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Wilma Pearl Mankiller, daughter of Charley Mankiller and Clara Irene Sitton, was born on November 18, 1945, in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. Her father was a full-blooded Cherokee. Her mother was of Dutch-Irish descent.[1] Wilma was the middle child of eleven. She spoke of her early life as being very influential in her quest to preserve and build the Cherokee Nation. [2] The family was moved from Oklahoma to San Francisco, California in 1955 under an Indian urbanization program.
Wilma Mankiller married twice:
Wilma was the first woman to be Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation.[4] She focused on rebuilding the Nation. During her term, the Cherokee Nation grew from 55,000 to 170,000 tribal citizens. She worked to earn recognition for her people.[5] Wilma's plan to rebuild her nation included improved health care, education, and government. Having worked her way up from an entry level job at the Cherokee Nation, she was particularly concerned with the rights of tribal women. Wilma Mankiller is remembered as both an activist for Native Americans and as a women's rights activist.[6]
A quote from Wilma Mankiller:
My name is Mankiller, and in the old Cherokee Nation, when we lived here in the Southeast, we lived in semi-autonomous villages, and there was someone who watched over the village, who had the title of mankiller. And I'm not sure what you could equate that to, but it was sort of like a soldier or someone who was responsible for the security of the village, and so anyway this one fellow liked the title mankiller so well that he kept it as his name, and that's who we trace our ancestry back to.[7]
Wilma did not seek reelection due to ill health. She had served despite a difficult personal life in which she suffered a near-fatal car accident and multiple other health problems including myasthenia gravis, a kidney transplant, breast cancer, and lymphoma. In March of 2010, she reported she was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer. Wilma Mankiller died on April 6, 2010 in Adair County, Oklahoma, United States.[1][8]
Wilma Mankiller prevailed over childhood poverty, relocation, and other personal adversity to become a strong and creative leader of the Cherokee Nation. Compelled by problems endured by her tribe, she returned home to Oklahoma to devote her skills and energy to make life better for her people. The success of her innovative community projects underscored the effectiveness of her message of self-esteem and self-reliance and ultimately led to her election as the first female chief of a Native American tribe. Our nation pays tribute to Wilma Mankiller who has made it her mission to bring opportunity, a higher standard of living, improved health care, and quality education to Native Americans.
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Categories: Presidential Medal of Freedom | National Women's Hall of Fame (United States) | Collaborative Profile of the Week | Principal Chiefs of the Cherokee Nation | Featured Connections Archive 2021 | National Cowgirl Hall of Fame | Cherokee | Oklahoma, Notables | Notables
"Wilma inspired me and many others to make the world a better place."
ABC News
ByYi-Jin Yuvia
November 8, 2023, 4:09 PM ET
https://goodmorningamerica.com/family/story/barbie-introduces-wilma-mankiller-doll-honoring-cherokee-nations-104722216
edited by Ronald Prentice
One of my 'genealogical projects' is to find my American Indigenous ancestry. This is a hard task, as I only show American Indigenous ancestry via the Gedmatch projects. I have one adopted out cousin who has between 1-2% American Indigenous. This proves that the lines are old. I do have American ancestry from 1700's Pennsylvania and 1680's Virginia in the region of the Powhatan Homeland. I have DNA matches to American Indigenous via MyHeritage, Ancestry and FTDNA but the lines have so far proven for me to be 'white'. The late Wilma Mankiller is 51 Degrees from myself. This is not the match that I was looking for, but it still does expand my genealogical knowledge.