Specific Pioneering Contributions
Chief Wilma P. Mankiller, Cherokee Nation, was known for her leadership, tenacity, and speaking out against injustice. She faced adversity throughout her life, always turning it into a positive experience, as per the Cherokee principle of being of good mind. Her early career included development of services for urban Native Americans and activism around treaty rights in California. She later initiated community development programs for the Cherokee Nation bringing water and rehabilitating homes in rural Oklahoma communities before stepping into tribal leadership roles and ultimately becoming the first female Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation. Wilma’s work led to improved federal-tribal relations, empowerment of Cherokee people specifically, and Native people generally.
Her leadership of the Cherokee Nation can be characterized as emphasizing rural development, breaking the cycle of poverty, and striving for Indigenous solutions to problems faced by Native Americans. As the first woman to be an elected leader of a large tribe, she has served as a role model for many Native girls to strive to reach their aspirations, a legacy recognized by the toymaker Mattel who incorporated her likeness in their Barbie Inspiring Women series in 2023.
Following her family’s relocation from the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma to San Francisco in 1956, Wilma became involved in the San Francisco Indian Center, a place that nurtured her in her youth, was core to her political awakening in the 1960s, and the site of her early leadership and activism. The 1969 occupation of Alcatraz Island by members of the American Indian Movement was a catalyst for a lifetime of activism. The wide-ranging social consciousness of the 1960s and 1970s, the civil rights and women’s movements, and the prominence of cultural pride during this era shaped her thinking and brought her to the forefront of political and social activism.
After the occupation of Alcatraz Island ended, Wilma focused on developing services for urban Native Americans and expanded her volunteer work with the Pit River people in their legal battle against the powerful Pacific Gas and Electric Company over millions of acres of the tribe’s Northern California land. Wilma became increasingly immersed in treaty rights and understanding traditional practices, foundations that would serve her well in later leadership roles.
In 1981, Wilma helped found and was named director of the Cherokee Nation Community Development Department. One of the projects she took on in this role was to recruit and empower community volunteers to construct a 16-mile waterline and revitalize several homes in Bell, a poor rural community of around 350 people. This partnership between the community and tribe was grounded in gadugi, the Cherokee tradition of sharing tasks, building confidence, and collective problem solving. The result was running water in homes, rehabilitation of 20 houses and a community center, and construction of 25 new energy-efficient residences. This work was highlighted in the film, The Cherokee Word for Water which in 2015 the American Indian Film Institute named the top American Indian film of the past 40 years. Wilma’s leadership on the Bell community project led to her recruitment to run as Deputy Chief in Cherokee elections. While traditionally Cherokee culture is matriarchal and included strong roles for women, in modern times, Cherokee women had not played visible roles in tribal government. Wilma’s rise to leadership within the Cherokee Nation is particularly noteworthy given the considerable obstacles and opposition she faced from many within her own Tribal Nation. It is little wonder that she subsequently became a founding member of Women Empowering Women for Indian Nations.
Wilma was elected as Deputy Chief in 1983, later serving two and a half terms as Principal Chief. As the first female Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, Wilma revitalized tribal government, and continuously advocated for improved education, healthcare, and housing services, leading to decreased infant mortality and increased educational achievement. She was a consensus builder, expanding self-determination with tribal-federal agreements, and working internally on economic development initiatives. When she left office, in addition to federal monies, the Cherokee Nation was generating profits from several factories, gaming, hospitality, natural resources, and other businesses with a budget of $150 million a year.
Career Highlights
While Wilma’s most visible career highlights are associated with her time as Principal Chief, she had notable accomplishments throughout her career including 1) her time as a young social worker and activist in California, 2) her community development work with the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma, 3) her Tribal leadership roles, and 4) her broader legacy. Early in her career, she conducted fundraising activities to support the 19-month occupation of Alcatraz Island, drawing attention to the continuing injustices experienced by Native Americans. In 1974, she co-founded the American Indian Community School in Oakland, California. She continued to hone her activism and grant writing skills in defense of the land rights of the Pit River Tribe.
Wilma returned to Oklahoma in 1977 where she founded and directed the Cherokee Nation Community Development Department. In this role she identified new strategies for implementing renewal projects to meet the basic needs of rural Cherokee communities. Access to clean water was identified as a priority. Her community development work included fundraising, community empowerment, housing, and healthcare. Her rural development work received a Certificate of National Merit from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.
In 1983, Wilma became the first woman to serve as Deputy Chief of the Cherokee Nation. Despite the traditional matrilineal organization of Cherokee society, Wilma faced significant sexism including threats of violence during the election and continuing hostilities with some members of the Tribal Council after she assumed the Deputy Chief role. As Deputy Chief, she helped oversee daily operations for the Tribe including more than 40 programs such as health clinics, daycare, Head Start, elder services, and housing construction. She also expanded the Cherokee Heritage Center and the Institute for Cherokee Literacy. In 1985 she stepped into the Principal Chief role when Chief Swimmer resigned to accept a federal appointment as Assistant Secretary of the Interior running the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). She served the balance of his term, then was elected in her own right in 1987 and again in 1991, the second time winning by a wide margin, her persistence and accomplishments gaining the trust of the people.
In 1990, as Principal Chief she signed a historical agreement with the federal government authorizing the Cherokee Nation to administer funds previously managed by the BIA. By the time she left office she had secured $125 million in federal funds annually to support education, health, housing, and employment programs in addition to annual tribal revenues of around $25 million from diversified sources. Tribal courts and police were revitalized, new health clinics were built, an ambulance service created, and a Cherokee tax commission was established. She founded the Private Industry Council to bring government and businesses together to promote economic growth and under her administration, Cherokee Nation Industries’ profits soared to over 2 million dollars. She negotiated with the state of Oklahoma for tax sharing of businesses on Cherokee land, also reinforcing intergovernmental cooperation with the federal government and enhancing tribal self-determination. Wilma worked with other tribal leaders to establish the Office of Tribal Justice within the US Department of Justice in 1995, creating a dedicated point of contact for legal and policy matters in Indian Country.
In 1995, with declining health, she chose not to run for another term as Principal Chief, yet she remained influential in Cherokee tribal affairs and intertribal relations. She took a position as a professor at Dartmouth College and continued her advocacy to improve public perceptions of Native Americans and combat the misappropriation of Indigenous heritage.
Biographic Data
Wilma P. Mankiller was born in the capital of the Cherokee Nation, Tahlequah, Oklahoma, in 1945 to Charley Mankiller and Clara Sitton. She and her 10 siblings were born and raised on the Mankiller Flats allotment until the family was moved to San Francisco in 1956, as part of the federal Indian Relocation program. Wilma was married to Hector Hugo Olaya (1963-1974) and they had two children, Felicia and Gina. In the mid-1970s, Wilma and her daughters returned to Oklahoma where she married fellow Cherokee citizen Charlie Soap in 1986. Wilma grappled with severe health challenges throughout her life including a devastating car accident, kidney disease, myasthenia gravis, lymphoma, and breast cancer. Despite staggering challenges, she remained devoted to her work, the wellbeing of the Cherokee people, and Native American issues until she succumbed to pancreatic cancer in 2010 at age 64. Shortly after her death, the Tulsa Community Foundation established the Wilma Mankiller Foundation Fund in her honor, to continue her important work on educational, community, and economic development projects.
Significant Recognition and Awards
Over the course of her lifetime, Wilma Mankiller received more than a dozen honorary doctorates and many awards including the following:
1986, inducted into the Oklahoma Women’s Hall of Fame
1986, Outstanding Indian Woman award, Oklahoma Federation of Indian Women
1987, Ms. magazine’s Woman of the Year
1987, Newsmaker of the Year, Association for Women in Communications
1987, Certificate of National Merit, US Department of Housing and Urban Development
1988, John W. Gardner Award (bestowed by the Independent Sector, an umbrella group for non-profit organizations in recognition of her leadership)
1993, inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame
1993, American Association of University Women Achievement award
1994, inducted into the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame
1994, inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame
1994, moderated the Nation-to-Nation Summit of all federally recognized tribes at the invitation of President Bill Clinton
1994-1995, Chubb Fellowship at Yale University
1995, inducted into the San Francisco State University Alumni Hall of Fame
1996, Elizabeth Blackwell Award from Hobart and William Smith Colleges for exemplary service to humanity
1997, Dorothy Height Lifetime Achievement Award for her dedication to health issues
1998, Presidential Medal of Freedom awarded by President Bill Clinton
2006, Circle of Honor award, American Indian Resource Center
2007, inaugural Oklahoma Humanities Award, Oklahoma Humanities Council
2010, posthumously honored with a Congressional Resolution from the US House of Representatives
2010, posthumously presented with the Drum Award for Lifetime Achievement by the Cherokee, Choctaw, Seminole, Chickasaw and Muscogee Tribes
2022, her likeness appeared on the quarter as part of the US mint’s American Women series
2023, her likeness appeared as a doll in Matell’s Barbie Inspiring Women series
Significant Publications
Mankiller, W. (1985). Keeping Pace with the Rest of the World. Southern Exposure. Durham, North Carolina: Institute for Southern Studies.
Mankiller, W. P. (1988). The Chief cooks: Traditional Cherokee recipes. Muskogee, Oklahoma: Hoffman Printing Company.
Kauger, Y., Du Bey, R., Mankiller, W., & Zelio, J. A., editors. (1990). Promoting Effective State-Tribal Relations: A Dialogue. Denver, Colorado: National Conference of State Legislatures.
Mankiller, W. (Spring 1991). Education and Native Americans: Entering the Twenty-First Century on Our Own Terms. National Forum. 71(2): 5–7. Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Louisiana State University.
Mankiller, W. & Wallis, M. (1993). Mankiller: A Chief and her People. New York, New York: St. Martin's Press.
Mankiller, W. P., Mink, G., Navarro, M., Steinem, G, & Smith B., editors. (1999). The Reader’s Companion to US Women’s History. New York, New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Mankiller, W. (2002). Returning Home, in Solomon, R. (editor), That takes Ovaries!: Bold Females and their Brazen Acts. New York, New York: Three Rivers Press. pp. 64-66.
Mankiller, W. P. (2004). Every Day is a Good Day: Reflections by Contemporary Indigenous Women. Golden, Colorado: Fulcrum Publishing.
Mankiller, W. (2008). Introduction in Hurtado, A. L. (editor), Reflections on American Indian History: Honoring the Past, Building a Future. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press.