“I lived my whole life in a fossil fuel economy, and I’m ready for a graceful transition out of it.” To mark American Indian Heritage Day, we look back at our interview with activist, author and kelp farmer, Winona LaDuke.
“I may have to call you back, I’m in the middle of feeding the horses!” shouts a multitasking Winona LaDuke. The 58-year-old environmental activist, economist, and writer is home on her 40-acre farm on the Ojibwe tribe’s White Earth Reservation in northwestern Minnesota, where she has lived since graduating from Harvard with an economics degree in 1982.
Despite LaDuke’s rural home base, she has made a namefor herself worldwide as a tireless advocate not only for Native American rights but also for several environmental and agricultural causes. “I always wanted to go back to my community,” says LaDuke, who despite her time at the Ivy and her childhood in Los Angeles felt compelled to return to the reservation where her father was raised. “I was told to get an education and to then do the right thing and go help your people.”
LaDuke has been making headlines since roughly the age of 18, when she became the youngest person ever to speak at the United Nations. In both 1996 and 2000, she was Ralph Nader’s vice-presidential candidate on the Green Party ticket. LaDuke also founded Honor the Earth, to provide both financial and organizational support to Native environmental initiatives, and the White Earth Land Recovery Project, which seeks to regain and protect lands that were taken from the Anishinaabe people through various improprieties.
The author of several books, LaDuke is currently at work on three new titles, and she has added hemp farming to her lengthy résumé. Mission caught up with LaDuke this spring to learn more about her latest initiatives, whether she still has political aspirations, and just how she manages to juggle it all.
Naomi Rougeau: Tell us about your new hemp farming initiative and what spurred it.
Winona LaDuke: I’m a farmer and grow traditional corn, peas, squash, artichokes, tobacco, and potatoes. And for the last two years, I’ve grown hemp. Until about 1910, 80 percent of our
clothing was hemp, and Minnesota had 11 hemp mills, so I want to be part of the renaissance of restarting the hemp industry in Minnesota and elsewhere. It’s only for the last two years that we’ve been allowed to grow hemp, as the industry was a victim of the “war on drugs.”
NR: Do you feel you’re part of a growing trend?
WLD: I was one of six hemp farmers in Minnesota. And last year, I was one of 26. This year I will be maybe one of 200. So there is a definite interest in the tribal community. I just hosted a big tribal hemp conference, and there is certainly interest in the non-Native community in hemp.
Nationally, hemp and marijuana are growing industries. Between 1980 and 1990, 95 percent of all mills in this country moved offshore. They moved everything to China. So basically, what I am proposing and what I intend to do is be part of the renaissance in the American fabric and milling industry. There’s not a mill in the United States that mills hemp. It’s a really exciting time, and the future is gonna be in hemp.
NR: Have you been in touch with anyone in the fashion industry about utilizing hemp?
WLD: I recently met with Patagonia. They have a whole line of clothing that is hemp, and that has influenced a lot of designers rethinking the fiber, because the vast majority of what we wear, cotton, is responsible for 25 percent of the world’s pesticides. It takes about 5,000 gallons of water to make a T-shirt, and we don’t got that water.”
NR: So this could be a boon for your tribe, which already has strong agricultural roots. But it’s not without its issues…
WLD: Our reservation itself is very wealthy in terms of our land. We have a healthy land and a lot of wild rice. We produce hundreds of thousands of pounds of wild rice, and we sell it, which is a main source of revenue for a lot of our people. In 2007 we got legislation passed in Minnesota that protects our wild rice, after successfully battling the University of Minnesota, which wanted to crack the DNA sequence of wild rice and expressed interest in genetic engineering. But at the same time, I have a community that’s been oppressed, access to our land has been denied, we’ve been arrested for hunting, fishing, and ricing. So I’m also dealing with a heroine epidemic. And an opioid epidemic.”
NR: You’re also a mother. How do you manage to juggle it all? Are your children at all involved in your work?
WLD: My children and my grandchildren. I have three children that are around the reservation. My youngest and then my oldest have been involved in the operations, but I also work with a lot of tribal members. Another project we’ve embarked on is making solar panels for homes and we’re building a manufacturing facility.
NR: And the younger generation of the Ojibwe tribe?
WLD: Well, the average age for a ricer on White Earth is probably about 22. Maybe it’s 25, and it’s usually a man that you consider a “high-risk” man. You know every statistic is going against it, but ricers on my reservation are usually young men. Young men and young women… There’s a huge percentage of our population that is traditional harvesters. My children have all been very politically active, and my grandchildren are really interested in the farming.
NR: Your work is obviously very political in nature, but do you have any interest in running for office again?
WLD: Right now I’ve decided that I want to change the economy. I’m not going to take over the political system, I’m just gonna change the economy. We have to focus on the next economy, you know, where we’re going, because I lived my whole life in a fossil fuel economy, and I’m ready for a graceful transition out of it. The fossil fuel economy is less than a hundred years old, and it’s really time to move on to a solar wind, a hydrogen, and local foods, organic economy. And by its nature, it has to be relocalized. A perfect example is that the value of the fossil fuels held in reserves by big corporations, mining companies, oil companies is like 550 gigatons of carbon—and they are still exploring for new reserves for fossil fuels. Five hundred and 50 gigatons is what we can combust without blowing up our planet, essentially; you know, sending everything haywire, according to the models. But they have 2,785 gigatons of carbon held by the fossil fuel companies. Now that’s referred to as an asset in economics class, but the fact is that it’s a liability. So I want them to keep it in the ground. Carbon belongs in soil and not in the air. You have to teach that, because in an economics class at Harvard or anywhere else, they are teaching cannibal economics. I like to lecture about what the next economy looks like.
NR: Did Al Franken’s resignation affect your community at all?
WLD: I was really sad, because he’s like a really good man, and he made a mistake. I just feel like his resignation really made me sad, and the other thing is that we all are fighting. I feel like movements have to converge and exceed what we’re doing. I want the highest standard. You know I expect a high standard of leaders, and I don’t get that in any American political system, obviously. But Al Franken was a good ally of our people, and we hope for the best.
NR: I’m sure you must feel a lot of anger and frustration. What keeps you fighting the good fight?
WLD: A lot of young people are on the frontlines, and I’m amazed by them. They’re smart, they’re thoughtful, and they understand that this is it: This is their time. A lot of people’s children were at Standing Rock. The 1%’s children were at Standing Rock. And so I encourage them to see what is happening locally, understand that what you do locally reflects much larger. If we are the 99%, let’s act like the 99%. Why are we wringing our hands? Let’s change the economy, let’s be present. No time like the present, and no time like now to be present!
Imagery by Jaida Grayeagle
