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Winona LaDuke

Winona LaDuke Quotes

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Famous Winona LaDuke Quotes

“Water is life. We are the people who live by the water. Pray by these waters. Travel by the waters. Eat and drink from these waters. We are related to those who live in the water. To poison the waters is to show disrespect for creation. To honor and protect the waters is our responsibility as people of the land.”

PeopleShowsWaterResponsibilityLandCreationPrayingHonorDrinkProtectEnvironmentalRelatedPoisonLive ByDisrespectWater Is Life
Book:The Winona LaDuke Reader: A Collection of Essential Writings
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“The Lockean assumption that if we put our labor to it then it becomes our own is totally fallacious. We have to figure out how to leave things alone, and build an economic system that's not built on a linear model, but instead on a cyclical model, because that's the natural world - it's cyclical and not linear. That is going to take a lot of transformation.”

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Author:Winona LaDuke
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“Across the continent, on the shores of small tributaries, in the shadows of sacred mountains, on the vast expanse of the prairies, or in the safety of the woods, prayers are being repeated, as they have for thousands of years, and common people with uncommon courage and the whispers of their ancestors in their ears continue their struggles to protect the land and water and trees on which their very existence is based. And like small tributaries joining together to form a mighty river, their force and power grows.”

PeopleYearsTogetherFormForceGrowsWaterPrayerCommonExistenceStruggleTreeLandProtectMountainShadowRiversEarsSafetySacredEnvironmentalWoodsShoreAncestorContinentsStewardshipJoiningUncommonPrairieExpanseLand And WaterJoining TogetherForce And Power
Book:The Winona LaDuke Reader: A Collection of Essential Writings
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“Brothers and Sisters: Our ancient homeland is spotted today with an array of chemical dumps. Along the Niagara River, dioxin, a particularly deadly substance, threatens the remaining life there and in the waters which flow from there. Forestry departments spray the surviving forests with powerful insecticides to encourage tourism by people seeking a few days or weeks away from the cities where the air hangs heavy with sulphur and carbon oxides.”

PeopleTodayWaterPowerfulCitiesAirWeekBrotherFlowRiversEnvironmentalAncientSeekingHeavyForestsSubstanceDepartmentChemicalsPollutionCarbonBrothers And SistersSurvivingHomelandTourismDumpSprayNiagaraInsecticides
Author:Winona LaDuke
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“The insecticides kill the black flies, but also destroy much of the food chain for the bird, fish, and animal life which also inhabit those regions. The fish of the Great Lakes are laced with mercury from industrial plants, and fluoride from aluminum plants poisons the land and the people. Sewage from the population centers is mixed with PCBs and PBS in the watershed of the great lakes and the Finger Lakes, and the water is virtually nowhere safe for any living creatures.”

PeopleBlackWaterAnimalLandSafeCreaturesBirdPlantFingersEnvironmentalPopulationFishesChainsPoisonLakesRegionsPollutionLiving CreaturesMercuryAnimal LifeFood ChainAluminumSewageWatershedsPbsGreat LakesInsecticidesFluoride
Book:All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life
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“The military is the largest polluter in the country, and so you have a lot of military waste contaminating reservations - as, for example, on the Skull Valley Goshute Reservation, where 5,000 sheep died in some kind of experimental military nerve gas test 10 years ago. Many of our communities are dealing with that kind of waste, and an absence of political will to clean them up.”

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Author:Winona LaDuke
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“Uranium mining in northern Canada has left over 120 million tons of radioactive waste. This amount represents enough material to cover the Trans-Canada Highway two meters deep across the country. Present production of uranium waste from Saskatchewan alone occurs at the rate of over 1 million tons annually. Since 1975, hospitalization for cancer, birth defects and circulatory illnesses in that area have increased dramatically - between 123 and 600 percent in that region.”

TwoCountryEnoughLeftMillionsMaterialsAmountBirthWastePercentAreasEnvironmentalRateCancerIllnessProductionsCanadaRegionsPollutionDefectsHighwaysTransMeterMiningUraniumBirth DefectsUranium MiningSaskatchewanRadioactive Waste
Author:Winona LaDuke
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