“I want to be remembered as the person who helped us restore faith in ourselves.” ~Wilma Mankiller
Wilma Mankiller shattered gender barriers when she was elected the first female principal chief of the Cherokee Nation. As an activist, social worker, community developer, and chief, she brought massive changes to the Cherokee and helped improve the lives of all Native Americans. She had great success as a leader due to her self-help approach. She helped her tribe members identify and solve their own challenges, focusing on giving them the tools and resources they needed to thrive.
When Mankiller was young, her family moved to San Francisco as part of the Indian Relocation Act of 1956. She felt alienated from her culture and was bullied out of school. The students made fun of her surname, which refers to a traditional Cherokee military rank. As she got older, she was inspired by the reoccupation of Alcatraz by the Indians of All Tribes and found her passion for activism. She started pursuing a degree in social work and became the director of East Oakland's Native American Youth Center. She developed programs to help Native American youth connect with their culture and find pride in their heritage. She also became a social worker with the Urban Indian Resource Center, focusing on fighting child abuse and neglect, and transforming the foster care and adoption processes for Native American children. She played a pivotal role in passing the Indian Child Welfare Act, ensuring Native American children would not be separated from their culture. She eventually moved back to her family land in Oklahoma and finished her social work degree with an emphasis on Indian affairs.
In 1979, Mankiller was in a horrible car accident and almost lost her ability to walk. Through treatments following the accident, it was also discovered that she had Myasthenia Gravis, a neuromuscular disease. She said this series of events completely changed her and led her to fully embrace the Cherokee approach to life, focusing on the bigger picture and continuously moving forward with a positive mindset. She said it was hard to rattle her after she faced her own mortality. As soon as she could, she dove right back into her activism work, becoming a grant writer and raising millions of dollars for Native American community development projects.
Her work caught the attention of Principal Chief Swimmer, who asked Mankiller to be his running mate for his third term. When she accepted, she was faced with excessive sexism. People were slashing her tires, sending her death threats, and burning her photos; they were very much against having a female leader. Despite these challenges, she and Swimmer won the reelection, and she became the first female deputy chief of the Cherokee Nation. She continued to face sexism, especially from her fellow leaders, but she worked hard to remind them that women used to play an integral part in their tribal politics before they were pushed into mainstream patriarchy.
Halfway through his term, Chief Swimmer stepped down, and Wilma Mankiller became the first female principal chief of the Cherokee Nation. She served the half term and was reelected for two more full terms. As chief, Mankiller focused on community development, building more Native American job opportunities and entrepreneurship training, advocating for better healthcare and education, and fighting for stricter requirements to claim Native American heritage. She also led the claim of compensation for misappropriation of resources from the Arkansas River and negotiated with the state for tax sharing on businesses operating on their lands.
After stepping down as chief, Mankiller continued to advocate for Native American rights and cultural preservation. She received countless awards for her efforts, including induction to the National Women's Hall of Fame, the Drum Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Cherokee Nation, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
On June 16, 2021, the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee (CCAC) discussed the 2022 Wilma Mankiller Quarter design. Mankiller's friend, Kristina Kiehl, was in attendance and shared her thoughts. She appreciated that they could represent Native American culture through imagery outside of the stereotypical buckskins and tepees. The clay beads around her neck, the diamond pattern on her shawl, and the Cherokee star are subtle but important nods to her heritage. Kiehl also felt that the portrait of Mankiller looking toward the future captured her power and dignity. This design, looking forward, highlights the Cherokee approach to life, which was so important to her.
Under her name are the words "Principal Chief Cherokee Nation." This highlights her incredible accomplishment of becoming the first female principal chief. The words "Cherokee Nation" are written in the Cherokee language, a suggestion that came from the Cherokee representatives who had the opportunity to review the design.