sister Nielock. All cofounders of the Indigenous Women's Network with me. All long time women activists in the native community.

- Winona LaDuke

Here, Some, I Think, Activists

The thing about being an Indian person is that you feel most at home with your own people.

- Winona LaDuke

Own, Person, Most, Indian

When I first came to Harvard, I thought to myself, 'What kind of an Indian am I?' because I did not grow up on a reservation. But being an Indian is a combination of things. It's your blood. It's your spirituality. And it's fighting for the Indian people.

- Winona LaDuke

Thought, Fighting, Your, Indian

I used to go to some Harvard parties with my athlete friends, and they would introduce me as 'Winona, the Indian activist.' It made me uncomfortable. I felt like a novelty.

- Winona LaDuke

Some, Novelty, Activist, Indian

On my reservation, we had one of the most abundant fisheries in the world and hundreds of thousands of acres of wild rice beds. We've lost a lot of it, but there's still natural wealth that could support our communities.

- Winona LaDuke

Had, Our, Lot, Beds

Eliminating some 3600 post offices - mostly rural - will save the USPS less than seven tenths of one percent of their operating budget, but nationally, a number of tribal communities will be hit.

- Winona LaDuke

Some, Mostly, Offices, Communities

The United States, you know, people - one of the reasons that it is said that native people received citizenship in 1924 was so that they could be drafted. And they have been extensively drafted.

- Winona LaDuke

Been, United States, Reasons, Drafted

I look at my own reservation, the White Earth reservation in northern Minnesota - on my reservation, one quarter of our money is spent on energy. All of that money basically goes to off-reservation vendors whether it is for electricity, or whether it is for fuel.

- Winona LaDuke

Goes, Fuel, My Own, Energy

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