By Andrea Jaussi
Flagstaff Resident

Former Green Party vice-presidential candidate Winona LaDuke is coming to Flagstaff. She will speak at Northern Arizona University’s Ardrey Auditorium on September 6 at 7:30 p.m. She will be talking about how we can recover our own lost connections.

Connectivity — it’s Winona LaDuke’s main theme. She’s not talking Internet connections either. Listen to her speak, read her books, and you begin to understand that she sees a loss of our personal connections. We create false divisions between us and the land, as much as between ourselves. LaDuke has an armload of projects that, at the heart, are about first finding the reasons for our creating these divisions, and then rebuilding connections wherever possible. The projects range from recovering tribal lands and growing indigenous varieties of wild rice, to reintroducing native fish to rivers. They are about reconnecting ourselves with the land and perhaps, thereby, reconnecting to each other.

  White Earth Land Recovery Project

LaDuke belongs to the Anishinaabekwe (Ojibwe) tribe that calls home the White Earth Indian Reservation in north central Minnesota. Like many other Native American tribes, the White Earth Indian Reservation represents only a small portion of the original reservation territory that was deeded to her people by the US government. To address this issue, LaDuke founded the White Earth Land Recovery Project (WELRP), with a mission to “facilitate recovery of the original land base of the White Earth Indian Reservation, while preserving and restoring traditional practices of sound land stewardship, language fluency, community development, and strengthening spiritual and cultural heritage.”

 In a recent interview, LaDuke said, “Our work in reclaiming this land is coupled with environmental concerns. Our land is ‘Mino Aki’ (good land), capable of supporting traditional harvesters and craftspeople, as well as providing herbs and medicines. However, clear-cutting, unsustainable farming practices and airborne contamination have damaged our land and our waters, endangering our relatives as well as our own Anishinaabeg culture and traditional way of life. We find we must now address all of this with a holistic approach to recovery." In this light, land recovery is directly tied with the recovery of traditional Ojibwe culture, mending a broken connection between a people and their land.

  Native Harvest

Native Harvest is another of LaDuke’s innovative projects. The Ojibwe produce and market native varieties of wild rice, as an additional step to help them build stronger ties with their land and culture. Mass production of genetically engineered varieties of rice by global corporations and pesticide use have pushed native wild rice production almost to extinction. But Native Harvest is about turning that around and building a sustainable natural foods enterprise to support the many programs of WELRP. In this way it encourages her tribe to continue their historic practices of sustainable agriculture and traditional beadwork and quilting. The Ojibwe now successfully market and sell maple products, natural lake wild rice, native roasted coffee, birch bark items and homemade quilts. Every effort is made to assure that the tribal members who craft these items receive a fair price.

 Beyond the help it provides for her tribe, Native Harvest confronts corporate dominance in agriculture. “There is a direct link between loss of biodiversity and industrialization in foods,” said LaDuke. “Corporate agribusiness today markets over 95 percent of the food on the shelf. Vertical and horizontal integration is illustrated by Phillip Morris’ purchase of Tombstone Pizza, Lenders Bagels, Kraft Macaroni and Cheese; and ConAgra’s similar omnipotence. These trends continue in seeds, where Monsanto and Dupont are now the first and second largest seed companies. And these trends are indicative in loss of diversity in production.”

   Recovering Sturgeon … and Ourselves

WELRP is currently developing a proposal to remove dams that block the sturgeon's natural migration patterns. Sturgeon are a native fish that have been endangered throughout the Midwest by dams and pollution. “Taking down dams, that is sort of antithesis of America,” LaDuke said. “When the Bureau of Reclamation celebrated its 75th anniversary a few years ago, we realized that we had created the world’s largest water distribution and obstruction system in history. The BOR had put in 322 reservoirs, 345 diversion dams, 14,490 miles of canals, 34,990 miles of laterals, 930 miles of pipelines, 218 miles of tunnels, 15,000 some miles of drains, and a whole bunch more. We are a damming bunch.”

 Changes have to be made in the artificial river systems people have created in order to make them more livable for the sturgeon. “We are interconnected, the dams we have constructed … need to be more permeable, the garbage cleaned away. A sturgeon can live up to l50 years. That longevity encourages interconnectivity,” LaDuke said.

 “River connectivity is a phrase which is lived by sturgeon. Today they are returning to the rivers and lakes of our region (of Minnesota) … and as they return, they teach us all a lesson,” said LaDuke. “The lesson of river connectivity, and our relationship with each other. That lesson, I believe is that we can begin the process of undoing some of what we have done to each other, and that we are ultimately connected.”

  Flagstaff Connections

Here in the desert Southwest, apparently far removed from the White Earth Indian Reservation of Minnesota, we struggle with many of the same issues. How do Native American tribes retain cultural identity within a society that mass markets an “I want to be like Mike” mentality that discourages diversity? How can we consume and promote the production of locally grown foods that are not genetically engineered by corporations such as Monsanto? How can we revive populations of native fish, like the humpback chub of the Colorado River, pushed to the brink of extinction by a dam?

  LaDuke’s visit to Flagstaff is sponsored by Glen Canyon Institute. For more information, contact the Institute at (928) 556-9311 or visit www.glencanyon.org.

  Andrea Joussi is the Development & Outreach Director of Glen Canyon Institute. She holds an MA in Natural Resource Policy and has 10 years experience working for non-profit environmental organizations. She is also a mom, a hiker, and an environmental activist. She has lived Flagstaff for about a year but has lived in the desert Southwest for 14 years.

  Flagstaff Tea Party does not endorse any political party or candidate and welcomes items of interest to its readers concerning any party or candidate.