Native American Eco-Justice
Eduardo Galeano in his masterwork, The Open Veins of Latin America wrote that 500 years ago European settler colonialists came to this hemisphere and “sank their teeth” into the throats of Indian civilizations. You know the story. Genocide. Land was stolen. Broken promises and broken treaties. Survivors exiled to inhospitable reservations. In recent years indigenous people are organizing and asserting their rights. Standing Rock in North Dakota was a key moment where some 200 nations came together to resist the Keystone XL pipeline. New terms entered the lexicon of resistance such as water protectors and stewards of the land. Keystone and other struggles continue as does corporate capitalism’s monomaniacal drive for profits regardless of the cost to Mother Nature and indigenous peoples. Chief Seattle once said, “The Earth does not belong to us; we belong to the Earth.”
Recorded at University of Montana
Speaker
Winona LaDuke
Winona LaDuke is a brilliant and articulate representative of Indigenous perspectives. At the age of seventeen, she spoke at the UN on behalf of Native Americans. She is a founding member of Women of All Red Nations and director of the Land Recovery Project on the White Earth Reservation in Minnesota. She was the 1996 and 2000 vice-presidential candidate of the Green Party. She is the author of All Our Relations, Recovering the Sacred, The Militarization of Indian Country, and The Winona LaDuke Chronicles.
Louise Rushton –
Amazing talk. I LOVE everything about her.
Susan Evans –
Brilliant. I am blown away by her talk!!
Catherine Orr –
“Our goal is to find ways to live and travel–and help others live and travel–on One WholEarth, without harm to the planet or any living thing. ” – Alanson Jared Charles (Play the Wholearth Game)
If we focused ourselves to help others to focus on the game by enlightening them that we can achieve this goal to patronize renewable and sustainable energy in order to restore all vital components without harm.
Linda Patrick –
A reason for hope. So good to know the calm wisdom of Native tradition is being heard. An exceptional lecture and was so grateful to hear it on the radio this morn on my drive to work. If we had alternatives to mainstream political hate-spewing we might actually feel a seed of hope for this sacred planet.
Wedlin Sainval –
I am listening to this podcast at this moment while I was driving. I had to stop to listen and taking some notes. What an amazing and convincing speaker! This show now has a new listener.
Thanks for your amazing work.
Doug Skove –
Very informative broadcast. While I have heard of Winona LaDuke, this is the first time I have heard her speak: she is persuasive, funny and poignant without being negative or derogatory. She creates a space which comments on the environmental troubles of our time, but emphasizes “working together to make changes”. I think she has a strong vision that speaks to our need for action with respect for indigenous tradition. She lives/speaks of a sustainable model including the idea of Solutionary Rail which seeks to bring electricity and electric trains to rural areas of America on existing rail lines.