Mankiller by Michael Wallis

First published: 1993

Type of work: Autobiography

Time of work: 1945-1993

Locale: Oklahoma and San Francisco, California

Principal Personages:

• Wilma Mankiller, the principal chief of the Cherokee Nation
• Charlie Soap, her second husband
• Hector Hugo Olaya de Bardi, Mankiller’s first husband, an immigrant from Ecuador
• Ross Swimmer, the Cherokee chief before Mankiller’s election

Form and Content

Although bearing the inscription “autobiography,” Mankiller: A Chief and Her People is much more than the personal life story of one woman. Instead, the book addresses the parallel history of two entities—the United States of America and the Cherokee Nation—from the arrival of Christopher Columbus and the onslaught of European immigration through the closing of the twentieth century. This perspective on history differs from traditional classroom fare, however, because it is recapitulated by a female American Indian—Wilma Pearl Mankiller, the first woman ever elected principal chief of the Cherokee Nation.

The work is organized into thirteen chapters that float back and forth between the history of the Cherokee people and Mankiller’s personal time line. Within this context, the material appears to be as much an attempt to demythologize the historical entanglements of her people as it is an effort to review the highlights of her life. Because of the random organization and sometimes needless repetition of salient points, it is difficult to extract the personal history from the tribal history. Therefore, the reader must assume that Mankiller considers these facts inseparable. Each chapter is introduced by a traditional Cherokee story or myth and features interspersed quotes from famous personages as diverse as President Andrew Jackson, former Cherokee chief John Ross, and feminist Gloria Steinem.

As principal chief of the Cherokees, the second largest Indian tribe in the United States, Mankiller serves a population of more than 140,000 worldwide, controls an annual budget of more than $75 million, and employs more than 1,200 employees spread across 7,000 square miles. In this capacity, her responsibilities are equivalent to those of a head of state, such as the president of the United States, and of a chief executive officer of a major corporation. Some believe that this position was her destiny, but it was not always readily apparent in Mankiller’s shy early years.

The daughter of Charley, a full-blooded Cherokee, and Irene, who was of Dutch-Irish descent, Wilma Pearl Mankiller was born on November 18, 1945, in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, the sixth of eleven children. Tahlequah is the seat of Adair County, which has the largest percentage of American Indians of any county in the United States. It is the area once designated by the federal government as Indian Territory and was the terminus of the infamous Trail of Tears (1838-1839), which forced the Cherokee people to vacate their ancestral lands in the South.

Although the family was poor, Wilma Mankiller’s early life on the family property was predictable, comfortable, and filled with acceptance. All that changed, however, when in her tenth year her parents agreed to a voluntary relocation program designed to assimilate Indians into mainstream America. Through this program, the family moved to San Francisco, California, where Wilma spent her formative years. Even though it was not as prevalent in her ethnically mixed neighborhood of Hunter’s Point, there was increasing racial tension in California during the 1950’s, and much of it was directed at American Indians, the fastest growing minority in the state at that time. Mankiller experienced the brunt of that prejudice when she entered school and felt outcast and berated. Her name alone, although it derives from an ancient Cherokee military title for one who guards the village, was fuel for the cruel fire of her white peers.

Despite feeling an outsider at school, Mankiller found solace in the San Francisco Indian Center, where she mingled with other relocated Indians to relieve her homesickness. When she was seventeen, she met Hector Hugo Olaya de Bardi, an immigrant from Ecuador; they were married shortly before her eighteenth birthday. Although Hugo wanted a traditional, subservient wife and mother for their two daughters, Felicia and Gina, this was not the role that Mankiller was destined to play.

San Francisco in the 1960’s was a crucible of political unrest—a haven for “flower children,” dissidents, bohemians, and rebels. At first, this turmoil was merely an intriguing diversion for Mankiller and her daughters. In November of 1969, however, Mankiller felt her first spark of activism. A group of American Indians, recalling an old treaty which stated that any unused government land would revert to the Indians, commandeered the abandoned prison island of Alcatraz in San Francisco Bay. Mankiller reveals that the Alcatraz occupation changed her perception forever, not only of her role as a Cherokee but of her role as a woman as well. Subsequent to her involvement in the Alcatraz occupation, Mankiller enrolled at San Francisco State College in sociology, became acquainted with the equal rights endeavors of the Black Panther Party, and was inspired by the inroads of an active women’s movement. In this spirit of awakening, she spent five years as a volunteer with the Pit River Tribe, establishing a legal defense fund for their battle to reclaim ancestral lands. This newfound autonomy did not bode well for her already weakened marriage, and in 1974, she and her husband of eleven years were divorced.

Feeling the never-forgotten pull of her homeland more strongly after the divorce, Mankiller and her daughters returned to Tahlequah to the 160 acres allotted to her grandfather by the Dawes Act. Although she arrived with twenty dollars, no car, and no job, Mankiller finally felt at “home.” After many rejections, she was hired as economic stimulus coordinator for the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. During this time, she also attended graduate classes in community planning and was appointed the principal organizer of a revitalization project for the Bell Community. The project was a grant-funded program to allow Cherokees to help themselves. In this capacity, her work came under the close scrutiny of Principal Chief Ross Swimmer, who asked her to run for deputy chief during the next election. In spite of hate mail, death threats, and obscene phone calls, Mankiller won the position and took office in 1983.

A few months later, when Swimmer was asked to head the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Mankiller took over the position of principal chief on December 5, 1985, a forty-year-old grandmother and the first woman ever to head an American Indian nation. She completed Swimmer’s term, and with encouragement from her family and her new husband, Charlie Soap, Mankiller decided to run for office in her own right. Even though some resistance to electing a woman as chief still existed, Mankiller was elected in 1987 and reelected in 1991, at last with a mandate from her people of 83 percent of the vote.

Context

Although Mankiller has been repeatedly honored, from being named Ms. magazine’s Woman of the Year in 1987 to receiving honorary degrees from several prestigious universities to being treated as a head of state, she retains humility, believing that such attention should be deflected to her people. When she became chief, there was an increase in revenue and services, new businesses moved into the tribe’s area, more than $20 million in construction projects were soon initiated, programs were begun to aid women on welfare in developing microenterprises, a Job Corps Training Center was built, and an array of services for Cherokee children were added.

While describing herself as a feminist and being concerned with women’s issues worldwide, Mankiller is known for her love of all people and for her innate spirituality. Calling herself the “woman who lived before and the woman who lived afterward” (that is, after her brush with death following the automobile accident), Mankiller does not believe in sacrificing her principles. She wishes to be a role model for young female Cherokees who would not have dared to attempt leadership roles in the tribal community before her election as chief. She encourages these young women to take risks willingly, to stand up for things in which they believe, and to accept the challenge of serving as leaders of their people.

Bibliography

Debo, Angie. A History of the Indians of the United States. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1970. Based on more than thirty years of research, this book is an in-depth historical survey of all the native peoples of North America, analyzing their lifestyles and problems since the first encounters with Europeans. A professor of history, Debo is considered the premier authority on American Indians, and this work, which traces the path from myth to revitalization, has been called the best one-volume history of this subject.

Deloria, Vine, Jr. Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto. New York: Macmillan, 1969. Written by the former executive director of the National Congress of Native Americans, this book is a diatribe on the injustices served upon and suffered by American Indians. It shatters many of the myths, half-truths, and stereotypes that linger in the annals of classroom history books. Called by the author (and by Mankiller) the manifesto of the American Indian, the work reveals the perspective of Indian disenfranchisement and acculturation from a nonwhite view and is considered the definitive work on the topic.

Ehle, John. Trail of Tears: The Rise and Fall of the Cherokee Nation. New York: Doubleday, 1988. The work traces the history of the Cherokee people, from the 1700’s through the tribe’s forced removal to Oklahoma to the death of Chief John Ross. Written in readable, conversational style, the book parallels the historical account by Wilma Mankiller and treats the Cherokees with respect for their heroism.

Finger, John R. Cherokee Americans: The Eastern Band of Cherokees in the Twentieth Century. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1991. A sequel to Finger’s 1984 work which addresses Cherokee history from 1819 to 1900, this volume follows the progress of the North Carolina Cherokees from 1900 to 1991. Analyzes political, legal, and economic developments in the area, as well as major social and cultural changes. Although the work primarily addresses those Cherokees who were not relocated to Oklahoma, Finger also talks of those who are under the political control of Mankiller.

Shaffer, Lynda Norene. Native Americans Before 1492. Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe, 1992. An archeological study of the mound-building civilizations, which includes the Cherokees, prior to the arrival of Christopher Columbus. Focuses on the ceremonial and cultural exchange networks established among these civilizations, based on recorded discoveries and accounts by early explorers. Liberally illustrated with maps and photographs of artifacts, and contains an extensive bibliography.

Woodward, Grace Steele. The Cherokees. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1963. An in-depth history of the Cherokees from the 1500’s through the mid-1900’s. Includes material from 1,300 previously unpublished tribal records and ethnological data. Based on research conducted in the National Archives, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Cherokee Reservation and Museum in Oklahoma and by air over the Trail of Tears. The work is considered authentic, factual, and descriptive.