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.