Feminist to Know: Wilma Mankiller

Image Credit: Dignity Memorial

Wilma Mankiller was an important figure in the American Indian Movement of the 60s and 70s who went on to become the first woman elected chief of the Cherokee Nation (and of any Native American tribe). Born in Oklahoma in 1945, Mankiller was raised on the Cherokee reservation until her family was forced to relocate to San Francisco by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). Mankiller spent time at the San Francisco Indian Center, but it wasn’t until after she had children and studied social work that she became more directly involved in Indigenous rights through the burgeoning American Indian Movement.

In the late 60s, Mankiller was moved to participate in the third and final occupation of Alcatraz Island by Native American activists. This occupation lasted 19 months between 1969 and 1971. On the island, activists demanded that the newly abandoned government penitentiary and the land around it should be redeveloped as a Native resource and cultural center. The occupation protested for land back, decolonization, and Indigenous liberation. There, Mankiller worked to fundraise and gather resources for the occupation. During her time, she had a crash course in organizing and community leadership.

After the occupation, Mankiller focused her career squarely on the expansive Native community in the Bay area. In 1974, she began working at the Urban Indian Resource Center, focusing on Native children who ended up in foster care without cultural support and outside of their Native communities. That same year, Mankiller co-founded the Native American Youth Center and American Indian Community School. She also joined the Pit River Tribe to oppose the Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s corporate plan for tribal lands. Through her advocacy, Mankiller became a community leader.

A couple of years later, Mankiller and her daughters moved back to Oklahoma and she began working for the Cherokee Nation. Early in her career there, she founded and directed the Cherokee Nation Community Development Department. She was quickly promoted and, in 1985, she assumed the position of Chief of the Cherokee Nation when the current chief was promoted to head of the BIA. Mankiller successfully retained her position through multiple elections until she was diagnosed with lymphoma and stepped away from the position in 1995.

After her tenure as chief, Mankiller worked as a visiting professor of Native Studies at Dartmouth College and even received a Presidential Medal of Honor in 1998. She continued her work as an educator, activist, and community leader until her passing in April 2010.