PAST CANDIDATE FOR VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES TO SPEAK AT UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS

FAYETTEVILLE — Winona Laduke, the candidate for vice president of the United States in 2000 on the Green Party Ticket with Ralph Nader, will speak Wednesday, Nov. 14, at 7:30 p.m. in Giffels Auditorium in Old Main.

Laduke's talk, "All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life," will be open to the public and be held in conjunction with the 8th Annual University of Arkansas Native American Symposium. Her talk will explore the relationship of indigenous people with the modern world, drawing from the themes of her books, such as the struggle of women to retain their culture and the unique approach to environmentalism of Native peoples.

She is a member of the Anishinaabe tribe of American Indians (Ojibwa) and lives on the White Earth Reservation in Minnesota. She has authored several books and articles and has taught gender studies classes at the University of Minnesota, and she is a well-known champion of women's rights, indigenous struggles, and environmental activism.

She is the founder of the White Earth Land Recovery Project and the Indigenous Women's Network, and Program Director of the Honor The Earth Fund. She has a thorough understanding of Native ideas and people as well as a vision of political, spiritual, and ecological transformation.

Laduke's first book, Last Standing Woman, is a novel that traces the lives of seven generations of Anishinaabeg women. The book is crafted as a series of stories told by a storyteller named Last Standing Woman, recounting the women's struggles to retain and later restore their culture. Battling alcoholism, sexual abuse, and fighting to regain their land, the characters are heroes full of hope and vision.

Her latest book, All Our Relations, explores the direct connection between the loss of cultural diversity and the loss of biodiversity. In the book, Laduke explains that wherever enclaves of indigenous peoples remain, there is also a corresponding enclave of biodiversity.

"Trickles of rivers still running in the Northwest are home to the salmon still being sung back by Native people," Laduke says in All Our Relations. "The last few Florida panthers remain in the presence of traditional Seminoles, hidden away in the great cypress swamps of the Everglades. Some of the largest patches of remaining prairie grasses sway on reservation lands. One half of all reservation lands in the United States is still forested, much of it old-growth."

Ms. Laduke will be available for media interviews directly following the event.