Winona LaDuke

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Winona LaDuke (2008)

Winona Helena Basha LaDuke (born August 18, 1959 in Los Angeles , California ) is a Native American activist, environmentalist, economist, politician and writer in the United States . The activist combines the Indian movement with the commitment to environmental protection and was nominated by the Green Party in 1996 and 2000 as the first indigenous peoples for the US Vice-Presidency alongside presidential candidate Ralph Nader . She supported the Democrat Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election . She was also the first indigenous board member at Greenpeace.

Winona LaDuke has the Indian name Bi-Ne-Se-Kwe . The name means "thunder bird woman" in German and relates to the mythological thunder bird .

biography

Winona LaDuke is the daughter of the artist and art professor Betty LaDuke, from a Russian-Jewish family and the Indian activist, Hollywood stuntman and later New Age medicine man and activist Vincent LaDuke . Her first name Winona means "firstborn" in the Lakota language . Even during her school days, under the influence of the Vietnam War, she and her parents advocated freedom of expression and pacifism . Her identity is shaped by her father's Indian side. She says of herself that she has adopted the pragmatic worldview of the traditional Indians, which is characterized by a great spirituality that benefits the continuation of life and is not separate from everyday life.

As Bi-Ne-Se-Kwe, she is an enrolled member of the Mississippi Band of the Anishinabe Tribe of the White Earth Indian Reservation in northern Minnesota. Today Winona LaDuke lives with her three children in Ponsford ( Minnesota ) and is already grandmother.

Following the example of her father, LaDuke became involved early on for the cultural and political rights of the Indians of North America . She was invited to the UN in Geneva in 1976 at the age of 17 and addressed a committee. In 1982 she received her degree in "indigenous economic development" in Harvard , was then principal at the high school in the White Earth Indian Reservation and made at Antioch University a master's degree. In White Earth she founded the "White Earth Land Recovery Project" , the aim of which is to reclaim the areas that were contractually guaranteed to the Anishinabe in 1867, but which have since been influenced and reduced in size by non-Indians - especially the timber industry . More than 90 percent of the original 3,390 km² reservation is owned by non-Indians. The organization hopes to buy back at least 120 km² of land by 2020, among other things with funds from the prize money of various awards for Winona LaDuke. The main source of income is the trade in food, especially water rice and arts and crafts from the reservation. Their motto is: "If a people has no control over their country, they have no control over their fate". Another project that she initiated to promote the independence of the reserve is the establishment of her own bison herd based on the model of some prairie tribes .

In 1994 TIME magazine ranked LaDuke among the 50 most hopeful leaders under 40 years of age. In 1996 she received the Thomas Merton Award for Peace and Social Justice. In 1997 she was named Ms. Magazine's Woman of the Year and in 1998 she won the Reebok Human Rights Award . She is also the founder of the Indigenous Women's Network and, along with the Indigo Girls , co-founder of Honor the Earth in 1993, later sponsored and organized by the Seventh Generation Fund , the Indigenous Women's Network and the Indigenous Environmental Network .

Her political commitment to the American Greens relates primarily to her commitment to organic farming and renewable energies , to the preservation of biodiversity and the creation of fairer social conditions. She emphasizes again and again that her commitment is rooted in the traditional worldview of the Anishinabe and not in the political ideology of the Green Party.

LaDuke was also presented with the Ann Bancroft Award for Women's Leadership Fellowship and was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in September 2007 .

On November 9, 2008, her house in Ponsford burned down along with her extensive library and collection of Native American artifacts. People were not harmed.

Media about and from LaDuke

Winona LaDuke in the 1970s

Winona LaDuke has published several books, including: Last Standing Woman 1997 (novel saga about the Anishinabe people in seven generations from 1826 to 2018), Winona LaDuke Reader (non-fiction book), All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life 1999 ( Non-fiction book about the struggle of the indigenous people for the environment), In the Sugarbush (children's book) and Recovering the Sacred: the Power of Naming and Claiming 2005 (non-fiction book about traditional beliefs and practices).

She appeared in the documentary Anthem by Shainee Gabel and Kristin Hahn, which won the 1997 FIPRESCI Prize at the Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival. The film was first released in the United States on July 25, 1997. LaDuke also appeared in the television documentary The Main Stream , which was first released on December 17, 2002. In 2003, Bertram Verhaag and Claus Biegert produced the portrait Die Donnervogelfrau for Denkmal-Film as well as arte and the Bavarian Radio . The film shows them in the White Earth Reservation, with friends Lakota on Pine Ridge and in Arizona and New Mexico, where the Navajo and Hopi fight against the mining of uranium and coal. Her engagement against nuclear power earned her the nickname "No Nukes LaDuke" in the 1980s. With her friend, Lakota Alex White Plume, she would like to set up a trade and exchange system between her two tribes to promote their independence.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Bertram Verhaag (director) Claus Biegert : The Thunderbird Woman. Winona LaDuke. DENKmal Filmgesellschaft, Munich 2003.
  2. ^ Betty LaDuke: An Artist's Journal - Community , April 23, 1999
  3. ↑ Trailer for the documentary Die Donnervogelfrau on youtube
personal data
SURNAME LaDuke, Winona
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bi-ne-si-kwe
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Indian activist, environmentalist, economist and writer
DATE OF BIRTH August 18, 1959
PLACE OF BIRTH Los Angeles , California