campaign stops:

Winona, Lake City, Red Wing,
Hill City, Remer, Whipholt,
Bemidji, Lake Itasca, Park Rapids,
Detroit Lakes, White Earth
In Search of Lake Woebegone Tour II /
Summer 2005
- At White Earth Indian Reservation in Northwestern, Minnesota,
we met with Winnona La Duke. (Ms. La Duke, of the Ojibwe Tribe, ran
as Ralph Nader's vice-presidential candidate in Campaign 2000.) Her
White Earth Land Recovery Project here includes a series of initiatives
to replant trees, reintroduce sturgeon to the rivers, go back to sustainable,
organic farming and other traditional Native ways. Ms. La Duke told
me she believes that spiritually we're responsible for "seven
generations" in the future.
- While at the headwaters of
the Mississippi in Lake Itasca, Minnesota, I was interviewed by Minnesota
State University's Martin Grindeland. Martin teaches Mass
Communications. His class was doing a documentary on Lake Itasca
State Park. During the interview, I noted that the Native Americans
found it somewhat amusing that the European explorers were all rushing to
"discover" the Mississippi headwaters when, well, the Native
Americans already knew where it was -- and showed the explorers.
- In McGrath, Minnesota, (pop.
65), Marianne Klaus told us that growing up in the 1930s here, her parents
had 30 cows, some chickens and a garden. "You could get by on
that then," she said. Our administration would like to see it
go back to this.