Wilma Mankiller

Also known as Chief Wilman Mankiller, A-ji-luhsgi Asgaya-dihi, Wilma Pearl Mankiller

Chief of the Cherokee Nation (1945–2010)

Person · Open Library

Works: 6

Top works

Urban Voices
Mankiller Poems
Mankiller
Reflections on American Indian History
Woman : a celebration to benefit the Ms. Foundation for Women

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Music · MusicBrainz

Type: Person
Country: NL
Active from: 1957-04-28

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Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners: 11
Total plays: 227

Founded by two former members of Her Name is Cash, M.E.W.Y (formerly J-Sobes,) and Dark Howard, Wilma Mankiller stands alone. Their new concepts of music as well as art have been setting the bar for underground music for the past year. As well as their original forms of musical thought, Wilma Mankiller have also been known to wow audiences with their soulful voices. The names of the members are often known to change, but they always appear as M.E. <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Wilma+Mankil

via Last.fm · Wilma Mankiller

Recent publications · Crossref

5 total works indexed

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Quotes

“Europeans brought with them the view that men were the absolute head of households, and women were to be submissive to them. It was then that the role of women in Cherokee society began to decline. One of the new values Europeans brought to the Cherokees was a lack of balance and harmony between men and women. It was what we today call sexism. This was not a Cherokee concept. Sexism was borrowed from Europeans. (p20)”
“From the start, I figured most people would be bothered about my ideas on grass-roots democracy and the fact that I had a fairly extensive activist background. I adhered to a different political philosophy than many people living in the area. But I was wrong. No one challenged me on those issues, not once. Instead, I was challenged mostly because of one fact-I am female. (p240)”
“Rural development was, and still remains, a high priority on my list of goals. For me, the rewards came from attempting to break the circle of poverty. My feeling is that the Cherokee people, by and large, are incredibly tenacious. We have survived so many major political and social upheavals, yet we have kept the Cherokee government alive. I feel confident that we will march into the twenty-first century on our own terms. (p246)”
“Today, if anyone asks members of our tribe if it really matters if the chief is male or female, the majority will reply that gender has no bearing on leadership. (p250)”
“I try to encourage young women to be willing to take risks, to stand up for the things they believe in, and to step up and accept the challenge of serving in leadership roles. (p250)”
“If I am to be remembered, I want it to be because I am fortunate enough to have become my tribe's first female chief. But I also want to be remembered for emphasizing the fact that we have indigenous solutions to our problems. Cherokee values, especially those of helping one another and of our interconnections with the land, can be used to address contemporary issues. (p250)”

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Key facts

Preceded by: Ross Swimmer
Succeeded by: Joe Byrd
Born: Wilma Pearl Mankiller , ( 1945-11-18 ) November 18, 1945, Tahlequah, Oklahoma , U.S.
Died: April 6, 2010 (2010-04-06) (aged 64), near Tahlequah, Oklahoma, U.S.
Party: Democratic
Education: Skyline College , San Francisco State University ( BA ), University of Arkansas

via Wikipedia infobox

~40 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Wilma Pearl Mankiller (Cherokee: ᎠᏥᎳᏍᎩ ᎠᏍᎦᏯᏗᎯ, romanized: Atsilasgi Asgayadihi; November 18, 1945 – April 6, 2010) was a Native American activist, social worker, community developer and the first woman elected to serve as Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation. Born in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, she lived on her family's allotment in Adair County, Oklahoma, until the age of 11, when her family relocated to San Francisco as part of a federal government program to urbanize Indigenous Americans. After high school, she married a well-to-do Ecuadorian and raised two daughters. Inspired by the social and political movements of the 1960s, Mankiller became involved in the Occupation of Alcatraz and later participated in the land and compensation struggles with the Pit River Tribe. For five years in the early 1970s, she was employed as a social worker, focusing mainly on children's issues.

When Mankiller returned to Oklahoma in 1976, the Cherokee Nation hired her as an economic stimulus coordinator. With her expertise at preparing documentation, she became a successful grant writer, and by the early 1980s was directing the newly created Community Development Department of the Cherokee Nation. As Director she designed and supervised innovative community projects allowing rural citizens to identify their own challenges and, through their labor, participate in solving them. Her project in Bell, Oklahoma, was featured in the movie The Cherokee Word for Water, directed by Charlie Soap and Tim Kelly. In 2015, the movie was selected as the top American Indian film of the past 40 years by the American Indian Film Institute. Her project in Kenwood received the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Certificate of National Merit.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Wilma Mankiller” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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