Winona LaDuke on Returning Land to American Indians
Winona LaDuke is an activist for Native Americans, women, and the environment. She is also well-known as Ralph Nader's running mate in the 2000 U.S. presidential elections. In this video clip from a Facing History and Ourselves interview, LaDuke discusses the issue of land reparations for Native Americans.
Transcript:
"Theoretically they say that...giving Indian
land back to Indians, ‘Yeah, that's good. We understand that things
were done wrong to Indians.' That's how people talk. ‘We understand
that things went wrong to Indians.' But when I ask for our land back
inside our reservations-I'm not talking about throwing white people
off, I'm talking about federal landholdings inside our reservation,
45,000 acres of federal landholdings-they won't support return of the
land.
"What they say-the reasons they won't support it-is because they said first of all, that right now because it's held by U.S. department of Fish and Wildlife that they have a say in how it's managed and if it's returned to the Indians they won't have a say. And when I heard them say that to me I said, ‘You didn't seem to notice when they were clear-cutting over there on that refuge. And you didn't seem to take any notice when they were putting pesticides over it. You didn't want to have your say then. But when we want our land back, you are opposed to it. The fact is that our tribe has more stringent environmental laws than the state of Minnesota and the federal government. But you are afraid of us having control of our land. I fundamentally believe that's racism. Because they don't believe we can handle our land. I said, ‘We didn't cause any extinction of species on our reservation. Who caused extinction of species in our area is non-Indians and the federal government. We didn't cause any extinction.'
"It's fundamental issues that are deeply rooted issues of racism and a perception that Indian people, or people of color, are not as able as white people to take care of things, whatever it is, and that somehow white people are better at it, better managers.
"We fight those issues all the time, and there's this thinking about it, this intellectual thinking: ‘We understand what happened to Indians was wrong and we'd like to fix that,' but when it comes down to it, they don't want to fix it. So that's the fundamental issues, that's the struggle that we face, is calling people to task on that and over time, trying to get them to support us. Because the reality is that the federal government will not return land unless white people say the federal government should return land to us."
"What they say-the reasons they won't support it-is because they said first of all, that right now because it's held by U.S. department of Fish and Wildlife that they have a say in how it's managed and if it's returned to the Indians they won't have a say. And when I heard them say that to me I said, ‘You didn't seem to notice when they were clear-cutting over there on that refuge. And you didn't seem to take any notice when they were putting pesticides over it. You didn't want to have your say then. But when we want our land back, you are opposed to it. The fact is that our tribe has more stringent environmental laws than the state of Minnesota and the federal government. But you are afraid of us having control of our land. I fundamentally believe that's racism. Because they don't believe we can handle our land. I said, ‘We didn't cause any extinction of species on our reservation. Who caused extinction of species in our area is non-Indians and the federal government. We didn't cause any extinction.'
"It's fundamental issues that are deeply rooted issues of racism and a perception that Indian people, or people of color, are not as able as white people to take care of things, whatever it is, and that somehow white people are better at it, better managers.
"We fight those issues all the time, and there's this thinking about it, this intellectual thinking: ‘We understand what happened to Indians was wrong and we'd like to fix that,' but when it comes down to it, they don't want to fix it. So that's the fundamental issues, that's the struggle that we face, is calling people to task on that and over time, trying to get them to support us. Because the reality is that the federal government will not return land unless white people say the federal government should return land to us."
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Video length:
02 min 18 sec
Date filmed:
Mar 21 1994 
