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 Wilma Mankiller
Activity Sheet
Biography
 For Wilma Mankiller,
being born into a family of ten children and living in poverty
was more than difficult. She was born in 1945 in Tahlequah, Oklahoma
to a white mother and a full-blooded Cherokee father. The name
of "Mankiller" comes from her Great Great Grandfather
and is a name of high rank in the Cherokee military. Growing
up, the family had no electricity or indoor plumbing. They lived
on the 160 acres of land which Charlie Mankiller (Wilma's father)
had inherited from his father. Wilma and her family lived there
until she was twelve years old.
At this time the
Mankiller family was relocated to the San Francisco area due
to a BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs) program to mainstream the
"rural" Native Americans into American urban life.
This uprooting of the family from their homeland is part of what
gave Wilma Mankiller the understanding of the endless trials
of the Cherokee people during The Trail Of Tears.
In San Francisco,
women were treated differently than she had ever seen. "I
was trained to do what my mother did -- get married and have
children." Mankiller said (Kline, on-line, 1995). She started
studying sociology in 1960 and took a job as a social worker.
The society she was living in and her continuing college education
was vital in Mankiller's developing views.
In August of 1983
Wilma Mankiller became the first woman to serve as deputy principal
chief of the Cherokee Nation. During her four-year term, she
became the first woman Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation.
Her influence on the Cherokee people and women, in general, has
been profound. Wilma Mankiller's stands include the self-sufficiency
of the Cherokee people and the preservation of their culture,
traditions, and our world's natural resources.
Wilma Mankiller: Chief of the Cherokee
Nation
Book Description from the Publisher
 In
her book Mankiller: A Chief and Her People, Mankiller
tells her family's story of leaving Oklahoma for California in
1956 as part of the Bureau of Indian Affairs Relocation Program.
The program was set up to urbanize poor rural Native Americans.
In 1969, she watched the AIM (American Indian Movement) protest
on Alcatraz Island on television. This led to her initial involvement
in the struggle for Native American rights.
Her book also details
her social and political involvement in American Indian and women's
issues and her return to her northeast Oklahoma roots. Since
then, Mankiller worked on many community development programs
designed to provide jobs and/or homes to Native American people.
In 1991, she was reelected as chief. In 1994, Oklahoma's Institute
of Indian Heritage honored Chief Wilma Mankiller during their
annual "Spirit of the People" fall festival. She left
her position as chief in 1995 because of poor health. During
her tenure as chief, she was an effective spokesperson in Washington,
worked for health care programs, and fought for the rights of
children. Mankiller holds an honorary doctorate in humane letters
from Yale University.
Lesson Plan on Wilman mankiller & the Cherokee
Nation
http://teacherlink.ed.usu.edu/TLresources/longterm/LessonPlans/famous/Mankillr.html
Biography at PowerSource
http://www.powersource.com/gallery/people/wilma.html
Rebuilding
the Cherokee Nation Speech
http://gos.sbc.edu/m/mankiller.html
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