On the way to Leupp for a muttonsandwich...

S.J. Wilson/Observer<BR><BR>
Winona LaDuke, left, listens as Justin Willie describes an ongoing permaculture project at the STAR School, located northeast of Flagstaff. LaDuke visited the school on Feb. 16.

S.J. Wilson/Observer<BR><BR> Winona LaDuke, left, listens as Justin Willie describes an ongoing permaculture project at the STAR School, located northeast of Flagstaff. LaDuke visited the school on Feb. 16.

LEUPP -- Justin Willie and Winona LaDuke made a visit to the STAR School.

LaDuke, noted Anishinaabeg (Ojibwe) activist, is involved in Native American, Environmental and Slow Food issues. She also ran for Vice President of the United States with Ralph Nader on the Green Party ticket in both 1996 and 2000.

She serves as the program director of Honor the Earth, and is the founding director of White Earth Land Recovery Project--designed to regain traditional lands of the White Earth Reservation in Minnesota.

LaDuke, a graduate of Harvard and Antioch University, was honored with the Reebok Human Rights Award in 1989, which allowed her to begin the White Earth Land Recovery Project. She was nominated as one of America's 50 most promising leaders under 40 years of age by Time Magazine in 1994. She has also received the Thomas Merton Award, the Ann Bancroft Award, and the Global Green Award among many other honors.

LaDuke is an author and actor, having written "Last Standing Woman, All Our Relations, In the Sugarbush, The Winona LaDuke Reader and Recovering the Sacred.

LaDuke has appeared in the award winning documentary, "Anthem," as well as in "The Main Stream" and "Skins." "Skins," in which LaDuke played Rose Two Buffalo, was awarded the 2003 Prism Award.

Justin Willie is involved in traditional farming and permaculture projects on and off the Navajo reservation, and shares LaDuke's interest in traditional foods and the Slow Food movement (as opposed to "fast food)."

Willie works with local schools and Northern Arizona University, teaching the benefits of growing one's own food while improving the environment.

LaDuke spent Feb. 15 in Flagstaff, signing copies of her books and speaking along with fellow activist Evon Peter--both of whom were featured in the documentary "Homeland, Four Portraits of Native Action," which showed at the Orpheum Theater.

Willie invited LaDuke and two of her sons to a mutton sandwich feast before the family headed for Albuquerque on Feb. 16.

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