PEMBROKE Genetic engineering, climate change and history were all on the menu as an environmental activist and former two-time vice presidential candidate shared what she called the covenant American Indians have with their food.

About 60 students and faculty from The University of North Carolina at Pembroke and local residents came to The Regional Center at COMtech to hear Winona LaDukes presentation on ecological sustainability and self-sufficiency on Thursday. The presentation was part of UNCPs Native American Speakers Series and the 2013 Conference of American Indian Women of Proud Nations, which began Wednesday and concludes today.

LaDuke, an Anishinaabe Indian, said food is a lifeline to Americans Indians culture and heritage, saying the Anishinaabe tribe was told to go to where food grows on the water, which led them to the rice paddies of Minnesota. She highlighted her point in a video showing Anishinaabe men harvesting wild rice during an annual ritual on their reservation.

Its not just a commodity, LaDuke said. Its a covenant.

To protect that bond, LaDuke said she and her family waged an eight-year battle against the federal government to stop the genetic engineering of indigenous wild rice.

If genetic engineering is the answer, what was the question? she said.

LaDuke said climate change and the use of fossil fuels are causing ecological ruin around the world, especially with the way fuels are extracted from the Earth.

Carbon belongs in the soil, not in the air, she said. When you go to extremes, you do things like frack and blow the tops off of 500 mountains because youre desperate.

LaDuke showed photos of houses in an Alaskan village crumbling because the foundation underneath is melting, which she said is evidence that geography is changing.

Anyone who thinks climate change isnt happening is highly delusional, she said.

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Indian activist says answers to Earth’s woes found in dirt -

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