If you’ve ever tailed LaDuke for a day, you’d find out that she’s a woman who seems to have a cell phone permanently attached to her ear. Every five seconds or so, Ms. LaDuke’s cell phone erupts in a cheerful, albeit somewhat maniacal, musical jig that relays the never-ending stream of phone calls from people who just can’t seem to get enough of her. It’s just another ordinary day in LaDuke’s busy, chaotic and interesting life.
Everybody wants a piece of Winona LaDuke. From telling her daughter to do her homework to setting up a local radio station, LaDuke has her hands full in just about everything. She’s a board member of a number of various non-profit organizations, including Honor the Earth and the Indigenous Women’s Network. She works to protect the environment and is constantly traveling to speak in the interest of native peoples. LaDuke has organized and rallied many supporters for various causes. She is an activist is every sense of the word but she doesn’t do it for the label. LaDuke says that a lot of what she does “is based on being a good parent”, a good parent to her children and a good parent to the environment.
LaDuke defines activism as simply asking oneself, “What does the future of our community look like? What does it look like twenty-five or fifty years from now? And who is responsible for that?” and then doing something about the answers to those questions.
LaDuke defines activism as simply asking oneself, “What does the future of our community look like? What does it look like twenty-five or fifty years from now? And who is responsible for that?” and then doing something about the answers to those questions.
LaDuke’s own answers have led her to found an organization called the White Earth Land Recovery Project, in which she tries to reclaim native lands that were stolen from her people by the government. It’s a relentless battle to try to obtain land rights since money is scarce and many Native Americans are oftentimes overlooked in the name of capitalism. Despite the opposition she faces in her attempts to recover ancestral lands, Winona LaDuke is a fighter and she doesn’t give up.