American Indian activist to speak

Winona LaDuke, a leading international activist for American Indian and environmental causes, will give the next installment of the President’s Lecture Series at UM on Monday, Feb. 25.

LaDuke’s presentation — “Creating Just Societies: The Environment, the Economy and Human Relations in
the Next Millennium” — will focus on what is required for the creation of just societies that are in harmony with nature.

The event will take place at 8 p.m. in the Montana Theatre, located in UM’s Performing Arts and Radio/Television Center.

Earlier that day from 3:10 to 4:30 p.m., LaDuke will give a seminar titled “Indigenous Thinking on Sustainable Development: Strategies for the Northern Plains-Great Lakes Region” in Gallagher Business Building Room 123.

Both events are free and open to the public. They are presented in collaboration with UM’s academic affairs office, the University’s women’s studies, environmental studies and Native American studies programs, and the Montana Museum of Art & Culture.

LaDuke, a member of the Anishinaabe nation, is executive director of Honor the Earth, a national organization formed to meet the needs of a growing Native environmental movement.

A graduate of Harvard and Antioch universities, she has written extensively on American Indian and environmental issues. Among her books are “Recovering the Sacred: The Power of Naming and Claiming,” “Last Woman Standing” and “All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life.”

LaDuke was Ralph Nader’s Green Party vice-presidential running mate in 1996 and 2000.

In 1989, she received the Reebok Human Rights Award and used part of the proceeds to start the White Earth Land Recovery Project.

In 1994, LaDuke was nominated by Time magazine as one of the country’s 50 most promising leaders under 40. She also has received the Thomas Merton Award, the Ann Bancroft Award and the Global Green Award. In 1997, she was named a Ms. Magazine Woman of the Year.

LaDuke was instrumental in bringing “Impacted Nations” to the Montana Museum of Art & Culture at UM. The traveling exhibition, now in the museum’s Meloy and Paxson galleries, features 52 works by 44 contemporary American Indian artists that address the conflict between Native people’s relationship to the earth and the political and economic forces that undermine it.

LaDuke will speak at a closing reception for the exhibition from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 26, at the museum.