Deeper Change Forum - Winona LaDuke

Winona LaDuke is a Harvard-educated economist, environmental activist, author, hemp

farmer, grandmother, and a two-time former Green Party Vice President candidate with

Ralph Nader. LaDuke specializes in rural development, economic, food, and energy

sovereignty and environmental justice. Living and working on the White Earth

reservation in northern Minnesota, she leads several organizations including Honor the

Earth (co-founded with The Indigo Girls 28 years ago), Anishinaabe Agriculture Institute,

Akiing, and Winona’s Hemp. 

These organizations develop and model cultural-based sustainable development

strategies utilizing renewable energy and sustainable food systems. She is also an

international thought leader and lecturer in climate justice, renewable energy, and

environmental justice, plus an advocate for protecting Indigenous plants and heritage

foods from patenting and genetic engineering. 

In 2021, she was named to the first Forbes list of “50 Over 50 – Women of Impact,” in

partnership with Mika Brzezinski’s “Know Your Value,” dedicated to shining a light on

women over the age of 50 who have achieved significant success later in life, often

overcoming formidable odds or barriers. In 1994, LaDuke was nominated by Time

Magazine as one of America’s 50 most promising leaders under 40 years of age. She

was awarded The Thomas Merton Award in 1996, The Biha Community Service Award

in n 1997, The Ann Bancroft Award for Women’s Leadership Fellowship, and The

Reebok Human Rights Award (which she used to begin the White Earth Land Recovery

Project). In 1998, Ms. Magazine named her Woman of the Year for her work with Honor

the Earth.

A graduate of Harvard and Antioch Universities, she also has written extensively on

Native American and Environmental issues. LaDuke is a former board member of

Greenpeace USA and serves as co-chair of the Indigenous Women’s Network, a North

American and Pacific Indigenous women’s organization.

Her seven books include: The Militarization of Indian Country (2011); Recovering the

Sacred: The Power of Naming and Claiming (2005); The non-fiction book All Our

Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life (1999, South End Press); and a novel,

Last Standing Woman (1997, Voyager Press). Her new book, To Be a Water Protector:

Rise of the Wiindigoo Slayers (Fernwood Press/Columbia University), is an expansive,

provocative engagement with issues that have been central to her many years of

activism, including seven years battling Line 3 -- an Enbridge tar sands oil pipeline in

northern Minnesota.