Mankiller, p.1
Mankiller, page 1
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Table of Contents
About the Authors
Copyright Page
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This book is dedicated to my brother Louis Donald Mankiller, who gave up much of his youth to feed and clothe his siblings. Then in 1990, he donated a kidney to me, enabling me to continue with my life and work in good health.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My acknowledgment goes to all Cherokee people past, present, and future, especially the women, who have always tried to keep harmony and balance in our world.
There are many people who need to be recognized for helping with this book. It was a team effort. I will start with Charlie Soap, without whose support I would never have been elected chief, and without whose love my life would have taken a very different path.
My appreciation goes to Robert Conley for helping me to conceptualize a book that would include aspects of my life as well as Cherokee history. I want to thank my family, all of whom provided information for the book, but especially my mother, Clara Irene Sitton Mankiller, and my daughter Gina. She typed all the transcripts from the sessions with Michael Wallis, as well as countless pages of stories, commentary, and editorial notes. Special accolades also to my sister Frieda Mankiller Mullins, Lee Fleming, and Linda Vann for their help with genealogical research; to Bob Friedman and Kristina Kiehl for the equipment to do this work; and to Lynn Howard, Lisa Finley, Sammy Still, and Nita Cochran for help with photos.
Finally, I want to thank my co-writer, Michael Wallis, for his great work on this book; St. Martin’s editor Robert Weil for his wisdom and unequivocal support of this project; Hazel Rowena Mills, a stellar copy editor and unsung hero of this book project; and Dr. Duane H. King, of the National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, for his review and comments. And lastly, my love and appreciation to Gloria Steinem for suggesting the format for this book.
—WILMA MANKILLER
I will be forever grateful to Wilma Mankiller for asking me to share in the telling of her life story and the story of the Cherokee people. I first met Wilma in 1982, and since then, she and her husband, Charlie Soap, have become friends with my wife, Suzanne Fitzgerald Wallis, and me. I was honored and pleased when Wilma met with Robert Weil, our superb editor at St. Martin’s Press, and suggested that I act as her collaborator for this important book.
From the very beginning—long before the first word was written—Wilma and I were in complete agreement with Robert that this book should be not only the story of Wilma’s life to date, but also should convey at least part of the story of her people and their rich history and heritage. The writing of the work was a true collaboration in every sense of the word. I will always cherish the memory of those long sessions spent at Wilma’s home as we wove the fabric and fiber that make up the story of this remarkable woman’s life.
Many people and many sources of information were of great help during the researching and writing. My appreciation goes to all those sources who preferred to remain anonymous. Countless friends and family members, librarians, researchers, and others also deserve my everlasting gratitude for contributions to this book’s development.
I am thankful that despite the many blunders I have made during the course of my life, I had enough good sense to connect with Suzanne, my wife and best friend. Suzanne’s continued belief in me and in my work as a writer sustains me through all the moments of doubt and despair that seem to go with the job.
Many thanks also go to Dixie Haas Dooley for her diligent research and administrative assistance, as well as her encouragement and suggestions. Dixie’s early and enthusiastic support for this book, along with her creative contributions, did not go unnoticed. Appreciation goes to Dr. Lydia Wyckoff for her consistent insight, invaluable guidance, and her lasting friendship. Special thanks to Allen Strider, Oklahoma’s consummate native son, for always being there.
Hazel Rowena Mills is undoubtedly the best copy editor drawing breath. That is the opinion of Wilma Mankiller and Michael Wallis or anyone else who has had the pleasure of working with Rowena. This book benefits from Rowena’s deft touch. Her superior editorial prints are throughout the pages. A standing ovation to you, Rowena.
Robert Weil, our hardworking editor at St. Martin’s Press, has guided this project since its inception in Chief Mankiller’s office. From the start, he did his level best to see that the book we all hoped for became a reality. Our heartfelt thanks to you, Bob. As an editorial architect, you are without equal.
Kudos as well to Becky Koh, the assistant editor, who never failed to respond to cries for help and to provide answers and counsel. Thanks to others at St. Martin’s Press, including Twisne Fan, Stephanie Schwartz, Henry Yee, Judy Stagnitto, Claudia Riemer, Karen Burke, and Barbara Andrews.
Finally, my gratitude to the feline duo of Beatrice and Molly, who clocked in long hours of pleasure and pain with me at the word processor.
—MICHAEL WALLIS
Author’s Note
This book is more than the story of Wilma Mankiller. It is also the extraordinary story of the Cherokee people and their indomitable courage. The chapters of this book weave together the story of one Cherokee woman with the history of all the people of the Cherokee Nation, much as traditional Cherokee stories weave together the unbroken threads of tribal history, wisdom, and culture preserved by each generation.
To honor the eternal voices of all Cherokee storytellers and oral historians, we have used a traditional Cherokee story to begin each of the thirteen chapters in this book. We feel that the untarnished power and wisdom of these stories speak directly from the heart of all that is Cherokee.
INTRODUCTION
Dawn arrives in the countryside of northeastern Oklahoma, warm and familiar like an old pal who’s come calling. Sunlight seeps through stands of oak, sycamore, and dogwood, then melts as slowly as country butter over thickets of sumac, sassafras, and persimmon. Stalks of soft light reach the weeds and vines clinging to the sagging wire fences. The rays inch across the garden, and finally the frame house in the clearing is streaked with gold. Inside, the aroma of coffee and biscuits mixes with radio news and morning murmurs.
Before too long the front door slowly opens and Wilma Mankiller—the woman of the house—emerges. She is barefoot and wears a brightly colored dress. Her dark hair is still damp from a morning shampoo. She sits on a kitchen chair on the narrow porch and sips a mug of coffee. A murder of mischievous crows, dancing like ebony marionettes, scolds from the nearby trees. In the distance the voices of jays, mockingbirds, and wrens deliver a chorus. Soon hawks will begin patrolling the sky.
Walkingsticks appear, seemingly from nowhere, to dine on tender leaves. The spindly insects resemble twigs as they slowly creep over the porch and the railing. Some crawl up the chair. One moves across Man-killer’s legs, but she doesn’t appear to notice or care. Another moves across her shoulders and starts up her hair, but Mankiller gently shakes the creature free. She knows the walkingsticks are not interested in her, but merely want to reach the redbud tree growing next to the porch.
The surrounding forests and hills conceal the animal life native to this eastern region of Oklahoma. There are a few mountain lions and bobcats, and an abundance of coyotes, foxes, and many breeds of smaller animals. There are also deer. Plenty of deer. Often they appear near Mankiller’s house and take their share from the garden. Every hunting season, she gets requests from sportsmen who want to stalk the land. She always tells them the same thing. They may hunt all they wish, but they may not shoot anything.
This is the place on earth that Wilma Mankiller loves best. She is surrounded by 160 acres of ancestral property, allotted to her paternal grandfather, John Mankiller, when Oklahoma became a state in 1907. The land is located in Adair County, within hollerin’ distance of the Cherokee County line. Named for a prominent Cherokee family, Adair County is the heart of the area first settled by Cherokees in the late 1830s. The county still claims a higher percentage of Native American population than any other in the United States.
With the Cherokee Hills on the north and the Cookson Hills on the south, the county has a natural beauty that at least partially masks its very real poverty. Small farms and ranches, fruit orchards, and lumbering are the economic mainstays. But the people derive only modest incomes from their hard labor. Here, a person’s wealth and worth are measured in other ways besides bank accounts and worldly goods.
In generations past, the Cherokee people came to this area to rebuild their nation after the westward trek from their beloved homelands in the mountainous South. Herded by federal soldiers, the Cherokees took a path in 1838–39 that became known as the Trail of Tears.
At Tahlequah, the seat of Cherokee County in the eastern foothills of the Ozarks, where their bitter journey ended, the
Many Cherokees continue to live on the hardscrabble farms dotting the region—a land of streams, cliffs, forests, and meadows that is still much the same as it was years ago when outlaw gangs fled to the dark hills to find refuge from the law in the Cherokee Nation. Colorful place names given to favorite natural haunts persist, such as Wildcat Point, Whiskey Holler, and Six-shooter Camp. It is country where conversation centers on farming, hunting, weather, football and, forever and always, politics. Not just mainstream party politics, such as candidates for county commissioner or sheriff or the U.S. Senate, but also tribal politics—the critical issue of Cherokee leadership.
Much of the talk at the gas stations, bait shops, and convenience stores scattered along the country roads is about Wilma Mankiller. This is only natural, since she serves as the principal chief of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. The Cherokees represent the second-largest tribe in the United States, after the Dine (Navajo) Nation. Mankiller is the first female to lead a major Native American tribe. With an enrolled tribal population worldwide of more than 140,000, an annual budget of more than $75 million, and more than 1,200 employees spread across 7,000 square miles, her responsibilities as chief are the same as a head of state and the chief executive officer of a major corporation.
Although it is the land of rugged males who, for the most part, prefer to see fellow “good ol’ boys” run for political office, it is difficult to find anyone from the Cherokee ranks, including some of Mankiller’s former political foes, who can find fault with the performance of her administration. It was not always that way. In the beginning, there were many problems and obstacles. Often, those were mean times. There were some Cherokees who didn’t wish to be governed by a female. Wilma Mankiller had her share of enemies. Her automobile tires were slashed. There were death threats. Chief Mankiller was admittedly an unlikely politician. But gradually she won acceptance. In time, most of her constituents became quite comfortable with her. Now when disagreements occur, they are based on issues rather than gender.
Wilma Mankiller shares her home and life with her husband, Charlie Soap, and Winterhawk, his son from a former marriage. Her two daughters, Felicia and Gina, and their children often stop by to visit, as do other family members and friends. Mankiller’s widowed mother lives just down the road.
In the winter, Mankiller’s house is warmed by a stove fed by the constant supply of firewood cut from the surrounding forest. Native American art, including masks, baskets, and pottery as well as Cherokee, Kiowa, and Sioux paintings, adorns the shelves and walls. Colorful blankets drape the chair backs and couches. Framed family photographs are scattered about tabletops. On a living room shelf is a small bust of Sam Houston, the revered Texas statesman and folk hero called “the Raven” by the Cherokees who adopted him. Cases hold Mankiller’s beloved books, mostly volumes of poetry, novels, biographies, and histories. The works of her favorite authors, including Gloria Steinem, Alex Haley, and Alice Walker, are mixed with the writings of Vine Deloria, Joy Harjo, Robert Conley, Chaucer, Tolstoy, and Milton.
As comfortable as the house is, Mankiller also loves being outside on the land. She tends to the garden and sometimes she walks, trailed by one or two of the family dogs, to a nearby spring where past generations of Mankillers fetched fresh water and gathered mint and watercress.
The nearest community—with just a small grocery—gas station and a school—is called Rocky Mountain. The land where Mankiller and her family reside is known as Mankiller Flats. Born at Hastings Indian Hospital in Tahlequah in 1945, she was raised at Mankiller Flats from her first days. She spent her early years there, with her parents and eight of her ten brothers and sisters. The land is important to Mankiller. It was allotted to her grandfather, and now she and her family maintain it. The land is an important part of their heritage, and they preserve it for future generations.
But of primary importance to Mankiller—the woman who overcame tremendous personal crises—are the thousands of people she serves and her mission to bring self-sufficiency to them. Mankiller felt honored to become her tribe’s chosen leader, but she readily adds that she did not seek the responsibility. Indeed, she thought she had reached her pinnacle in tribal government in 1983, when she became her tribe’s first female deputy chief.
“Prior to my election, young Cherokee girls would never have thought that they might grow up to be chief,” she says. Mankiller had been asked to run as deputy chief by Ross Swimmer, a quarter-blood Indian lawyer and former bank president, who assumed leadership of the Cherokee Nation in 1975. Swimmer convinced Mankiller that, if elected, she could effect greater change in the rural Cherokee communities where she worked.
When Swimmer, a staunch Republican, resigned in 1985 to go to Washington to head the Bureau of Indian Affairs, it was his deputy, a liberal Democrat, who took over. Mankiller was left with a tribal council which more than likely would not have chosen her to take Swimmer’s place had it not been for the Cherokee Constitution mandating that the deputy chief move to the higher post when the chief resigns.
In a historic tribal election in July 1987, Mankiller won the coveted post in her own right, and political success brought an unprecedented worldwide interest in both her and the Cherokee Nation. In 1991—winning with an 83 percent majority—she was reelected for four more years.
“We are a revitalized tribe,” says Mankiller. “After every major upheaval, we have been able to gather together as a people and rebuild a community and a government. Individually and collectively, Cherokee people possess an extraordinary ability to face down adversity and continue moving forward. We are able to do that because our culture, though certainly diminished, has sustained us since time immemorial. The Cherokee culture is a well-kept secret.”
Since becoming chief of her people, Mankiller has become a visible force in America. Named Ms. magazine’s Woman of the Year in 1987, she has been awarded many honorary degrees and citations, and makes numerous national media appearances and public presentations on behalf of her tribe. But the hardworking chief is much the same unaffected person she always has been. She is at her best when in the halls of Congress quietly advocating better health care, improved housing, or more jobs for the Cherokee people.
Her father, the late Charley Mankiller, was a full-blooded Cherokee, and her mother, Irene, is of Dutch-Irish descent. “We traced our family name back to the eastern part of the country, where the Cherokees lived in great numbers,” says Mankiller. “As best we can tell, our name is an old Cherokee military title. It was usually given to a person who was in a position of safeguarding a Cherokee village.”
Cherokee culture thrived for hundreds of years in the southeastern United States until the tribe was pushed westward out of its homelands. Among those who survived the Trail of Tears were some of Mankiller’s paternal ancestors. They were part of the tribe that regrouped to make Tahlequah its capital and embarked on what historians today call the Cherokees’ “Golden Age.” This was, in spite of the removal, a time of prosperity, marked by the development of businesses, schools, and a flourishing culture. In those days, people helped each other more and maintained a greater sense of interdependence.
Nonetheless, this prosperity did not last. The years of good fortune and revival after the shameful removal ended with tribal division over the Civil War. At the war’s end in 1865, the Cherokees—many of whom had not taken a side—were treated like defeated southerners. Eventually, poverty replaced affluence as a predominant theme as more and more Cherokee land was taken to make room for other tribes who were also forced to leave their homes and move into Indian Territory.
