Wilma Mankiller Informative Speech

Wilma Pearl Mankiller began her journey on this Earth on November 18, 1945 in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. She would go on to become the first female deputy chief of the Cherokee Nation in 1983 and the first female principal chief in 1987, until her retirement in 1995. In a speech she gave at Sweet Briar College on April 2, 1993 she sufficiently summed up the magnitude of being the first female chief of the second-largest tribe in the United States when she concluded by saying “Finally, I guess I'd like to say I hope my being here and spending a little time with you will help to erase any stereotypes you might have had about what a Chief looks like.” More than a political figure, Wilma Mankiller was a wife to Hugo Olaya from the time she was eighteen

until 1974 and a mother from the age of nineteen to two children, Felicia and Gina (Janda; “Beloved Women” 84, 87). She was married again to Charlie Soap, but kept her maiden name of Mankiller, in 1986 (Edmunds 219). She lived her life as an activist, advocate of the grassroots democracy, and a liberal democrat until her death due to pancreatic cancer at age 64, April 6, 2010 (Edmunds 215; Hines, Evans 2010).
Content
1. Early Life
2. Education
3. Activism
4. Political Career
5. Important Issues
6. Health Concerns
7. Decoration and Praise
8. Further Reading
EARLY LIFE
Wilma Mankiller’s Cherokee family name was Asgaya-dihi, which translates to Mankiller in English (Mankiller, Wallis 3).

She was born the sixth of eleven children to Charley and Irene Mankiller, who were Cherokee and Dutch-English, respectively (Janda, “Beloved Women” 80). When she was eleven years old her family moved to San Francisco voluntarily, but still as part of the federal government relocation program (Janda, “Beloved Women” 81). Mankiller found a place of solace from the cruelty of other children towards her for her clothes, name, accent, etc. and other forms of culture shock in the San Francisco Indian Center (Edmunds 211). At the center she met a man by the name of Richard Oakes, who would, eventually, become a great influence in her activism (Janda, “The Intersection” 104). Her time at the center helped her maintain a strong bond with her heritage in the unfamiliar urban

area.
EDUCATION
Upon finishing high school in 1963, Wilma became engaged in a whirlwind relationship that ended with marriage right before she turned eighteen. She put a hold on her education, working while her husband Hugo finished taking college classes. She stopped working when she gave birth to her children, but began taking college courses in the late 1960’s due to her increasing interest in issues that the Cesar Chavez and the Black Panthers were facing (Janda, “Beloved Women” 84). In 1979, she successfully completed a Bachelor of Science degree in social work and began commuting to the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville for graduate studies (Mankiller, Wallis 219). It was there that she completed her master’s degree in Community Planning (NRC Programs).
ACTIVISM
The San Francisco Indian Center burned down in 1969 and in response, on November 20, 1969, Richard Oakes and seventy-eight Native Americans initiated a nineteen-month long occupation of Alcatraz as a place of tribal sovereignty (Janda, “The Intersection” 104-105).

Wilma didn’t live on Alcatraz, but did support the movement fully and worked indirectly to assist—even voting for the first time (Janda, “The Intersection” 106). This, along with volunteer work at the Pit River Tribe, sparked the everlasting interest in activism for Wilma. Pit River was in the midst of trying to regain their land from the Pacific Gas and Electric Company and through her volunteerism with the tribe Wilma learned about treaty rights and sovereignty issues, along with developing research skills while aiding the Pit River Legal Defense (Janda, “Beloved Women” 85-86). Her love for activism spurred a divorce between her and her first husband in 1974 because her budding feminism was redefining her thought process and she was no longer satisfied being a housewife (Janda, “The Intersection” 109). In her autobiography, Mankiller: A Chief and Her People, she said, “I wanted to set my own limits and control my destiny.” in regards to her divorce.

After her divorce, she moved back to Oklahoma and began working with the Cherokee Nation first as an economic stimulus coordinator, then within the central planning department, then oversaw the Bell Community Revitalization Project to build and remodel homes as well as

lay sixteen miles of water line, and eventually, was instated as the first director of a new community development program as a result of her Bell Community work (Janda, “Beloved Women” 89). She stayed in this director position until she became the first woman deputy chief in Cherokee history on August 14th, 1983 (Mankiller, Wallis 242).
POLITICAL CAREER
In The Intersection of Feminism and Indianness in the Activism of Ladonna Harris and Wilma Mankiller, Mankiller is quoted as saying after she was elected, “People complained because I am female, because I am a Democrat, because they didn’t like the way I dressed, because I had not paid my political dues by serving on council on something first, but the big issue seemed to be my being a woman.” (114) Grassroots democracy was the central focus of her campaigning and she supported community development and economic renewal (Janda, “The Intersection” 96). However, her tribal council did not support her idealism and in the next election two of the women on her council supported her opponent and the other didn’t seek reelection (Mankiller, Wallis 243). Mankiller supervised daily operations of the tribe, from health clinics to water projects (Mankiller, Wallis 243). Projects that she initiated include a museum with a replica of a 17th century Cherokee village, an organization that encourages Cherokee literacy in children, and she changed the way that tribal council members were elected so there would be equal representation by dividing Cherokee territory into districts (Schwarz, Baird 81).
Mankiller was sworn in as principal chief of the Cherokee nation in December of 1985, when the standing principal chief relocated to Washington, D.C., but she described her first few months of the job by saying, “It was as though I had all the responsibility with none of the authority, so I just coped.” (Scwarz, Baird 86) When her term was up and she chose to run for principal chief again, against three male opponents.