Скачать или смотреть First Woman to Lead the Cherokee Nation. Wilma Mankiller

Born in 1945 in Oklahoma, Wilma grew up in poverty and was later forcibly relocated with her family to San Francisco under a federal Indian relocation program. There, she witnessed the rise of Native activism and took part in the 1969 Occupation of Alcatraz, a defining moment in Indigenous rights history.

In the 1970s, she returned to Oklahoma and began organizing grassroots community projects—bringing clean water and electricity to remote Cherokee communities. In 1985, she made history as the first woman elected Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation.

Despite death threats and deep resistance from both inside and outside the Nation, she focused on practical empowerment: expanding tribal health care, housing, education, and employment programs. Under her leadership, Cherokee Nation self-governance was strengthened, and tribal enrollment more than doubled.

Wilma’s leadership wasn’t about ego—it was about service. She believed sovereignty meant providing for your people with dignity and vision. She led with grace, grit, and results.

Honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1998, Wilma Mankiller’s legacy endures not just in policy—but in the generations she inspired to lead, build, and resist with purpose.