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CORVALLIS - Winona LaDuke, a prominent Native American community and environmental activist, will speak Monday, May 3, at Oregon State University.

The title of her lecture is "Environmentalism on the Cusp of the Millenium."

LaDuke's appearance is sponsored by the OSU Convocations and Lectures Committee and is open to the public without charge. It will be at 7:30 p.m. in the LaSells Stewart Center, and interpreted for the hearing impaired.

Born of a Native American father and Jewish mother, LaDuke grew up in Ashland, Ore. After graduating from Harvard in 1982, LaDuke accepted a job as school principal on the White Earth Indian Reservation in Minnesota, where her father grew up.

During this time, she became involved in an unsuccessful lawsuit to recover reservation lands lost over the years through sales and tax foreclosures. After losing in court, LaDuke founded the White Earth Land Recovery Project to gain the return of some 800,000 acres of former reservation lands. The project has raised money to buy back more than 1,000 acres of lost tribal lands and hopes to regain another 30,000 acres.

LaDuke founded the Indigenous Women's Network, a network of grassroots organizers and community workers which she represented at the 1995 World Conference on Women held in Beijing.

LaDuke is the author of "Long Standing Woman," a novel that chronicles the lives of seven generations of Native American women and their struggles to restore their culture. She has also written articles on Native American economic development, environmental and legal issues in such magazines as Utne Reader, Sierra Magazine and Patagonia.

She has received numerous awards in recognition of her work, including the Ann Bancroft Award for Women's Leadership, the Thomas Merton Award and the Reebok Human Rights Award.

In 1996, LaDuke was Ralph Nader's vice-presidential running mate on the Green Party ticket.