A west coast native, Winona LaDuke, daughter of an Anishinabekwe father and Jewish mother attended Harvard University in Boston and graduated with a degree in native economic development in 1982. Upon graduating, LaDuke became a principal at a reservation high school. During her time as principal, LaDuke took on a project that would shape her future political and leadership potential and ambitions. Involving herself in a lawsuit to recover lands allotted to the Anishinabeg natives in the 1867 Federal Treaty. Although the lawsuit was dismiss four years later, LaDuke went on to continue the fight by founding the "White Earth Land Recovery Project."" The 1867 treaty promised 837,000 acres to the Anishinabeg people. Ninety percent of the nearly one million acres laid in the hands of non-Native American people. Funded by grants and a 20,000 dollar human rights prize from the Reebok company, the "White Earth Land Recovery Project- has regained 1,000 acres. Still in action, the foundation hopes to gather 30,000 more acres in the next 15 years.
LaDuke's next initiative would be the White House. Running mate for Green Party candidate Ralph Nader in 1996, LaDuke stepped into a political arena that had before made her feel disenfranchised. Disgusted by the restrictions of the two-party system, LaDuke cast her the first vote of her life at age 36 for herself. When first asked by Nader to run, LaDuke was resistant. However, after consulting with the people of her native community, LaDuke changed her mind and decided to work against the system of American politics by working with it. When asked why she decided to run with the Green Party after her lack of involvement in politics, LaDuke commented "My goal in the campaign is to change the content of American democracy and to transform American democracy so it's actually functional [by] building a multiparty system that allows broader participation and a wider range of ideas.
The Agony and the Ecstasy: The Civil Rights Movement Throughout its history the United States has wrestled with civil rights issues. Even at this country's birth, its Founding Fathers incorporated the Three-Fifths Compromise, ending a dispute over slaves" votes, into the United States" very Const...