KEY Speakers Bureau
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WILMA MANKILLER

First Woman Chief of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma; Spokesperson for the Native Americans

In 1985, Wilma Mankiller became the first woman chief of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, winning the election with 56 percent of the vote.

Wilma Mankiller, former Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, lives on the land that was allotted to her paternal grandfather, John Mankiller, just after Oklahoma became a state in 1907. Surrounded by the Cherokee Hills and the Cookson Hills, she lives in a historically rich area where a person's worth is not determined by the size of their bank account or portfolio. Her family name "Mankiller" as far as they can determine, is an old military title that was given to the person in charge of protecting the village.

As the leader of the Cherokee people, she represented the second largest tribe in the United States, the largest being the Dine (Navajo) Tribe. Mankiller was the first female in modern history to lead a major Native American tribe. With an enrolled population of over 140,000, and an annual budget of more than $75 million, and more than 1,200 employees spread over 7,000 square miles, her task may have been equalled to that of a chief executive officer of a major corporation. Chief Mankiller's roots are planted deep in the rural community of Rocky Mountain in Adair County, OK. She was born at the Indian Hospital in Tahlequah, and grew up in a rural setting with few amenities. When she was 11, her family moved to California as part of the Bureau of Indian Affairs Relocation Program.

In 1969, when American Indian activists occupied Alcatraz Island to dramatize the injustices their people has suffered, she experienced an awakening, or call to action, that changed her life. Besides participating in that struggle, Mankiller did volunteer work among Native Americans in California. By 1974, she and her two children returned to Oklahoma.

Chief Mankiller's initial work for the Cherokee Nation included the recruitment of young Native Americans for university training in environmental science. In 1979, she completed her college degree, then began commuting to the University of Arkansas for graduate study. Enroute to the school, Mankiller suffered a near fatal head-on automobile collision. To recover from her extensive injuries, she adopted what Cherokees call "being of good mind," meaning "one has to think positively, to take what is handed out and turn it into a better path." Then in 1980, just a year after the accident, she was diagnosed with myasthenia gravis, a chronic neuromuscular disease that causes varying degrees of weakness in the voluntary muscles of the body. She maintains that it was the realization of how precious life is that spurred her to begin projects for her people, such as the Bell project where members of the community revitalized a whole community themselves.

Through her commitment to rural community development, she persistently pursued proposals for various housing, education and health care projects. She was the founding director of the Cherokee Nation Community Development Department. During Mankiller's tenure as Principal Chief, tribal membership tripled in size, the annual budget doubled, and the number of tribal members increased dramatically. Most importantly, health services and services to children were greatly expanded.

Mankiller, who left office in 1995 due to poor health, co-authored Mankiller: A Chief and Her People, which included the story of the Cherokee Nation, one of the country's largest tribal groups. She also co-edited the "Readers Companion to the History of Women in the U.S." and served as a Montgomery Fellow at Dartmouth College during the 1996 winter term.

She has shown in her typically exuberant way that not only can Native Americans learn a lot from the whites, but that whites can learn from native people. Understanding the interconnectedness of all things, many whites are beginning to understand the value of native wisdom, culture and spirituality. Spirituality is then key to the public and private life of Wilma Mankiller who has indeed become known not only for her community leadership but also for her spiritual presence. A woman rabbi who is the head of a large synagogue in New York commented that Mankiller was a significant spiritual force in the nation.

Today, as in her childhood, Mankiller lives in the Rocky Mountain Community of Adair County, OK, on the Mankiller land allotment.

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