Wilma Mankiller Facts & Worksheets

Wilma Mankiller is honored and recognized as the Cherokee Nation’s first female Principal Chief. She is also the first woman chosen chief of a prominent Native American nation. She dedicated her life to fighting for the rights of Indigenous peoples.

See the fact file below for more information about Wilma Mankiller, or you can download our 27-page Wilma Mankiller worksheet pack to utilize within the classroom or home environment.

“One of the things my parents taught me, and I’ll always be grateful . . . is to not ever let anybody else define me; [but] for me to define myself.”

Key Facts & Information

EARLY LIFE

• Wilma Pearl Mankiller was born on November 18, 1945, in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, to Clara Irene and Charley Mankiller at the Hastings Indian Hospital. Her father was a full-blooded Cherokee whose family was forced to relocate to Indian Territory from Tennessee in the 1830s via the Trail of Tears. 
• Her mother originated from Dutch-Irish and English settlers who arrived in Virginia and North Carolina in the 1700s. Her maternal grandparents immigrated from Georgia and Arkansas to Oklahoma in the early 1900s.
• Wilma had five older brothers and sisters: Louis Donald “Don,” Frieda Marie, Robert Charles, Frances Kay, and John David. When she was three, her family moved into a house built by her father, uncle, and brother, Don, on her grandfather’s allotment. 
• Linda Jean, Richard Colson, Vanessa Lou, James Ray, and William Edward, her five other siblings, were born during the next 12 years.
• Mankiller’s mother stored food and made clothes from flour sacks for her children, whom she submerged in Cherokee culture. Despite their membership in the Baptist church, the children avoided white worshippers and rituals, preferring to attend native ceremonial events. Family elders taught the children traditional stories.

RELOCATION TO SAN FRANCISCO

• Even though Mankiller never felt impoverished as a child, the family’s rural ancestral house lacked electricity, indoor plumbing, and telephones. Her family moved to San Francisco, California, when she was 11 years old, as part of a Bureau of Indian Affairs policy to relocate Indians off government-financed reservations and into jobs in America’s great cities. 
• Her father went on to work as a union organizer and a warehouse worker. In a 1993 interview with The New York Times, Mankiller described the relocation as “my little Trail of Tears,” referring to the federal troops’ forced expulsion of Cherokees from the Southeast. 
• Mankiller and her siblings enrolled in school, but it was tough because the other children mocked her surname and harassed her about her clothes and speech. Mankiller withdrew as a result of ill-treatment by her peers.
• Within a year, the family had saved enough money to relocate to Daly City, but Mankiller still felt isolated and fled to her grandmother’s farm in Riverbank. Her grandmother returned to Potrero, but Mankiller continued to flee, so her parents agreed to let her reside on the farm for a year.
• When Mankiller returned, the family had relocated to Hunters Point, a dangerous neighborhood rife with crime, drugs, and gangs. 
• Despite having regained her confidence during her year abroad, Mankiller still felt alienated and began to participate in the activities of the San Francisco Indian Center. 
• She was apathetic about school, where she failed in arithmetic and science, although she graduated from high school in June 1963.
• Mankiller got a clerical job in a finance company after finishing high school and moved in with her sister, Frances. That summer, she met Hector Hugo Olaya de Bardi, an Ecuadorian college student from a wealthy family, at a Latin dance, and the two began dating. 
• The couple married on November 13, 1963, in Reno, Nevada, and honeymooned in Chicago.

WILMA’S LIFE AS AN ACTIVIST

• When a tragic occurrence transformed Mankiller’s life, she became interested in social activity. 
• In 1969, a group of Indigenous people took over the federal jail on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay, claiming the ‘right of discovery’ to expose the Indigenous peoples’ suffering. 
• Mankiller recalled her experience, “When Alcatraz happened, I realized what needed to be done to show the rest of the world that Indians, too, had rights.”
• The Alcatraz Occupation (November 20, 1969 – June 11, 1971) was a 19-month-long protest in which 89 Native Americans and sympathizers held Alcatraz Island. 
• Richard Oakes, LaNada Means, and others led the demonstration, with John Trudell serving as spokesman. The group lived on the island together until the United States (US) authorities forcibly halted the protest.
• Mankiller, who was forever transformed by Alcatraz and inspired by the women’s movement, fought to strengthen the neighboring Native communities in California, serving as director of the Native American Youth Center in Oakland.
• Mankiller believed restoring Indigenous peoples’ pride could help break the cycle of younger generations of Indigenous peoples growing up on the streets. She aided the Pit River Tribe of California in its legal fight against Pacific Gas and Electric for the rights to millions of acres of tribal territory, learning about the practical aspects of tribal sovereignty and treaty rights. 
• Mankiller would bring this knowledge back to her Cherokee community.

LIFE AS A SOCIAL WORKER

When Mankiller’s father died in 1971, the family returned to Oklahoma to bury him. When she returned to California in 1972, she enrolled at San Francisco State University and began focusing her coursework on social welfare. 

Against her husband’s desires, she purchased a car and began her journey toward independence, taking her daughters to events of the Indigenous peoples along the West Coast.

She helped the Cherokee nation raise funding for its legal defense and compile documents for their claim over the next five years, acquiring experience in international and treaty law.

• Mankiller and Olaya divorced in 1974, and she relocated to Oakland with her two daughters. As a social worker at the Urban Indian Resource Center, she worked on programs investigating child abuse and neglect, foster care, and Native child adoption.
• Recognizing that most Indigenous children were placed with families who did not know the traditions of Indigenous peoples, Mankiller collaborated with other professionals and attorneys on laws to prevent children from being separated from their culture. 
• The Indian Child Welfare Act, which eventually became law, made placing Indigenous children in non-Indigenous families unlawful.

RETURN TO OKLAHOMA

• Her involvement continued when she established the Cherokee Nation’s Community Development Department, which focused on improving access to water and housing. 
• Her first initiative was in Bell, Oklahoma, a small Cherokee hamlet of 200 families with no running water, significant unemployment, and pervasive powerlessness.
• Mankiller’s faith in communities’ ability to work together for the common good prompted Bell citizens to build a 16-mile waterline in 14 months. “The Cherokee Word for Water,” a full-length feature film, was born from the achievement. Mankiller met and married Cherokee citizen Charlie Soap while recruiting volunteers.

POLITICAL LIFE

• In 1983, Mankiller, a Democrat, was chosen as Republican Ross Swimmer’s running mate in Swimmer’s third consecutive term as the principal chief. 
• Though they both desired the tribe to become more self-sufficient, Swimmer believed the best way forward was to build tribal companies such as motels and agricultural operations. Mankiller wished to concentrate on tiny rural villages, focusing on housing and health care.
• Policy differences between Mankiller and Swimmer were not a significant issue in the election, but Mankiller’s gender was. She was taken aback by the misogyny she encountered, as families and clans were traditionally arranged matrilineally in Cherokee society.
• Though women had traditionally not held named roles in Cherokee governance, they did have a women’s council that exercised tremendous power and was in charge of training the tribal chief.
• Swimmer was re-elected by a slim margin over Perry Wheeler, thanks to the presence of absentee voters. Mankiller also defeated Agnes Cowen in a runoff election for the position of deputy chief, becoming the Cherokee Nation’s first female deputy chief.

MANKILLER AS THE PRINCIPAL CHIEF

• In 1985, Mankiller was elected as the Cherokee Nation’s Principal Chief. She presided over a sovereign nation whose population doubled from 68,000 to 170,000 during her tenure. She was Deputy Principal Chief before being elected Principal Chief. 
• She was the first woman to be elected chief of major Indigenous nations, and she rejuvenated the tribal administration while advocating tirelessly for better education, healthcare, and housing services. Infant mortality fell, and educational attainment rose in the Cherokee Nation during her leadership. 
• Mankiller was a consensus builder, working with the federal government and the Environmental Protection Agency to pilot a self-governance agreement for the Cherokee Nation. 
• She was the chief executive of an Indigenous nation with a budget of $150 million towards the end of her tenure and the primary guardian of centuries of Cherokee culture and customs, including legal codes. Profits from many manufacturers, casinos, hospitality, natural resources, and other enterprises, including money from the federal government, were included.
• Her achievements won her the title of Ms. Magazine Woman of the Year in 1987. Mankiller was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 1993. US President Bill Clinton awarded her the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, in 1998.

DEATH AND LEGACY

• Mankiller died of pancreatic cancer on April 6, 2010, at 64. Women’s rights pioneer, personal friend Gloria Steinem, and Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry attended her funeral.
• “As the Cherokee Nation’s first female chief, she transformed the Nation-to-Nation relationship between the Cherokee Nation and the Federal Government and served as an inspiration to women in Indian Country and across America,” US President Barack Obama said of her.
• Mankiller was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her vision and commitment to a better future for all Americans. 
• She, together with known feminists, were all chosen to have their likenesses appear on quarter-dollar coins as part of the United States Mint’s “American Women Quarters” Program in 2021.

Wilma Mankiller Worksheets

This fantastic bundle includes everything you need to know about Wilma Mankiller across 27 in-depth pages. These ready-to-use worksheets are perfect for teaching kids about Wilma Mankiller. Wilma Mankiller is honored and recognized as the Cherokee Nation’s first female Principal Chief. She is also the first woman chosen chief of a prominent Native American nation.

Complete List of Included Worksheets

Below is a list of all the worksheets included in this document.

1. Wilma Mankiller Facts
2. Wilma’s Bio
3. Which One is True?
4. Wilma’s Journey
5. Take a Look Back
6. Mankiller Traits
7. Wise Words
8. What Do You Think?
9. Fighting for Others
10. Hope for the Future
11. Spread the Word

Frequently Asked Questions

Who was Wilma Mankiller?

Wilma Mankiller was a prominent Native American activist and leader. She was a member of the Cherokee Nation and became the first woman to serve as the Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation.

When was Wilma Mankiller born?

Wilma Mankiller was born on November 18, 1945, in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, USA.

What were some of Wilma Mankiller’s significant accomplishments?

Wilma Mankiller is known for her significant contributions to the Cherokee Nation. During her time as Principal Chief from 1985 to 1995, she focused on improving healthcare, education, and infrastructure for the Cherokee people. She played a vital role in tribal self-governance and sovereignty.

How did Wilma Mankiller become involved in Native American activism?

Wilma Mankiller’s involvement in Native American activism began during the 1960s when she participated in the occupation of Alcatraz Island and the Trail of Broken Treaties protest. She was inspired to work for the betterment of her own Cherokee Nation and other Indigenous communities.

What is Wilma Mankiller’s legacy?

Wilma Mankiller’s legacy is one of resilience, leadership, and advocacy for Indigenous rights and women’s rights. She helped bring attention to the issues facing Native American communities and made significant strides in improving the quality of life for the Cherokee people. Her life and work continue to inspire others in the fight for social justice and equality.

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