“Faith” - Winuba (Mt. Tom), Wheeler Ridge, and the surrounding Eastern Sierra mountains. Taken from the Owens River Gorge parking lot. Nüümü Witü, Nüümü, and Newe Sogobia Ancestral Homeland. November 2022.

“I want to be remembered as the person who helped us restore faith in ourselves.” — Wilma Mankiller.

Wilma Pearl Mankiller was born in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, on November 18, 1945, and passed away on April 6, 2010, near Tahlequah. She was an incredible Cherokee woman who was the first female Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation and served as Chief from December 14, 1985-August 14, 1995. She grew up in Adair County, Oklahoma, until her family was forced to move to San Francisco as a part of a Federal government program to urbanize Native Americans. After high school, she married an Ecuadorian (Hector Hugo Olaya de Bardi), and they had two daughters (Felicia & Gina). Unfortunately, they divorced in 1974. Ended up remarrying in 1986 to a man named Charlie Soap in 1986.

She became part of the Occupation of Alcatraz and then worked with the land and compensation hardships of the Pit River Tribe. She was employed as a social worker in the 1970s, working primarily on children’s issues. 

She returned to OK in the fall of 1976, was hired by the Cherokee Nation as an economic stimulus coordinator, and then eventually directed the Community Development Dept. of the Cherokee Nation. She ultimately became Chief in 1985. Under her leadership, they created new health clinics, early education programs, adult education programs, ambulance services, and job training programs, built factories, retail stores, and restaurants, and established self-governance. After being Chief, she became a visiting professor at Dartmouth. 

Awards: Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Bill Clinton, Elizabeth Blackwell Award. And you can see a film about Wilma Mankiller fighting for water supply to Bell, Oklahoma called The Cherokee Word for Water. 

She had numerous health issues her whole life: getting in a horrific car accident, breast cancer, lymphoma, polycystic kidney disease, myasthenia gravis, and two kidney transplants (after one of them, she immediately returned to work and was working on four books) and eventually passed away from pancreatic cancer. 

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilma_Mankiller and https://www.biography.com/activist/wilma-mankiller

Photo: “Faith” - Winuba (Mt. Tom), Wheeler Ridge, and the surrounding Eastern Sierra mountains. Taken from the Owens River Gorge parking lot. Nüümü Witü, Nüümü, and Newe Sogobia Ancestral Homeland. November 2022. Nikon D850 and Nikon 24-70 lens. Made into a panorama with Lightroom.