Former Cherokee Chief Wilma Mankiller Dead at 64 - Extraordinary Woman

[Vernon Windsor]

Former Cherokee Chief Wilma Mankiller has died at age 64. She was
Chief of the Cherokee Nation from 1985 to 1995. She was awarded and well
deserved, the Medal Of Freedom by President Clinton. Wilma Pearl
Mankiller over
came seemingly insurmountable obstacles to better her tribe, her state
and her nation. She was very much a part of Oklahoma, the Cherokee
Nation and the United States and we will dearly miss her visionary
leadership, but her words and deeds will live forever.

She was also an author and activist who’s roots were planted deeply in the rural community of Mankiller Flats in Adair County, Oklahoma, where she
spent most of her life. Chief Mankiller received eighteen honorary
doctorates from such esteemed institutions as Yale University, Dartmouth
College, and Smith College.

Wilma had experienced surviving breast cancer, lymphoma, dialysis, two kidney transplants, and systemic myasthenia gravis, however her attitude was usually always positive. So
much so, it was common for her to be asked how did she do it…her answer
was “I am Cherokee, and I am a woman. No one knows better than I
that every day is indeed a good day. How can I be anything but positive
when I come from a tenacious, resilient people who keep moving forward
with an eye toward the future even after enduring unspeakable hardship?”

Ms. Mankiller co-authored Mankiller: A Chief and Her People and
co-edited A Reader's Companion to U.S. Women's History, as well
as publishing more than a dozen articles in journals and newspapers.
She was a trustee of the Ford Foundation and the Freedom Forum. Ms.
Mankiller lived on the Mankiller family allotment with her husband,
Charlie Soap.

One of her endeavors was to create a film called The Cherokee Word for Water to understand more and to hear her speak watch this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cx2aW5dRJ4A&feature=player_embe...

[Lawrence Bates]

Chief Mankiller was an agent of real, positive change for the better for a whole people. We as a nation can be proud of producing leaders like her.

go hi yu hi i go hi dv

[Vernon Windsor]

Waddo.