The idea that you can dress up in some kind of a fake Indian outfit and get on stage is somehow acceptable in this country. That has to do with the fact that you have the Redskins, the Braves, you have people who dress up like Indians, people dress up like Indians on Halloween. That is acceptable. Winona LaDuke Read Quote
I think of some of my friends who have passed to the spirit world but are who here with me when I go to events and when I walk in my own community. My sisters, Ingred, my sister Marsha, and my sister Nielock. All cofounders of the Indigenous Women’s Network with me. All long time women activists in the native community. Winona LaDuke Read Quote
Eliminating some 3600 post offices – mostly rural – will save the USPS less than seven tenths of one percent of their operating budget, but nationally, a number of tribal communities will be hit. Winona LaDuke Read Quote
The United States, you know, people – one of the reasons that it is said that native people received citizenship in 1924 was so that they could be drafted. And they have been extensively drafted. Winona LaDuke Read Quote
The United States – you know, native people are large landowners, but the military has a huge chunk of our territories. And in those, there are a number of places that are our sacred sites. Winona LaDuke Read Quote
Post office closures in the Dakotas and Minnesota will impact many communities, but the White Earth reservation villages, and other tribal towns of Squaw Lake, Ponemah, Brookston in Minnesota, and Manderson, Wounded Knee and Wakpala (South Dakota) as well as Mandaree in North Dakota will mean hardships for a largely Native community. Winona LaDuke Read Quote
I look at my own reservation, the White Earth reservation in northern Minnesota – on my reservation, one quarter of our money is spent on energy. All of that money basically goes to off-reservation vendors whether it is for electricity, or whether it is for fuel. Winona LaDuke Read Quote
We filed a constitutional rights lawsuit on my reservation, and I had to go out and interview all these old people. And I found that many of the old people on my reservation didn’t know who was president. That kind of pointed out to me the irrelevance at times of who is in Washington. Winona LaDuke Read Quote
I wanted to get out of Ashland, and I thought it would be pretty cool to go to school in the East. So I asked my guidance counselor what Ivy League schools were. And I applied to Harvard, Yale and Dartmouth – that was it. My guidance counselor told me I wouldn’t get into an Ivy League school. So as my act of resistance, that’s all I applied to. Winona LaDuke Read Quote
