The

Thunderbird Woman

Winona LaDuke

A Film by
Bertram Verhaag and Claus Biegert

Where’s Winona? A question that chases after Winona LaDuke most everywhere she goes, for this dynamic woman is constantly in motion. Winona is Anishinaabe from the Mississippi Band of the White Earth reservation in northern Minnesota. Her mother was a Jewish artist; her father, a Native American who was a stuntman in numerous Hollywood Westerns before he went on to become famous in New Age circles as the visionary Sun Bear.
Already at the age of seventeen Winona traveled to Geneva to speak out on indigenous issues at the UNO. After completing her studies in economics at Harvard, she settled down at White Earth reservation in rugged, northern Minnesota the land of ten thousand lakes, the homeland of her father.

There she works on restoring the local land base and traditional culture. In 1994 she was named by Time Magazine as one of America's 50 most promising leaders under 40 years of age.

Consumer advocate Ralph Nader chose her as his Vice Presidential running mate on the Green Party ticket in the 1996 and 2000 elections.
In 1994 she was named by Time Magazine as one of America's 50 most promising leaders under 40 years of age. Consumer advocate Ralph Nader chose her as his Vice Presidential running mate on the Green Party ticket in the 1996 and 2000 elections.
Where’s Winona? When Thunderbird Woman is not spending time with her three children, she might be off on a speaking tour, or dancing at the powwow, or be found behind her desk working on her latest book, or down in the Southwest organizing resistance against uranium and coal mining on reservation lands, or out in a canoe harvesting wild rice, or maybe she’s simply back in the kitchen preparing pesto, because: "Basil is my recipe against stress“. This film finds her.

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