Colorado State University Welcomes Activist and Author Winona Laduke April 3

Internationally renowned Native American and environmental activist Winona LaDuke will speak at Colorado State University April 3 as part of "Bridges to the Future, American History and Values in Light of September 11th."

LaDuke will speak at 7 p.m. in the Lory Student Center Main Ballroom on "Native Peoples, Biodiversity and our Collective Survival." A book signing will follow the lecture. The event is free and open to the public. Earlier that day from 2:30-4 p.m., LaDuke will lead a smaller question and answer session for interested faculty, staff and students in the Longs Peak Room.

LaDuke is a member of the Mississippi band of Anishinaabeg and an advocate for environmental, women’s and children’s rights. As program director of the Honor the Earth Fund, an organization that funds environmental activism, LaDuke works on a national level to raise public support and create funding for native environmental groups. Along with the folk-rock duo, Indigo Girls, she organizes and headlines the annual Honor the Earth tour, which raises money for Native American environmental programs.

In 1996 and 2000, LaDuke joined Ralph Nader as his vice-presidential running mate on the Green Party ticket. During these elections, she worked to increase Native American voter registration and activism.

LaDuke also helped to found the Indigenous Women’s Network, which brings together Native American women from different cultures.

In 1988, LaDuke won the Reebok Human Rights Award and launched the White Earth Land Recovery Project with the proceeds. The White Earth Land Recovery Project is a reservation-based land acquisition, environmental advocacy and cultural organization. The White Earth Project recovers land, through purchases and donations, that once belonged to the Anishinaabeg.

In 1994, Time magazine named LaDuke one of the "50 For the Future," the country’s most promising leaders under the age of 40. In 1997, Ms. Magazine named LaDuke Woman of the Year for her work with Honor the Earth. She has also been profiled in People, Sierra and Minnesota Monthly magazines.

A graduate of Harvard and Antioch Universities, LaDuke has written extensively on Native American and environmental issues. She is the author of "All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life," "The Winona LaDuke Reader" and "Last Standing Woman," in which she chronicles an American Indian reservation and its people’s struggle to restore their culture. LaDuke lives on the White Earth Reservation in northern Minnesota with her family.

The lecture is sponsored by Center for Applied Studies in American Ethnicity, the Bridges to the Future program, Native American Student Services, the Vice President for Student Affairs, the Provost’s Office and the Center for Teaching and Learning.

For more information, call Irene Vernon in the Center for Applied Studies in American Ethnicity at (970) 491-2642.