wilma Mankiller

Birth Date: 11/18/1945

Birth Place: Tahlequah, Oklahoma

Heritage: Holland Ireland Cherokee

BIOGRAPHY: *She was the first female Chief of the Cherokee Nation

*She made important strides for the Cherokees, including improved health care, education, utilities management and tribal government

*She was active in civil rights matters, lobbying the federal government and supporting women's activities and issues.

*She was awarded  Ms. Magazine's Woman of the Year in 1987, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1993

Died: April 6, 2010 (age-64)

She was the first female Chief of the Cherokee Nation and served for ten years from 1985 to 1995. In 1983, she was elected deputy chief of the Cherokee Nation, alongside Ross Swimmer. In 1985, Chief Swimmer resigned to take the position as head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs which allowed Mankiller to become the first female principal chief. She was freely elected in 1987, and re-elected again in 1991 in a landslide victory, collecting 83% of the vote. As the powerful, visionary Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, Mankiller was responsible for 139,000 people and a $69 million budget. In 1963, at the age of 17, Mankiller married Hector Hugo Olaya de Bardi, an Ecuadorian college student. They moved to Oakland and had two daughters, Felicia Olaya, (b.-1964), and Gina Olaya, (b.-1966). Mankiller returned to school, first at Skyline College, and then San Francisco State University. She had been very involved in San Francisco’s Indian Center and it was there where she learned about the women's movement and organizing.  In the late 1960s, Mankiller joined the activist movement and participated in the Occupation of Alcatraz Island in 1969. After divorcing Hugo Olaya, Mankiller moved back to Oklahoma with her two young daughters in 1977. Mankiller used her skills to help the Cherokee Nation, starting community self-help programs and teaching people ways out of poverty. In 1983 she ran for deputy chief of the Nation, and in 1985 Mankiller became Principal Chief. Mankiller made important strides for the Cherokees, including improved health care, education, utilities management and tribal government. As cheif, she  attracted higher-paying industry to the area, improved adult literacy, and helped support women returning to school and more. Her ability to secure government funding for her tribe reflected movement toward assimilation and societal integration for women and American Indians. Mankiller was also active in civil rights matters, lobbying the federal government and supporting women's activities and issues. After her term as chief, she took a teaching position at Dartmouth College. After many years working together on Cherokee community development projects, Mankiller married her longtime friend, Charlie Lee Soap, a full-blood Cherokee traditionalist and fluent  speaker, in 1986. They lived on Mankiller's ancestral land at Mankiller Flats. In March 2010 she was reported to be seriously ill with pancreatic cancer. One month later, she died of the disease at her home in rural Adair County, Oklahoma. Her first book, Mankiller: A Chief and Her People, an autobiography, became a national bestseller. She won several awards including Ms. Magazine's Woman of the Year in 1987, Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Oklahoma Women's Hall of Fame, Woman of the Year, the Elizabeth Blackwell Award, John W. Gardner Leadership Award, Independent Sector, and was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1993.