TWW Shero - Wilma P. Mankiller

Wilma P. Mankiller: 

Cherokee Chief and Women’s Rights Activist

by Tami Harbolt

Wilma Mankiller was born in 1945 at Hastings Indian Hospital in Tahlequah, OK. Although her family moved to San Francisco when she was a child, she eventually returned to Oklahoma in 1977. Her surname is from a tribal military rank. Wilma Mankiller married twice and had two children.

She was called to serve when a group of Indians occupied Alcatraz from 1969-1971. During their 19-month occupation, Mankiller visited them and assisted their efforts in bringing attention to the plight of all Indian nations. This event led her to further her education and serve in various positions on Cherokee tribal land in Oklahoma. You can learn more about the occupation of Alcatraz and see Wilma Mankiller speak at https://youtu.be/gEmae2PsWJI.

 “Everybody is sitting around saying, 'Well, jeez, we need somebody to solve this problem of bias.' That somebody is us. We all have to try to figure out a better way to get along.” -- Wilma Mankiller

                      

In 1983 she was chosen as the first female running mate of the Chief of the Cherokee nation, and then later won the election as Chief. She served her people for 12 years. She strongly believed that education was the way to improve the lives of all.    

        

As the tribe’s leader, she was both the principal guardian of centuries of Cherokee tradition and customs, including legal codes, and chief executive of a tribe with a budget that reached $150 million a year by the end of her tenure. The money included income from several factories, gambling operations, a motel, gift shops, a ranch, a lumber company and other businesses as well as the federal government.

One of her priorities was to plow much of this income back into new or expanded health care and job-training programs as well as Head Start and the local high school. (Verhovek 2010).

Even after she decided to step down as chief due to her failing health, Mankiller continued to be involved in tribal affairs and women’s rights. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1998. Mankiller passed away in 2010 from pancreatic cancer. She was 64.

To learn more about her life, check out:

Mankiller: A Chief and Her People (St. Martin’s Press, 1993), which she co-wrote with Michael Wallis.

Every Day Is a Good Day: Reflections by Contemporary Indigenous Women (Fulcrum Publishing, 2004).

The Cherokee Word for Water, the feature-length movie about her community work in Bell, OK, was filmed completely in Tahlequah and directed by her husband and community development partner of 30 years, Charlie Soap. (wilmamankiller.com)

You can also contribute to her foundation at http://mankillerfdn.org/

Sources:

https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/w/wilma_mankiller.html

Wilma Mankiller Foundation, Home, http://wilmamankiller.com/

Verhovek, Sam Howe, “Wilma Mankiller, Tribal Chief and First Woman to Lead Major Tribe, is Dead at 64.” The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/07/us/07mankiller.html

“We Hold the Rock” https://youtu.be/gEmae2PsWJI