ORONO – It might seem strange to some that one of the nation’s most noted environmentalists drives one of the biggest SUVs on the market.

With five children, Winona LaDuke’s GMC Yukon might seem a logical choice if not for today’s concerns about the availability and cost of oil.

But, like much of LaDuke’s lifestyle, her vehicle fits her ideology. Her Yukon runs primarily on ethanol, an alternative fuel produced by fermenting corn, barley and wheat.

On Tuesday, the American Indian activist, author and two-time vice presidential candidate told members of her University of Maine audience that their personal choices – and ideas – can also effectively combat growing threats to the environment.

“Sometimes you have to be the one that sticks your neck out,” LaDuke told the crowd of about 125 people at the Memorial Union. “They’ll call you crazy. People are afraid of change, but change is inevitable. It’s a question of who controls the change.”

LaDuke spoke as part of the Howard Schonberger Peace and Social Justice Memorial Lecture series. The event is held in memory of a UM history professor who taught on the Orono campus from 1971 until his death in 1991.

LaDuke, 46, ran as the Green Party’s vice presidential nominee with Ralph Nader in 1996 and 2000. An Ojibwe Indian living on her tribe’s reservation in northern Minnesota, LaDuke has long involved herself in environmental causes, including her recent efforts to recover her tribe’s lost land.

LaDuke on Tuesday spoke on a wide variety of environmental topics, including what she saw as the Bush administration’s flawed energy policies and the country’s dangerously insatiable thirst for petroleum.

She also discussed her skepticism about a proposed liquefied natural gas terminal on tribal land in Washington County. She said it typifies the difficult – and sometimes dangerous – choices tribes with limited economic opportunities are forced to consider.

“As native people we should have more options,” said LaDuke, who lamented other tribes’ reliance on casino gambling and nuclear waste storage to fuel ailing economies.

She said she was seeking more information on the Washington County plans but doubted they differed significantly from similar terminals she opposed in California two decades ago.

“Nothing has changed that much. It is an explosion waiting to happen .. and you don’t want it,” she said in response to an audience member’s question. “I’m sure that [LNG] is not the answer.”

Supporters of the LNG plan say it is a safe technology that would bring much needed economic benefits to the struggling area.

LaDuke said tribes, in general, would be much wiser to consider harnessing wind power – an abundant energy source not only in the Great Plains near her reservation, but also in Maine.

After the lecture, Kati McCarthy, a 24-year-old women’s studies major, said she drew inspiration from LaDuke’s efforts to conserve Earth’s resources and preserve her traditional culture.

“In all these real ways, she’s this icon, but she’s making these everyday decisions to live well, and that’s really missing these days,” said McCarthy, who lives in Belfast. “You can make small decisions that have a large impact.”

Before she attended the afternoon talk, the closest McCarthy had come to LaDuke was a portrait of the activist on display at the Orono campus.

LaDuke’s portrait is part of artist Robert Shetterly’s “Americans Who Tell the Truth” exhibit, which recently left the art department’s Carnegie Hall galleries and is currently on display at the University of Southern Maine’s Lewiston campus.

Shetterly, of Brooksville, was also on hand at the Tuesday lecture. After the talk, he said, “Her ethic is an ethic we have to adopt if we want to survive on this planet.”