Winona Laduke Acceptance Speech Summary

The Speech I am analyzing is entitled, “Winona LaDuke, Acceptance Speech for the Green Party’s Nomination for Vice President of the United States of America (August 29, 1996).  Winona LaDuke was born on August 18, 1959 in Los Angeles, California to Vincent and Betty LaDuke.  Winona is an American Activist, environmentalist, economist, writer, known for her work on tribal land claims and preservation, as well as sustainable development.  Her father Vincent is of Ojibwe descent from the White Earth Preservation in Minnesota.  At an early age, Vincent involved himself in tribe issues such as treaty rights and loss of tribal land and became an activist to fight for tribal rights.  By the 20th century, he only controlled ten percent of the reduced

reservation.  This contributed to unemployment and other issues that affected the tribe.   In addition, he was an actor as well as a writer in Hollywood performing supporting roles in western movies.  In 1980, he practiced as a spiritual guru.

Her mother Betty is of Jewish and European Ancestry.  When LaDuke was five, her parents divorced and at the time her mother took a position as an art professor at the Southern Oregon University in Ashland, Oregon, a small logging town.  In high school, she was on the debate team that placed 3rd in the Oregon State Championships.  She eventually attended Harvard where she took part in the Indian activist group. At the age of eighteen, she involved herself in Native American Environmental Issues when she met Cherokee Activist Jimmy Durham at Harvard.  She graduated in 1982 with a degree in native economic development.  After she graduated from Harvard, she moved to the White Earth Reservation without knowing the Ojibwe language.  Because of this, she was not accepted at first.  She worked as a principal of a high school in the reservation.  During this time, she was doing research for her master’s thesis on the reservations subsistence economy and became involved in local issues.  She founded the White Earth Land Recovery Project.  With that, she used the organization to reclaim Anishinaabeg lands that have been stolen and parceled by the U.S. government due to the logging industry.  Eventually, she completed her Masters in Community Economic Development at

the Antioch University.  Often, LaDuke found herself on the losing end of legal battles when trying to reclaim land.  But with continued persistence, she secured grants and winning a Human Rights Award and recovered 1,000 acres of land.  In 1994, LaDuke was named one of the nation’s 50 most promising leaders under the age of 40 by Times Magazine.  In 1996 and 2000, she ran as the Green Party’s vice presidential candidate.  She also founded the White Earth Land Recovery Program and Honor the Earth, a national Native American foundation; both of which she is the director for.  In addition, she has also served on the boards of the Indigenous Women’s Network and Greenpeace USA.  In present day, she is known for her participation in American Indian economic and environmental concerns throughout the United States and abroad.