Wilma Pearl Mankiller (born November 18, 1945 in Tahlequah, Oklahoma) was the first female Chief of the Cherokee Nation. November 18 is the 322nd day of the year (323rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1945 (MCMVL) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1945 calendar). ... Tahlequah is a city located in Cherokee County, Oklahoma. ... The examples and perspective in this article may not represent a worldwide view. ... Alternate meanings: Cherokee (disambiguation) The Cherokee are a people native to North America who first inhabited what is now the eastern and southeastern United States before most were forcefully moved to the Ozark Plateau. ...

Mankiller grew up with her family in an isolated Cherokee community in Adair County, Oklahoma. Her father moved the family to San Francisco in 1956 in hopes of a "better life" as promised under the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Indian Relocation Program. By the late 1960s, failed promises led Mankiller to join the activist movement and participate in the occupation of Alcatraz Island and other Indian demonstrations. In hopes of helping her own people, she returned home in 1977 and began a low-level job for the Cherokee Nation. Adair County is a county located in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. ... Nickname: The City by the Bay; Fog City Location of the City and County of San Francisco, California Coordinates: City-County San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom Area    - City 600. ... 1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) is an agency of the federal government of the United States within the Department of the Interior charged with the administration and management of 55. ... Alcatraz Island is located in the middle of San Francisco Bay in California. ... For the album by Ash, see 1977 (album). ...

By 1983, she was elected deputy chief of the Cherokee Nation alongside Ross Swimmer, who was serving his third consecutive term as principal chief. In 1985, Chief Swimmer resigned to take the position as head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. This 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 82 percent of the vote. In 1995, she resigned, largely due to health problems. She was a very good person but in this paragraph it doesn't say what her health problems are but it should. 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Ross O. Swimmer is the Special Trustee for American Indians at the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs. ... 1985 (MCMLXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Mankiller faced many obstacles during her tenure in office. Upon becoming principal chief, the Cherokee Nation was male-dominated. Such a structure contrasted with the traditional Cherokee culture and value-system, which instead emphasized a balance between the two genders. Over the course of her three terms, Mankiller would make great strides to bring back that balance and reinvigorate the Cherokee Nation through community-building projects that practiced gadugi, where men and women work collectively for the common good. Examples of progress include: the founding of the Cherokee Nation Community Development Department, the revival of Sequoyah High School, and a population increase of Cherokee Nation citizens from 55,000 to 156,000. She was also very instrumental in providing financial and technical assistance to members of the tribe so that they may get off welfare and open small businesses, generating Cherokee Nation economic self-sufficiency. This article is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedias deletion policy. ...

Though she is no longer in office, Mankiller remains probably the most celebrated Cherokee person of the 20th century. (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999...

"Prior to my election," says Mankiller, "young Cherokee girls would never have thought that they might grow up and become chief."

Published works

Her first book, Mankiller: A Chief and Her People, an autobiography, became a national bestseller. Gloria Steinem said in a review that "As one woman's journey, Mankiller opens the heart. As the history of a people, it informs the mind. Together, it teaches us that, as long as people like Wilma Mankiller carry the flame within them, centuries of ignorance and genocide cannot extinguish the human spirit." Gloria Steinem Gloria Steinem (born March 25, 1934) is an American feminist, journalist and a spokeswoman for womens rights. ...

• 1993 Mankiller: A Chief and Her People St. Martin's Press, ISBN 0-312-20662-3
• 2004 Every Day Is a Good Day Fulcrum Publishing, ISBN 1-55591-516-7
• A Readers Companion to the History of Women in the U.S (editor, with Barbara Smith, Gloria Steinem, Gwendolyn Mink, Marysa Navarro) ISBN 0-395-67173-6

Ross O. Swimmer is the Special Trustee for American Indians at the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs. ... Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation is the title of the chief executive of the Cherokee Nation. ... During the 1998 Cherokee National Holiday, Joe Byrds private Security Forces and BIA Police armed with guns and rifles looked down from rooftops onto the crowd of Cherokee Elders, families, and children while a BIA helicopter circled overhead. ...

References

• Edmunds, R. David. The New Warriors: Native American Leaders Since 1900. University of Nebraska Press Lincoln: 2001.
• Mankiller, Wilma. Mankiller: A Chief and Her People. St. Martin's Press. New York: 1993.
• Houghton Mifflin Review of A Readers Companion to the History of Women in the U.S
• Nelson, Andrew. People: Wilma Mankiller Salon.com, Nov. 20, 2001.