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LaDuke calls the work these tribal communities do to protect their people and landbase from pollution and corporate greed, "soul-retrieval." It is work that we all need to do whatever our ethnic background, since as LaDuke's reportage on the presence of PCBs in mother's breastmilk in the Northeast attests, everyone is affected by what we are doing to the earth. ALL OUR RELATIONS by Indigenous Activist Winona LaDuke is a must read for everyone who cares about our earth. Since I met Winona when she was an economics student at Harvard, she has been at the heart of struggles and gains made by indigenous communities, always bringing a keen intellect, diligent research, unswerving commitment, and a broad vision of the whole circle to community and tribal issues. Winona LaDuke would be a great President because she is the only public figure who has a sensible plan for economic self-sufficiency, the clarity to explain it to the American people, and the discipline and steadfastness to enact it.
LaDuke has been a strong proponent of wind energy and has worked to engage major corporations like Ben & Jerry in developing wind energy projects on Indian Reservations in South Dakota. Native Harvest and White Earth Land Recovery Project have reclaimed White Earth land and developed sustainable reservation businesses that employ and train White Earth tribal members. Winona walks her talk. Each chapter not only outlines the problem, but it talks about solutions that are being implemented and suggests others that should be employed.
James Bay. What is most inpiring about LaDuke's writing and life is that she offers solutions. LaDuke presents the state of the environment focusing on several land, treaty rights and toxic exposure struggles on reservations across North America and in Hawaii. Winona is a mother who has no illusions about how the choices we make as consumers affect the earth and our communities' health.
It is one to read from end to end, then keep around to re-read again and again. Because I've known many of the people involved in the essential work LaDuke describes in ALL OUR RELATIONS, it was a personal pleasure to read this book and catch up with what Susannah Santos and her cousins are doing on the Columbia River, be updated on Luana Busby and Melani Trask and the Hawaiian indigenous movement and to get the inside details of the complex political fight Winona's son's father and his people are up aqainst at St. But this book will fascinate anyone who cares about our earth, families and communities.
If I could, I would thank Winonah LaDuke in person for writing such an important, informative and engaging book on the travesty that is the North American government's view of native land and those who inhabit it. When I remember that quote, I think about all of the animals, vegetation and tribes (consisting of families and friends) who have lived off of the land of the United States, as well as Canada. These lands are also subject to divebombings from military jets. One of the most important quotes from this book that I remember (since I read this book a couple of years ago in a Native/African-American Women's Studies course) was from a Seminole leader who said, "Selling your land for a price is like selling a piece of your mother." [I paraphrase this].
I believe everyone should read this book, regardless of occupation, national origin or territorial location. How can one possibly put a price on something that can't truly be owned by anyone and is its own autonomous entity. LaDuke makes several strong examples of this in the book. We need to face the damage done before more of it goes unacknowledged. We can't continue to pollute, abuse and neglect land without paying a price environmentally or in terms of human quality of life and mortaiity. The numerous tribes who make the land their home are forced to co-exist with the insensitive, selfish and literally toxic decisions made by government and corporations who dump tons upon tons of toxic pesticides in their water and on "abandoned" land.
Even if people have the illusion that they can occupy land as territory (because of treaties, as an example) does not mean that it is ever their to keep. Thank you, Winonah. These are illegal decibel levels that drive those within hearing range to points of mental instability, as well as potential hearing loss. I couldn't agree more.
Although LaDuke has specifically focused on Native American communities, the stories are engaging and instructive for Americans in general. Spoon-fed news by large media corps, few were aware that Winona LaDuke ran for the vice presidency under Ralph Nader in the 2000 elections. A must read for any conscious American. Informative, powerful, and transformative, LaDuke here provides an antidote for our increasing alienation from the land and biota that sustain us. Even fewer know that she is also a Native American eco-philosopher with a critical perspective on the health and future prosperity of America. All Our Relations is particularly instructive, in that LaDuke surveys the entire American landscape (and by landscape, I am not merely referring to the political landscape), showing the deep connections that exist between local cultures, their environments, and the corporate-governmental giants that often compromise their health.
She tells the truth of our world with a powerful clarity. Most of what was said in this book I already knew a little about, but through this book I understood the depth and complexity of all the factors. She expresses these views eloquently in these quotes by Lil'wat grandmother Loretta Pascal, "Where did you get your right to destroy these forests. She tells the stories of many Native American Tribes throughout North America (Canada and the United States, including a chapter on Hawaii). These are our forests, these are our ancestors."(p.5), by Ted Strong, "If this nation has a long way to go before all of our people are truly created equally without regard to race, religion, or national origin, it has even further to go before achieving anything that remotely resembles equal treatment for other creatures who called this land home before humans ever set foot upon it."(p.5), and by Katsi Cook, "Why is it we must change our lives, our way of life, to accommodate the corporations, and they are allowed to continue without changing any of their behavior."(p.12). Winona Laduke ran as vice president alongside Ralph Nader.
Her views on the environment and its effect upon animals and people (particularly babies, children and pregnant/nursing mothers) are exactly how I feel. I can not recommend this book enough. It would be truly amazing if this woman had become our vice president (for many reasons). Reading this book you will feel sorrow, and be inspired to action. She ends the book with the optimism that it is possible for us to make change, but it is up to us. It is my hope that some day she will be our vice president (or president).
How does your right supercede my rights.
To think this woman could be our Vice President today. She presents her advocacy as human, heartfelt and real. An articulate and passionate writer, LaDuke presents an awareness of the plight of America unsurpassed by any other. She knows what needs to be done.
But she continues to work on the issues, and it is so important that more people are aware of her work. I learned things about what is happening to this country that I would never have known otherwise. We're in trouble, folks, and it's not too late to do something about it. Please, please, please read this book. With more power she could have made such a difference. Most people don't even know that Winona LaDuke ran for Vice President on Ralph Nader's ticket.
You certainly don't see it in the news, and you don't learn about it in school. It is the most important book you will read all year. She knows what's wrong. She knows who is doing the work, how and why.
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