{"id":616,"date":"2007-03-17T15:52:59","date_gmt":"2007-03-17T15:52:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/voteforjoe.com\/wheresjoe\/?p=49"},"modified":"2007-03-17T15:52:59","modified_gmt":"2007-03-17T15:52:59","slug":"31507","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/?p=616","title":{"rendered":"3\/15\/07"},"content":{"rendered":"

We went to a talk by Winnona LaDuke at Berea College in Kentucky today. \u00a0 Ms. LaDuke is an Ojibwe Tribe member from the White Earth Reservation in Minnesota. \u00a0 She is also the founder of the White Earth Land Recovery Project<\/a>. \u00a0 [We had done research at this Reservation several years prior. \u00a0 And the thrust of the project is to buy back as much Reservation land as possible (from corporate farming concerns, etc.) and reintroduce organic farming, replant native trees, re-stock sturgeon in the waterways, revert to sustainable, Native American \u00a0hunting practices…] \u00a0 When we were at White Earth, Ms. LaDuke (who has twice run as a vice-presidential candidate for the Green Party) told me the Tribe’s environmental practices stem from \u00a0the belief this generation is \u00a0spiritually responsible for the “next seven generations.” \u00a0 At the talk today, she said that if we don’t think we have to be reconciled with the natural world, “we’re pretty much in denial.” \u00a0 Ms. LaDuke, who attended Harvard University, \u00a0said she is a “Rural Development Economist” who is interested in moving toward a society that’s based on equitable and just relationships. \u00a0 America, at present, isn’t there. For instance, \u00a0Ms. LaDuke \u00a0pointed out that the United States was \u00a0developed on land stolen from the Native Americans, and the economy was initially built on the backs of Black slaves. \u00a0 “History books don’t hardly teach this,” she said. \u00a0 Current multi-cultural education, in fact, is primarily from an “anglo” perspective, “with a little spicing up,” Ms. LaDuke said… Ms. LaDuke said her interest is in”deconstructing oppression.” \u00a0 Some 90% of the White Earth Reservation is now held by other concerns (again, such as corporation farms). \u00a0 There is also a 65% unemployment rate at White Earth. \u00a0 And even though there is some job training, Ms. LaDuke went on, there are few jobs. \u00a0 In regard to all this, \u00a0she scoffed: \u00a0 “You tell me to pick myself up by my bootstraps — but you’ve got my boots.” \u00a0 Part of Ms. LaDuke’s answer to this is to get back as much land as possible and make the Reservation as sustainable within the context of a decentralized micro-society. \u00a0 Note:<\/strong> \u00a0 Our platform calls for making tangible amends to the Native Americans for past atrocities, including giving land back in as many creative ways as possible. \u00a0 One of those ways, we believe, \u00a0would be to help fund projects like the White Earth Land Recovery Project, and similar initiatives on Reservations across the country. \u00a0 And these amends can start — now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We went to a talk by Winnona LaDuke at Berea College in Kentucky today. \u00a0 Ms. LaDuke is an Ojibwe Tribe member from the White Earth Reservation in Minnesota. \u00a0 She is also the founder of the White Earth Land …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}