Star Tribune
Winona LaDuke denies allegations following Attorney General’s investigation of Honor the Earth
Winona LaDuke is denying allegations that she made unauthorized loans to family members for non-business purposes while executive director of Honor the Earth, an environmental nonprofit investigated by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison.
In a Jan. 31 court petition for an “assurance of discontinuance” order, Ellison alleged that LaDuke frequently authorized transactions between Honor the Earth and family members who worked for the nonprofit “for purposes that did not benefit the corporation.” The petition alleges several interest-free loans were made without board approval, and often without proper documentation, to family members for “large purchases” such as vehicles and to pay for rent and bills.
The petition also alleges that LaDuke and the organization mishandled claims of sexual harassment by employees, and notes that the nonprofit admitted it lacked a systematic recordkeeping procedure.
Ellison said in a statement last week that the investigation found that Honor the Earth “did not meet the expectations that Minnesotans have for all charitable organizations.”
LaDuke denied many of the allegations in a statement Wednesday to the Star Tribune, as did her attorney Bruce D. Nestor in a letter to the Attorney General’s Office.
“There are some inaccuracies in the Attorney General’s notice regarding Honor the Earth, which should be corrected,” LaDuke said — inaccuracies which, according to Nestor, “harm Ms. LaDuke’s reputation.”
According to LaDuke’s statement, any loans given to her biological children were the same loans that went to other employees, and were repaid with payroll deductions.
“I did not approve any loans to my children nor did I supervise their employment,” she stated.
Nestor rejected the allegation that the loans did not benefit the program, saying they were necessary for employees to do their jobs.
“Many employees of Honor the Earth were low-income and would encounter unexpected expenses which would limit their ability to perform their jobs or travel to meetings,” he said, adding that LaDuke’s children qualified for the program.
Ellison’s petition states that LaDuke’s daughter, two sons and a sister worked for the nonprofit, but LaDuke said her sister was never associated with the nonprofit or received a loan. LaDuke said about 15 payroll advances went to employees in the last two years, and that two of her children received loans.
Spokesman Brian Evans said that that Attorney General’s Office stands by the allegations in the petition.
LaDuke co-founded Honor the Earth, along with Indigo Girls Amy Ray and Emily Saliers, in 1993. She resigned as executive director in April 2023, shortly after Honor the Earth lost a sexual harassment case in which a Becker County jury awarded former employee Margaret Campbell $750,000 for lost wages and emotional distress.
Ellison’s petition says that documents show LaDuke issued memoranda to the group’s board dismissing additional complaints of sexual harassment and misconduct without investigating. But in her statement, she denied allegations that she failed to properly handle internal complaints of sexual harassment and misconduct.
Nestor said Honor the Earth was a “relatively small organization which did not have the internal structures or capacity to deal with human resource issues which may be considered standard in larger corporations.” LaDuke said in Nestor’s letter that the complaints were “appropriately investigated in light of the information known to her and Honor the Earth at the time.”
Honor the Earth officials declined to comment on LaDuke’s response. They issued a statement last week noting that none of LaDuke’s family members were still employed there.
“We welcome this assurance as it signifies a new phase in Honor [the Earth]’s development, one that allows us to redirect our focus to the important issues at hand — fighting for our rights as Indigenous peoples, while continuing to develop ways to repair harm within our community,” Executive Director Krystal Two Bulls said.
LaDuke was paid an annual salary of $88,500 in 2021, and Honor the Earth received more than $7 million in contributions and grants that year, according to the Attorney General’s Office.
Honor the Earth’s tax filing for 2017 reported a loan approved by the board of $4,999 from the nonprofit to assist someone with “short-term emergency need,” and listed LaDuke as an “interested person.” The filing reported that the nonprofit had a “board-approved policy” at the time so that loans under $5,000 did not need board approval.
The 2019 tax filing reported three “employee advance” loans of $4,000, $1,100 and $700, the last of which listed LaDuke’s daughter as an “interested person.” Those loans were not approved by a board or committee, according to the filing, though the $4,000 loan had a written agreement.
LaDuke acknowledged there were times when Honor the Earth failed to maintain all required filings with the state and complete financial records. But in his letter, Nestor said those issues were due to circumstances “beyond the control” of LaDuke and the nonprofit, including an accountant passing away and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The “assurance of discontinuance” from Ellison includes a number of changes the nonprofit is required to make, some of which have already happened. One was that the nonprofit must fully separate from Anishinaabe Agricultural Institute and Akiing 8th Fire, which LaDuke founded and with which Honor the Earth partnered before 2023.
Nestor said that Honor the Earth’s protests against the Enbridge Line 3 pipeline in 2020 and 2021 “substantially” expanded demands on the nonprofit. “For over thirty years, Honor the Earth has done good work for the communities of Indigenous people with which it works,” he wrote.
Anti-police brutality activists interrupted a Minneapolis City Council meeting Thursday to call for Police Chief Brian O’Hara’s firing, saying his department failed a Black man who begged police for help for months, to no avail, before he was finally shot in the neck by his white neighbor.
John Sawchak, 54, is charged with shooting Davis Moturi, 34, even though three warrants had been issued for his arrest in connection with threats to Moturi and other neighbors.
Activists showed up at the council meeting and asked for time to talk about the case. Instead, the council recessed and activists took the podium and castigated the city for failing Black people, even as state and federal officials are forcing the police department into court-sanctioned monitoring because of past civil rights violations.
Nekima Levy Armstrong, founder of the Racial Justice Network, said O’Hara needs to be held accountable.
“This is not the first time instance where the community has raised concerns about his poor judgment, poor leadership, blaming the community and excuses. It’s completely unacceptable for him to get away with it,” she said. “How many Black people’s doors have they kicked in for less?”
On Thursday the council voted to request the city auditor review the city’s involvement in and response to the matters between Moturi and Sawchak.
Mayor Jacob Frey released a statement in response saying he supports the council’s call for an independent review of the case, but O’Hara “will continue to be the Minneapolis police chief.”
Protesters also questioned why the public hadn’t heard from Community Safety Commissioner Toddrick Barnette, who called a news conference within hours to say he’s not going to fire O’Hara and the city leadership supports him.
A Girl Scout from Troop 58068 told the Woodbury City Council recently that they should allow backyard chickens in the city: They cheer people up, she said.
It turned out that chickens were on an upcoming agenda and, perhaps pushed a bit by the scout’s lobbying, the Woodbury City Council at their next meeting passed a new ordinance allowing for backyard hens.
The new ordinance went into effect on Oct. 23, the night of the council meeting, and will allow people who live on property zoned R-2, a “rural estate” district, to have backyard chickens. A typical city lot is zoned R-4 and those areas still cannot have chickens, the council said.
The city has received requests “here and there” for the last several years about backyard chickens, City Council Member Andrea Date said.
Backyard chickens come have home to roost — and never leave — in a host of other Minnesota cities that allow them, from Hopkins to Thief River Falls. It’s long been allowed in both St. Paul and Minneapolis, and new cities started approving backyard coops during the pandemic, when interest spiked.
In Woodbury, it wasn’t until the question was included on the city’s biannual survey that city staff knew how people felt. The survey found less support for chickens on a typical city lot — just 13% of respondents said they strongly approve of the idea while 43% percent strongly disapproved — but a majority approved of backyard chickens on lots of 1 acre or more.
The city’s rules until recently only allowed chickens on “rural estate” properties of five or more acres.
The new ordinance allows up to six hens, but no roosters, on property less than four acres that meets the zoning requirements. Larger properties can have an additional two chickens per acre above four acres. The ordinance also sets a height limit for chicken coops of 7 feet. No license or permit is required in Woodbury for backyard chickens.
Star Tribune
Anonymous donor pays overdue bill for Fergus Falls home where town’s first Black resident lived
A $10,000 overdue special assessment bill threatening tax forfeiture of a historic Fergus Falls home was paid off this week thanks to an anonymous donor.
Prince Albert Honeycutt lived at 612 Summit Avenue East, renamed Honeycutt Memorial Drive in 2021. Not only was Honeycutt the town’s first Black resident — settling there in 1872 from Tennessee — he was the state’s first Black professional baseball player, first Black firefighter and first Black mayoral candidate.
He was an early pioneer and prominent businessman who owned a barbershop in town. Missy Hermes, with the Otter Tail County Historical Society, said Honeycutt and his wife were likely the first Black people in Minnesota to testify in a capital murder trial of a man who was convicted and hanged in Fergus Falls.
“In other places, you would never have a Black person testifying against a white person, especially a woman, too, before women could vote even,” Hermes said. “Obviously he was respected enough.”
Nancy Ann and Prince Albert Honeycutt with their children inside the now-historic Honeycutt house in 1914. Photo from the collections of the Otter Tail County Historical Society.
When dozens of people from Kentucky moved to Fergus Falls in April 1898, known as “the first 85,” Honeycutt helped integrate them into the community.
He died in 1924 at age 71 and is buried in Oak Grove Cemetery in Fergus Falls.
Up until 2016, several owners lived in the Honeycutt home. But the city bought and sold the house to nonprofit Flowingbrook Ministry for $1 to take over the tax-exempt property and operate the ministry.
Ministry founder Lynette Higgins-Orr, who previously lived in Fergus Falls, moved to Florida several years ago and little activity has been going on in the historic home since. But she said there are plans to make it into a museum.
