Honor the Earth... It's the Only One We Got

Some people have important messages to impart and Winona La Duke, an American Indian  activist is one of those. Schooled at Harvard as an economist, she also was on the Green Party ticket as Vice President with Ralph Nader.  

Ms LaDuke of Anishinaabe descent chose to move back to live on her people's land in White Earth, Minnesota and is now the director of Honor the Earth and White Earth Land Recovery Project.  UW-L's Campus Climate invited this environmentalist and economist to speak to us about what we as a Nation are doing to our land and what we can do about it, Agency.  It is us who controls the future as to whether we have contaminated water, food and home security. 


“One of our people in the Native community said the difference between white people and Indians is that Indian people know they are oppressed but don’t feel powerless. White people don’t feel oppressed, but feel powerless. Deconstruct that disempowerment. Part of the mythology that they’ve been teaching you is that you have no power. Power is not brute force and money; power is in your spirit. Power is in your soul. It is what your ancestors, your old people gave you. Power is in the earth; it is in your relationship to the earth.” 
― Winona LaDuke 

Ms LaDuke spent this fall making an important video  which is truly worth 7 minutes of your time. Here's the link. 

Honor the Earth, Triple Crown of Pipeline Rides 

Horse riders follow the Keystone Pipeline routing through major wild ricing areas and eventually a 600 mile route to Superior, Wisconsin.

The reality of this oil is not based on need, but on greed. For example, Venezuela has offered us a fair oil price and the amount of oil in the Tar Sands can only last us 6 months worth and then that air, land and water are all contaminated. This  also doesn't take into account what happens when there are accidents with pipe breakage, train derailment/ just accidents of human error.

Climate change is real but we can do something to keep the carbon rate from rising above 2%. The melting of the glaciers, the storms that have wreaked havoc with natural disasters and the acidity in the international waters from where our seafood comes are all realities. And there is no  distinguishing  between race and classes. It's just those with the means can recuperate while those without can't.  Equity?

“The essence of the problem is about consumption, recognizing that a society that consumes one-third of the world's resources is unsustainable. This level of consumption requires constant intervention into other people's lands. That's what's going on.” 
We consume way too much and Ms LaDuke used the terminology
'Extreme Energy. '  The extraction of fossil fuel 120 ft below sea level and sand mine fracking are not good for the Earth. We can plug in less, buy locally, not let the Government lease our land and our water. We are the ones who absorb the increasing cost of transporting and  very real public safety hazard possibilities.

We need to stop importing our food, have our own gardens/ at  least support those growers in our communities. Use heritage seeds due to proven success and eliminate absorbitant transportation costs.

It all makes sense and hopefully her powerful words and statistics  lit more than a couple of fires in those university students sitting there listening.  Maybe they will not sit idly by as most of us have with regard to the future of our land... the power does lie within us.

If you'd like to hear more from Winona LaDuke here are 2 links.

LaDuke with Colbert

TEDtalk