WILMINGTON — Winona LaDuke refers to the Green New Deal as the Sitting Bull Plan.

LaDuke is an activist and a Native American; the Green New Deal is a plan to fight climate change; and LaDuke says Sitting Bull was a great political and spiritual leader.

Sitting Bull illustrates the Green New Deal, believes LaDuke, because he said, “Let us put our minds together to see what kind of future we can make for our children.”

And the future, said LaDuke, is made by people who decide to make it.

LaDuke gave the keynote address for this week’s 2019 Westheimer Peace Symposium at Wilmington College. Her talk was titled “Human Rights, the Rights of Nature and an Era of Extreme Extraction and Climate Change”.

She said the electric engine is more efficient than the internal combustion engine. After noting Amazon has a presence in Wilmington, LaDuke added Amazon is going renewable.

“Amazon just announced 10,000 electric vehicles, followed by Google,” said LaDuke. “To me this is what the future looks like.”

In the history of North American Native peoples, there was a treaty known as the “One Dish, One Spoon Treaty”. It acknowledges that we all eat from one dish, said LaDuke, “so let us be careful what we take from the one dish, and let’s care for the dish.”

What has happened in this country, she said, is the rights of corporations supersede the rights of people and nature.

Under U.S. law, a U.S. corporation is considered a person in the court system, said LaDuke.

“In my personal and humble opinion, a corporation is not a person because a person has a soul,” she said, receiving applause from the Heiland Theatre audience.

Reach Gary Huffenberger at 937-556-5768.

Winona LaDuke was keynote speaker for the 2019 Westheimer Peace Symposium at Wilmington College. https://www.wnewsj.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2019/10/web1_wc-speaker-2.jpg Winona LaDuke was keynote speaker for the 2019 Westheimer Peace Symposium at Wilmington College. Gary Huffenberger | News Journal https://www.wnewsj.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2019/10/web1_wc-speaker-1.jpg Gary Huffenberger | News Journal

LaDuke: ‘Let us put our minds together’