Biography Essay: Winona LaDuke

Winona was born on August 18th 1959 in Los Angles California to Father Vincent LaDuke and Mother Betty LaDuke. About 5 years after Winona was born her parents decided to get a divorce and Winona then moved in with her mother. They moved together to Ashland Oregon in hopes to start a new chapter in their life. Betty Winona's mother helped her throughout her primary education throughout Ashland public schools which then lead to her attendance at Ashland High School. After Winonas primary education she went onto collage at Harvard University amd graduated with a degree in rual economic development states an article from The Womans History Musum (Brandman)

Professional Life

LaDuke has had many major life changing accomplishments throughout her life. She is a renowned activist who has received an honorary doctorate from Minnesota's Augsburg Collage and she has also won the University of California's Alice and Clifford Spendlove Prize in Social Justice, Diplomacy and Tolerance. LaDuke is an author in many books that talk about the issues in the Native American community. During Winonas time at Harvard LaDuke joined a group of Native American student-activists who campaigned against racism and discrimination. After graduating Harvard She became a principal of a high school at the White Earth Ojibwe reservation in Minnesota. LaDuke then completed a master’s degree in community economic development at Antioch University in 1989. An obstecle LaDuke faced occurred while she joined a lawsuit that was filed by the Anishinaabeg people to recover lands promised to them by a federal treaty in 1967. Winona wanted to protect the land of the reservation she worked on but the lawsuit lost and she felt like more needed to be done. LaDuke then founded a recovery project to gain more knowledge around the Native land issues around the US. This helped the Indigenous community gain more civil rights.

Personal Life

Winona LaDuke has been an activist since the age of 10. While her and her mother going to rallys and protests influenced her activism that thing that really helped develop her activism was her working and living on the lands that were in jeopardy and being a indidigounous woman herself. A major life changing event occoured when LaDuke  founded the White Earth Land Recovery Project and the Indigenous Women’s Network. These foundations helped LaDuke gain attention to many problems that were occurring around the indigenous culture and land. Winona has won the Thomas Merton Award in 1996 the  Ms. Woman of the Year in 1997 and the Reebok Human Rights Award. The Reebok Foundation awarded her for her human rights work and they gave her funds to use towards what she wanted and so she founded the White Earth Land Recovery Project and used the money from the Reebok award to fund her organization. LaDuke is currently still alive and she is an important asset to her community and to this world. She is currently living and working on the White Earth Reservation in Northern Minnesota. 

Legacy

La duke has many important values and shares them throughout her published book called “All Our Relations” in this book she quotes ‘’In my life, I have had the honor of meeting and working with a great number of courageous, visionary, and good hearted people. Their struggles to preserve that which they value, to live in dignity, and to ensure that a good way of life is passed to their descendants have been a constant source of inspiration’’ Winona is very dedicated to get to know the people around her and this helps her strive to be her best by using their situations to gain knowledge to try and change the world for the greater good. Winonias hopes for the future are too help with climate change, renewable energy and environmental justice within indigenous communities, stated an artical from “Daily Collegian” (Leavy et al.). While continuing her activism she has been working on the issues of sustainable development, renewable energy and food systems.