Winona LaDuke quotes - page 2

Winona LaDuke is a Native American activist, environmentalist, and economist known for her work on Indigenous rights and environmental justice. As a leader of the White Earth Land Recovery Project, she has advocated for sustainable development and the protection of tribal lands. She continues to inspire action through her dedication to social, environmental, and economic issues. Here are 36 of her quotes:

The white man, or the American government, has a way of saying they are sorry, which is to pay you. That's pretty much their approach. Now what our elders have said in our reservation and in Indian country in general is that actually the only compensation for land is land. That you cannot pay us with money that you took, that you made off of our land. That's kind of the analysis that goes behind that. Because the only thing that is actually of value to our community is the land itself. It is not the compensation.

Winona LaDuke

A Navajo woman said to me, "In our old mythologies and stories, they talked of monster slayers.” She says we need a new generation of monster slayers. I think that's such a powerful analogy, and it's so true. It's a David and Goliath moment, and we've got to hang in there because they are weakening...

Winona LaDuke

I didn't really like this economy too much. Didn't work out too well for my people, you know.

Winona LaDuke

What I want to do is to rebuild the hemp industry in Indian country. And I want us at the table, not on the menu. I want us to be in the leadership of this next economy, because we have a lot of territory upon which you can grow hemp. And we can rebuild the light manufacturing industry in this country.

Winona LaDuke

Social movements and lawyers are who stop pipelines. Social movements and lawyers.

Winona LaDuke

There's a price to destroying boreal forest.

Winona LaDuke

One time I was sitting in Sitka, Alaska-did you ever get a chance to go there? Beautiful. Like sometimes you just go someplace. I was at a writers' workshop. I was in Sitka, Alaska, and I was watching-you know, the eagles were capturing the salmon that had come in. And so there was like eagles diving down into the ocean, and, you know, the salmon. And there were bears. And I looked out there, and I saw this cruise ship coming into the left of my vision. And it came in, and I was like, "Oh, I don't like that.” The cruise ship came in, and then I watched that cruise ship turn a 180 and go exactly back out. And that's basically what we've got to do. You know, we have to make the next economy, and that next economy is going to be green. That next economy is going to have people like me making decisions. I'd like to be an architect for the next economy. I didn't like the last one.

Winona LaDuke

Deb (Haaland)'s history here with a vision that she and other leaders have had in Washington with a just transition and the Green New Deal is exactly what we need in this country. We don't need any more fossil fuels. We're done. We're done. What we need is the vision and a just transition.

Winona LaDuke

It's so tragic that, you know, on one hand, the Biden administration is like, "We are going to have Indigenous Peoples' Day, but we're still going to smash you in northern Minnesota and smash the rest of the country.” Same thing, you know, Klobuchar and Smith, the two Minnesota senators, shameful their lack of courage, not only for Indigenous people but for the planet.

Winona LaDuke